News
IRINA GIVES AN INTERVIEW FOR LATVIAN MAGAZINE
POMPIDOO Founder and Photographer Irina Kuzmina has met with a popular Latvian Journalist Anna Peipiņa to talk about radical changes in life and carrier, about making choices and following a dream. An article revealing how Irina founded POMPIDOO has been published in a December issue of "Anna's Psychology" magazine.
In 2004 Irina has graduated with a Bachelor Degree from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and undertook the first full-time job in Norvik Bank where she had a chance to work in different positions and with partners from various countries. In 2006 she has won a scholarship from a Copenhagen Business School and went to Denmark to study Finance and Strategic Management.
2 years flew unbelievably fast and as soon as returned, Irina has joined Swedbank - the largest Scandinavian bank in Latvia. First worked with budgeting and planning, after a year was already responsible for an international project leading team of colleagues from Baltics and Sweden.
Not only banking direction of Irina's career flourished, also a personal hobby started to gradually play very serious role in her life. Photography became an inevitable part of her daily life - taking master classes, visiting courses, making first photo shoots, all this was exciting and allowed to express the creative part of her character.
POMPIDOO idea has been dictated by Irina's own needs. Looking for a camera
bag, which would not only serve as a dull gear holder but would express her personality, she concluded there is none as stylish as she wanted it to be. And she made her choice: I'll do it myself! Should be mentioned that it was not a sudden interest in fashion, the first bag as created by Irina already during her school years - from a fake fur. Therefore, fashion and sewing were not unfamiliar to her.
This is how the story began - together with a friend and colleaguethe first design was created and the first prototype developed. During the day - work at the bank, during the evening - work with photo bags. Initial production ideas, trade fairs, visits, new contacts, acquisition - this all took time and forced to take a radical decision: to quit work at the bank and give a chance to the dream called POMPIDOO. "Several months passed before I actually took this decision. I had to give up stability and that was not easy", shares Irina.
It's another world now - design, production, sales, marketing and company management. Irina does not have a fixed work schedule: on one hand it gives much more freedom and mobility, on the other hand, requires a higher self-control and discipline. In any case, life became much more creative. "I think anyone who wants to succeed should find a right combination of what one likes to do and what one can manage best. What I see now is that only in your own company you can fulfill yourself for 100%", says Irina.
Fragments from interview by Anna Peipiņa
Magazine "Annas Psiholoģija"
December 2011
