Distinguished attendees,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

As President of the Republic of Macedonia, I am honored to address the Peace Forum in Paris. We are here to talk about peace and security, environmental protection, sustainable development, new technologies, inclusive economy... But the solution to these global challenges lies in one thing - and that is our worldview.

The contours of the worldview in all of us are drawn as early as in childhood. Three needs are crucial in shaping young people - attention, affirmation and affection. Children who receive attention, affirmation and affection from their parents and teachers grow into empathetic, confident and caring people. These are self-confident people who inspire confidence, who love the truth and strive passionately for social justice and peace, sustainable development, fight against climate change. These are people who believe in human rights and freedoms and respect the dignity of diversity.

But if we look around us, we will see that exactly these values we increasingly miss.

The lack of responsibility has led to a crisis of confidence. The world is going through a major transformation in which the boundary line between truth and falsehood, between right and wrong dissapears. Societies are fragmenting, families are falling apart, individuals are becoming isolated. Ghettos without walls are created, in which the different are merely tolerated without being truly respected. Humans set themselves as masters over nature, without being able to master their own greed. The fragile climate balance is broken.

There are numerous reasons for this situation, but I will refer to only one - education. In many countries in the world, the formal education, unfortunately, does not offer enough attention, affirmation and care for young people. The dominant Humboldt model of education is based on negative attention. We are punishing mistakes instead of rewarding successes and stimulating creativity and innovation. This approach affects the worldview of young people.

As a university professor, I recognized this problem. But the chance to make a fundamental change came only after some of my students became politicians and decision makers who in 2009 proposed me as a candidate for a President of the Republic of Macedonia. And what should a professor do when he becomes president? The answer is simple - he opens his own school. So, in 2010, with my team, I launched the School for Young Leaders, which later became an International School.

As a parent invests in his children, as a President, I wanted to invest in the youth. Our goal was to give the most talented and most successful young leaders in the Republic of Macedonia and the region what they cannot obtain within the formal education system.

First, we have to recognize the most successful and give them the necessary attention.
Secondly, we have to affirm everything that they have achieved by then, all of their humanitarian initiatives, encouraging self-confidence in young people and building a culture of trust.
Thirdly, we must take care of their further development as leaders by investing in them.

To achieve this, we had to return to the source, where the water is the purest, to Aristotle. We know that Aristotle practiced 3 levels of transfer of knowledge.

The exoteric lectures were intended for those who wanted to expand their knowledge but only to the level of general culture.

The esoteric lectures were for the dedicated students who could understand the complex concepts with the power of the mind. Fortunately, most of these lectures are preserved.

However, the most sublime are the achromatic lectures that Aristotle taught face to face. For already 24 centuries those lost lectures are being sought after. Based on the actions of his best students, we can restructure some of the basic principles. It is assumed that some of these achromatic lectures are the four golden rules, which are part of all major religions. Probably, Aristotle told his best, most noble disciples to:
1. Be patient
2. Always learn from the other
3. Seize the moment
4. Be prepared for any sacrifice, if you want to succeed.

The one who hastens, makes mistakes; his opponent learns from him, awaits him to make a mistake and uses the moment. The right moment appears only once. The whole philosophy in these four basic principles of the most sublime achromatic lectures is that they occur at one point, when readiness to sacrifice is required.

Knowledge becomes obsolete, wisdom never. Therefore, our aim in creating the School for Young Leaders was to make wisdom and skills of proven leaders accessible to the future social leaders in the Republic of Macedonia and in the Balkans.

In our School, young leaders have a chance to talk face to face with some of the most successful leaders of today, and be taught how to apply knowledge and skills. It includes interdisciplinary and applicative knowledge, practical advice and mentorship by top world leaders.

So far, over 350 young people from the Republic of Macedonia and the region of different academic and professional focus have been trained by over 200 top leaders in the fields of politics, business, innovation and communications.

We wanted to build leaders with real values, integrity and open mind. I reminded every generation of Einstein's thought that the mind is as parachute – it is useful only when open. Only open-minded young people will be able to think outside the patterns, find new, innovative and creative solutions to local and global challenges.

Young leaders belong to the Millennials, the Y Generation. Therefore, we cover topics that are close to their heart and are based on sharing philosophy. Sharing philosophy implies sharing economy where young people share access to products or services rather than being their individual owners. We train them to use crowdfunding and crowdsourcing in order to find funds for their projects from a large number of Internet users. We organize trainings on sustainable development and start-up philosophy. We encourage them to use the power of networking in order to bring about positive changes in society. In other words, the School for Young Leaders is a start-up school for future social leaders of Macedonia and the Balkans.

Perhaps the most important thing we want young people to learn is the lesson on moral leadership. It has become popular to say that it does not matter if a political or business leader is moral or not, as long as he does his job well. The ability, not the character is what matters. But pragmatism without morality leads to short-term solutions with long-term harmful consequences. Leaders without moral are part of the problem, not of the solution.

Therefore, we try to develop awareness in young leaders that we all sail on the same global ship. To be able to protect our economies and states from shipwreck, we need an anchor. That anchor is the three principles of every successful economy, also valid for successful politics and education. If any country or company implements meritocracy, pragmatism and honesty - it will succeed.

With meritocracy, we choose the best to be our leaders. If you are surrounded by successful people and if you support successful people, you will also succeed. High criteria are necessary for this.

With pragmatism, we learn and use the best of others. To learn is not enough to know. Knowledge should be applicable.

With honesty, we try to eradicate corruption and promote honesty in private and professional life.

How much does this cost the taxpayers of the Republic of Macedonia? Not a bit. The implementation of the School for Young Leaders is fully funded by the private sector in the Republic of Macedonia, but also by the global brands. It is about companies that have recognized the importance and value of our project and have supported our mission, confident that they are investing in future social leaders. The school founded by the president of the state and financed by the private sector is an example of a public-private partnership that aims to invest in the society and the future.

This investment is already paying off. Many young leaders from previous generations have already started taking over responsible leading positions in different social spheres, becoming a positive example for others. These are young, future-oriented people, who think of the future and want to reach the future, not only for themselves, but for as many people in the society as possible.

Thanks to all this, the World Business Angels Forum declared the "School for Young Leaders" the best socially responsible project in Europe for 2017.

Some may say: Mr. President, there are already many leadership schools in the world. True, but most of them are extremely expensive and affordable for just a few. There are almost no presidential schools that are actually free because they are supported by the private sector. This makes our School an exception to the rule. And that exception makes a huge difference for us.

Other may ask: how does this model of leadership school solve the global challenges for which we have gathered here today? Our model can be used to change the dominant educational paradigm, which must be solution-oriented. This creates a new generation of leaders with real values that will not run away from the problems, but will solve them. Leaders who will not dominate and discriminate, but will cooperate and include. Leaders who will spread hope in their societies and in the world instead of fear.

We have succeeded in establishing a recognizable model that served as an inspiration for other current and former heads of state to start their own leadership schools following our example. I believe, however, this success is only the beginning.

My message to you, the leaders of today is: do not look until the next election, but until the next generation. Investing in future leaders should become a new fashion, a new trend. Such ideas should not require copyright. This is very necessary in every society. I would be overjoyed if I hear that other heads of state and government have established leadership schools. That the future leaders are given attention, affirmation and care and thus are prepared to take over the helm. Only in this way will success become the basis for a new success. Because, through investment, young leaders are called upon to recognize responsibility as future leaders.

As we speak, the Millennials, the Generation Y, are already taking their place in the world. Right after them is the post-millennial Generation Z that does not know a world without Internet. At this very moment, we are witnessing the birth of the so-called Alpha Generation that is to live in the 22nd century. It is our responsibility to prepare those who come after us to take their rightful place in our global ship. We should provide them with a compass and a map and thus prepare them to be moral and ethical leaders with character, integrity, humility, focused on people, responsible and passionate. To not be afraid of the unknown, but bravely and wisely face challenges, so that we can finally start sailing smoothly. Only changed individuals can change the spirit of the world.