The CEO of Legacy International, Đorđe Đoković, was chosen as one of the 30 most successful entrepreneurs under the age of 30, as part of the “30 under 30” project organized by BizLife, the most influential business magazine in the region.
With a goal to promote and support the young forces of domestic entrepreneurship, Bizlife magazine has been successfully implementing the “30 under 30” project for over 5 years, presenting 30 new faces of Serbian business, and showcasing their projects, successes, and initiatives.
In 2022, one of the names on the list of most successful young businessmen was the CEO of Legacy International, Djordje Djokovic.
Thanks to the multi-year and diverse experience he gained in the world of sports and business and the ability to combine these two worlds into one, creating important national and international projects, Djordje earned his place in this small but selected group.
Below you can read the interview for the BizLife magazine with the founder of Legacy International, and HERE you can check out the rest of the winners of this significant recognition.
- Introduce yourself. How old are you and how long you’ve been in your current position and business?
My name is Djordje Djokovic, and I am 27 years old. In a way I’ve been in this business all my life, bearing in mind that I was a professional tennis player and that sport has always been an integral part of my life.
When it comes to the adventure called organizing international sports events and leading the Legacy International company, that story began more than 3 years ago.
- What made you stand out from your generation? What were the key factors that helped you be a successful businessman before the age of 30?
When you are focused on professional sports from a young age, you mature very early and learn the importance of developing work habits, and discipline and how important effort and dedication are in order to achieve desired results. Naturally, thanks to my involvement in sports I started working from a very young age, both during and after my professional career in tennis, and developed ambitions to build my own business and projects.
Of course, numerous opportunities and life circumstances that I encountered while growing up influenced my professional steps and decisions, as well as the awareness that, in order to succeed, I have to learn and adopt everything from those opportunities that will benefit my life and career.
One more thing that helped me develop faster in the world of business, is also my readiness to carefully listen and learn from successful people who have been and still surround me, as well as my great desire and motivation to share everything I’ve experienced and learned with people around me, helping me to develop as a person and entrepreneur.
- It is said that happiness must be deserved. How did you ‘deserve’ your happiness?
Happiness is a very relative concept and I believe that everyone defines it in their own way and that we always search for it in different forms and periods of life and “deserve” it again and again.
Certainly, I believe that what I consider as ‘happiness’ in this stage of my life and what I aspire to, was greatly influenced by the values I’ve been taught since childhood: modesty, the desire to be a good person in my essence, and the awareness that the path to reaching a personal concept of happiness must never be achieved at the expense of others.
Djordje Djokovic, CEO of Legacy International and tournament director of Serbia Open
- We are witnesses that our market is transitioning very slowly, the contours of socialism are still clearly visible and the cards have been dealt to more mature players. What is your advice for young colleagues – what is the right path to success?
I can partially agree with this, but on the other hand, I think that in the last couple of years, this trend has been slowly changing. More and more young people are getting the opportunity to be decision-makers and steer the development of a company in managerial positions. Besides, younger generations are more decisive than ever and willing to start their own businesses and fully manage their companies.
This is strongly influenced by the rapid and very complex development of the world today, which the younger generations have welcomed much better and more readily. I believe that this is the ‘joker card’ young professionals should use.
The level of technical knowledge, the ability to receive a large amount of information and navigate through the world, which is rapidly turning to technology, the availability of various forms of training programs, online education, etc. – all of this makes an importance difference and slowly erases the intergenerational gap, leaving a lot of room for rapid progress.
In my company, I always try to give priority to ‘younger forces’, because I believe that the drive and enthusiasm that young energy brings can greatly contribute to business development.
- A corporation or private enterprise?
I was always more interested in private enterprise and from very early on I’ve developed the ambition to become a successful entrepreneur.
I believe that entrepreneurship opens up a much larger space for the realization of ideas, directing everything you learn through life and formal education while building yourself in the world of business without strict procedures and rules, which corporations often have.
When someone decides to embark on a journey called – entrepreneurship, I believe that the key to success is to surround yourself with people who are ready to build the company together with you from the very beginning and be involved in all the details of the projects and goals that the company strives towards.
With good business practices and a clear vision, private entrepreneurship can eventually grow into a form of corporate business, which gives us the best of both worlds.
Closing ceremony of Serbia Open 2022
- What made you decide to develop your business in our country and not abroad?
My first job and most of the projects I’m currently working on are located abroad. However, my goal, and something I’ve been working on intensively in recent years is to run my business and all the projects from Serbia, making the company I founded here – Legacy International, to be recognized all over the world.
I was lucky enough to visit many countries and cooperate with people from different spheres of business from an early age. What I quickly realized is that Serbia – and the Balkan area, in general – really has special people.
What speaks in favor of this is the fact that our people who build their lives and careers outside of Serbia are often the most successful and respected in their companies.
All of this encouraged me to use all the experience I’ve gained from international business practices and surround myself with exactly that kind of people. My goal is to give them a chance and all the necessary conditions to professionally develop and succeed in Serbia, at the same time giving a contribution to the development of Serbia.
- Businesswise, where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In 10 years, I would love for my company to be a recognized force in the organization of sporting events around the world, but also as an important factor in bringing world-renowned projects to Serbia, that will contribute to the Serbian economy and provide employment to many young people, giving them all the necessary conditions for learning and development.
Besides this, an important part of my business practices and long-term vision is a humanitarian and ecological contribution, which represents an integral part of all the projects I am currently working on.
The goal for the future is to create a platform and projects through which we will collect significant funds to help those in need, as well as raise awareness of the importance of environmental protection and the responsibility that large sports events and projects have in this aspect.
Read the INTERVIEW on the BizLife website.
