The Science and Art of transforming Challenges into Blessings and Opportunity

MARLEQ: Let's meet you, Sara, please give us an "elevator pitch". 

Sara Hegy: Hi, I'm Sara Hegy, an award-winning career coach and scientist in Germany. I help career professionals at any and every stage turn around their challenges into successes and I help organizations create a growth-oriented collaborative environment for their employees. I create those results by developing two factors: the mindset and performance measures of the process in question.

MARLEQ: How has your journey as an expat shaped how you relate with your clients?

Sara Hegy: Leaving your home origins behind to create a better future is a tough process especially if you do it on your own, without family or friends. Grounding your roots in a new country takes time, strength of character and perseverance. I'm very lucky that I had such a rough tough journey in Germany, starting off as a depressed student who worked to self-provide into a successful scientist who gained international publicity through her work to an award-winning coach and business owner, and I'm not even fluent in German. The fact that I did all of that means I've been through countless challenges and I grew through them all which is great news for my clients who experience being related to at whatever stage they may be in.

MARLEQ: You used to get angry when you didn't get quick results, what changed and how has this been a positive input in helping women thrive in their personal and professional journey? 

Sara Hegy: I focused on having fun one day at a time, then it got a little lighter step at a time and I celebrated the person I saw in the mirror every day instead of beating her up. I learned to re-parent myself into a more loving, more tolerant me.

MARLEQ: What is the role of self-awareness in professional development? 

Sara Hegy: Self-awareness is the key to any lasting human change, you know this saying "The truth sets you free", consider that telling the truth is no different than the process of becoming self-aware. It's really only giving yourself the permission to look at how things are right now.

MARLEQ: In what specific ways do you help clients live purpose-driven lives? 

Sara Hegy: I help my clients clear their minds and become more naturally connected to their strengths of character to face their challenges with a fresh eye. Then I teach them a process to help them generate that perspective instead of depending on me to help them reach a goal, then we set together systems and processes in their life and career to enable them to jump into their performance gap and achieve success. In-depth, the process involves releasing the weight of the past off their shoulders by changing their perspective around the experiences where their mind is stuck, we get into the science of making effective decisions and actions until they master it themselves.

MARLEQ: You've been a very successful master's and Ph.D. student in Germany. How does that feel like and what doors did that open for you? 

Sara Hegy: I'm a very grateful human being for my life's journey, to my upbringing that made me who I am in terms of my passion for what I do and my love for service and creating impact. I spent all my adult life in Germany, it took a long while until I was able to call Germany home, but it really is home to my growth and success, it's home to my freedom of mind and expression. It's home to my once dreams now reality. The biggest gift that living in Germany has given me is discovering myself over and over again, discovering the gold within.

MARLEQ: From a professional standpoint, how do you view competition? 

Sara Hegy: Competition is a healthy phenomenon but there are many misperceptions about it, see at the most basic level, without your dad's sperm competition, the you that you are as a human wouldn't exist. Similarly, without competition, you wouldn't have had many different choices of brands, suppliers, inventors, disruptors, and so on. Competition becomes toxic when we decide to make it about our existence or survival (much like for A to live, A has got to die and that's very toxic behavior. But who said that A and B can't coexist? I just did it as a decision, I set the rules 1 sentence ago! So why don't we start setting fun win-win games instead of toxic destructive games? This is what more people have to commit to if we are to break through the toxic patterns of competition in our personal and professional patterns.

MARLEQ: Who are you open to partnering with and what are your goals for partnership?

Sara Hegy: In terms of individuals: I'm open to partnering with highly driven individuals who are looking to succeed in their career and create an impact. It doesn't matter if they are a little tired at the moment they work with me or they are exhausted, burnt-out, depressed or simply looking to grow but they are a bit lost. None of this really matters. The most important realization they need is that they make a decision that their life must change NOW and that they are responsible for changing it, not the economy or circumstances but they themselves from their heart. 

In terms of organizations: I'm open to partnering with businesses that value growth immensely, I always find that I work most successfully alongside decision-makers who think fresh, outside the box, are oriented toward problem-solving, and who take bold courageous decisions with integrity. Typically such decision makers create the space for their staff to be safe, self-expressed and to develop their skills whilst respecting that each of them owns a big life. I find myself through my experience, practical methodologies, and education bringing a lot of untapped potential to decision-makers in the Middle East specifically. 

MARLEQ: Tell us your self-care routine and how it has helped you keep fit psychologically and mentally. 

Sara Hegy: I love being by nature. I always find that spending time traveling or being in nature reconnects me to higher states of reflection and gratitude. I don't like very strict routines, I love flexibility and freedom albeit there are certain pillars of daily practices in my day that need to be covered, the how I take care of myself changes flexibly but what I'm up to with myself never does, which is creating a space of safety, adventure, growth and gratitude. Lastly, I do a lot of great work daily to elevate my language with myself and others around me, I'm very rigorous with what I say to myself and others around me.

MARLEQ: What advice do you have for international professionals who are job seekers in Germany? 

Sara Hegy: Invest in yourselves to grow your strengths into invaluable assets to your organizations. Everyday life in Germany is quite fast-paced and if you only put pressure on yourself to compete, it won't be long before you collapse! Trust me, I've been there. You have got to make sure you're surrounded by the right coaches, mentors, and environment for growth to improve your chances of being around the right opportunities for you. Last but not least, instead of following everyone's advice blindly, consider investing more effort on what makes your heart sing. If you do, you'll be able to direct your focus and energy to fuel your vision and goals instead of the noise from people's experiences. I'm not saying listening to others' advice is bad, the problem is though that we as humans use the advice to pressure us into what we should be doing. We rarely ever follow the learning in the advice.