Stefanos Xenakis is in his thirties when he takes off, manages to overcome his depression and break free from the hold of an intrusive mother. This son of a ship captain has just started therapy. A few years later, in 2015, when Greece was imposed capital controls and liquidity for companies was limited, its advertising agency went bankrupt. Instead of being demoralized, Stefanos refocuses on himself and bounces back: “Life is not just a series of events, but what you do with them. Me, I chose to work on my injuries and use them as stairs to climb (…) Suffering does not always serve as a lesson. But they become, if you choose it and work on yourself. “
Stefanos Xenakis digs into a tenacious principle: in Greece, as in the United States, one cannot count on the State to succeed; you have to realize yourself. Determined to change his life after the bankruptcy of his company, he began to write in a notebook the small positive stories of his daily life: a hand extended to a beggar, a moment of sharing in a tavern, a touch of humor from a neighbor… “I learned to see beauty everywhere. Even in the ugliness. “
Modern day nursery rhymes
One day, the former advertiser decides not to write just for himself but for others. He shares his news on Facebook and then publishes it in the Greek daily Kathimerini. His modern-day nursery rhymes, imbued with Epicurean philosophy, immediately met with great success. So much so that in 2018 a first book was released, To Doro (“The gift”) to Keybooks editions. Some 160,000 copies sold, a presence in the top sales three years after its release. In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, the second volume of To Doro released in Greece and ranked number one in sales with 60,000 copies. About twenty publishers around the world buy the rights (Italy, Portugal, Germany, Finland, United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Israel, etc.). In France, the first volume will be released in spring 2022 by Editions Pygmalion. A feat for a young Greek author.
“Stefanos now plays in the Writers’ Champions League “, welcomes its Greek publishing house. In recent years, personal development books have seen their sales explode in the country, especially after the economic crisis. The readers have turned to books that help them overcome everyday difficulties. Its editor, Tasos Nikogiannis, specifies: “ The Greeks also learn to live differently, with more spirituality. They have less of these consumerist reflexes that they adopted in the 1980s, after Greece entered the European Union, at a time when the standard of living had suddenly increased. “
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