September is one of our favorite months in the year because every September gives us the chance to host a new edition of our event @TheEdge in Italy. Our yearly event brings together our team, our partners, our customers, and our friends for a day of talks about IT and innovation. This year we’ve had the wonderful pleasure of being joined by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut and engineer Paolo Nespoli, who has shared with us wise and witty stories about his life as an astronaut, but also his tips on overcoming challenges.

As you know, we love a good challenge ourselves and we were thrilled to find out that Mr. Nespoli shared much of our philosophy. How do we believe challenges should be overcome? Here are some tips, as shared by Mr. Nespoli himself, together with our experiences as a company:

1. Take control of your future.

This advice applies to both individuals and organizations. If you have a vision, it is in your power to turn into reality. In business, it is important to look at statistics before taking action, but you shouldn’t base your decisions solely on the experience of others. If you have a clear goal and a plan to reach it, you just have to work towards it.

2. Believe in yourself and don’t give up.

This is good personal advice, that can also be applied in the business world. When working in an innovative niche, things may not always look promising. Innovation involves bringing something “new” to the table and that will usually awaken some skeptical voices. But if you have a good idea or a good product – something designed to bring a positive change to the world – and you truly believe in it, you shouldn’t give up. Success comes from perseverance.

3. Focus on knowledge, competence, and attention.

When building our team, we have always looked for professionals that are very good in their field of work. We have looked for people with experience, knowledge and a well-developed skill set. In addition to this, attention to details and trends is something we always take into account, as a team.

4. Be part of a team and be aware of your role.

You can rarely achieve great things alone. It is easier to do that within a team, where each individual contributes his/her knowledge and experience. Moreover, each individual, either as part of a management team or part of a support operation, has an important part to play within the great scheme of how a business works. Everyone must have a chance to shine in the workplace. Only through a strong team will our efforts pay off in the long run.

5. Make fast decisions and use all resources efficiently.

We live in a fast digitalized world where time is money. “Accelerate” is part of our motto, because we believe that, nowadays, speed is essential. And we embrace this moto across our organization – from our engineering department, who uses an “agile” approach, to the responsive way in which we handle customer requests. As a company, we are striving to avoid time-consuming activities and instead offer immediate reactions to our customers’ needs.

6. Be flexible and don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.

Syneto products have come a long way since the company first started. That’s because we did not simply stick to a well-tested “recipe”, but we have developed products that fit our customers’ needs. As these needs have refined, so have our products. We have grown together with our partners and our customers, we have embraced new technologies, new philosophies and new ways of developing efficient solutions.

7. Embrace challenges and transform them into opportunities.

This is the best advice we have received in a long time and we share Mr. Nespoli’s view 100%. Challenges cannot be avoided, but it is the way we approach them that makes a difference.