Borut Pahor's interesting thoughts from the conversation

We are capable of giving more of ourselves. I'll say the old phrase: the vast majority of Slovenians are hard-working, ambitious and industrious. This work ethic is still with us. The fact that the state is not able to better organise this hard work, ambition and enterprise is our biggest problem.

I think we rely too much on the state to take care of too many things. I think that people are much better able to take care of a lot of things than the state can take care of for them. If we had better conditions, we would produce a lot more than we do now. The proof of that is those who do choose to do it and show it and are globally superior.

Sometimes you have to push on even where there is a barrier, if you believe there is a reasonable way forward beyond the barrier.

When I was giving out the decorations, I asked myself why they are the ones who get the decoration? They are not the only ones who have knowledge; others have knowledge too. They are not the only ones who have talent; others have talent too. In the end, I came to realise that these are the people who persevere and have focus.

I do the things I like to do, not without mistakes, but with focus and perseverance.

It is very important that whoever leads the government, the state and the parliament is a sovereign personality in the sense of what the Constitution says - that you do as you please.

No one does everything right all the time. Nobody is perfect. There is no human being who is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes and mistakes are paid for by people. But if he makes mistakes, if he sins in his choices, he must be sinning and making mistakes because he is convinced that he is doing something that would otherwise be right. Even if it later turns out to be wrong. But if someone does wrong because he is forced to or because he benefits from it, that is completely unethical. If it makes people wrong and unjust, that is wrong.

It was only with some delay that I understood why, everywhere in the world, statesmen swear by conscience.

No one is infallible. When you are faced with decisions that no one has the experience to make, you have to make decisions according to your conscience. Don't ask what will be right for this person, or what will be right for that person, or how you will benefit from it.

When you're young, you have endless energy, flighty... When you're older, you have some experience, some wisdom, some thoughtfulness.

He probably would not have been such a good head of state if he had not been a bad prime minister before. This experience helped me to come to the position as a mature person, which requires a certain maturity, thoughtfulness and less flippancy.

I enjoy what I do. If I enjoy what I do, I will do well.

You have people who do very well, indeed, but they get the same as those who do nothing. That bothers me.

When I see that we pay a lot of taxes, I think ... When I was Prime Minister and Head of State, I did not know that this was such hard money to raise and give away. We should be more economical with it. Because, at the level of principle, every politician knows that he is responsible for being economical with money. But there is still not enough of that awareness. We think that the civil service is a bottomless bag, but it has a bottom. It is not enough just to have a public administration, it has to work efficiently and productively.

If I do good and great work in the private sector, I earn good and great money. If I do nothing, I get nothing. Not so in the public sector. There you can do good or bad, you get the same. That is what bothers me the most.

Young people don't have the inhibitions that come with socialisation and experience. The more experienced you are, the more cautious you are in life, as a rule. But young people are not so careful and give you things to think about that you do not think about. But young people like to work. They work to create.

When you enter the world of advertising, you cannot do what everyone else is doing. You need to do something different.

It is one thing to make mistakes, but it is another to lack courage when it comes to doing something that goes against popular belief, that makes you feel uncomfortable, that requires you to have a particular energy or passion. There are moments in my life when I could have done more than I have. And I regret that. But it is a lesson for the future.

I do not regret the things I have done wrong. I regret the things I didn't do because I was afraid. Because I lacked the courage to do them, even though I thought it would have been good or right. It is that - that I did not do something because I did not have the courage to do it - that I regret.

If you want to win nine times in a row, you need to do something that others are not doing. You don't always do the right thing. You are also doing it wrong. As my Tania says - you also do stupid things.

Three young people wrote to me saying they would like to work for me, especially TikTok. I said I didn't need them. They wrote to me again saying that I didn't know I needed them. I liked that. I called them in for an interview, we caught up and now we work brilliantly together.

I have absolutely nothing against people having their own views. But I also have my right to live. I have given my all to this country to the best of my ability and have been absolutely committed to it.

Some captured highlights from the event THE STORIES OF ACROBATES with Uroš Slake: Borut Pahor and Marjeta Hribar, KUOLMI

These events are also organised to promote entrepreneurship and creativity and to show entrepreneurship in a positive light.