"This is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs" – this caption catches the eye when entering the building where the company of Bulgarian PR expert Maxim Behar is housed.

When did he begin his rise to the highest professional level worldwide?

He shares that he has been in journalism for many years. After the onset of democracy in Bulgaria in 1989, he decided to try something new. And in the mid-1990s in Bulgaria the advertising business was barely making its first steps. It was then that Behar set up an advertising agency.

All people who believe and seek success are characterized by one simple thing: they are ready to seize the moment and keep their lamps always lit. This is also the case with Maxim Behar. He came across a large US company which wanted to invest in Bulgaria. He was asked, "Max, we want to work in the PR business. Do you know what PR is?"

"I had never heard what PR was. Then I went to the American Embassy Cultural Center. I took a book for advertising, there was something about PR, it became very interesting to me, I realized that this is what I wanted to do from then on and that's how I started," Maxim Behar explains in a calm voice today.

He shares that his first comment after learning about the "theory of PR business" was: "A business that cannot exist in Bulgaria!"

"But this business could not exist in the Bulgaria of that period, the early 1990's. Today, Bulgaria has nothing to do with that, this is an entirely different planet we live in at the moment. Market relations, smart people, investments, foreign companies here and everything," says the PR expert.

After 25 years of hard work and experience, Maxim Behar has in his professional career a number of prestigious posts such as president of the World PR Organization, board member of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, chairman of the Davos World Communication Forum. He and his company have won dozens of prestigious awards.

Reflecting upon the meaning of success, Maxim Behar goes on to say: “We have a lot of success overall in the Bulgarian PR business. But there is no elevator for anything - neither for professional development, nor for the authority of one person or the respect that one can have in society. You have to climb the stairs. And this can only happen if you meet one single condition, which is, by the way, the only condition for any colleague of mine who wants to work at the company. I'm talking about the glitter in the eyes, nothing more. The sparkle in one person's eyes shows that he or she wants to succeed, to develop, that they have the ambition, the motivation."

According to Behar, with the advent of social media, communications and everything else, including the PR, have changed completely. And the most significant transformation that is happening, according to Maxim Behar, is "the changing of media ownership". While before the PR experts, being mediators between business, media and the public, needed the "attention" of journalists, they now own and manage their own media.

It is this great change that the Bulgarian expert calls the "revolution in the PR business" and to this phenomenon he dedicated his book “The Global PR Revolution: How Thought Leaders Succeed in the Transformed World of PR”. It was first published in the US, where it topped the charts of Amazon’s best-selling books for a long time. Maxim Behar is proud to say that "after America, the book is published first in Bulgaria and in Bulgarian". In the publication, he also presents the views of 100 global PR experts on the future of this business in the age of social media.

Defining the prosperity of his company and his personal rise, he cites the "Law of the Three S" – speed (quick decisions), simplicity (clear messages and priorities), self-confidence. And he derives his confidence from the things he does; a team that has a visionary look.

"In the next 10 years, businesses will be completely transformed into the field of social media and our work will be mainly related to the creation of a good text, instant reactions and we will more and more likely rely on artificial intelligence," the expert predicts.

Maxim Behar likes to impart his knowledge to others. Along with his business, he has also invested in education, creating 15 years ago a college for modern PR in Bulgaria. He says that "in a few months, he can turn an amateur into a professional, but he can't make a hard worker out of a lazy person."

Regarding the discrepancy between theory taught at universities and the practice at companies, Behar says: “This is not unique to Bulgaria, it is relevant to the whole world because this is one of the most dynamic businesses in the world. As practice progresses extremely fast and theory lags behind, the gap becomes very large. However, it all depends on the human factor. If the student wants to be a good expert, from the first year at the university he will go to work in a similar company so that he can watch the practice. This is the surest way to bridge the gap.”

English version Rossitsa Petcova