You say you want a resolution?

And usually by the middle of January we’ve broken all these resolutions, which I was reminded of by one of my real estate colleagues at a New Year’s party. It’s a good thing that I’ve never been tempted to make New Year’s resolutions myself, never mind actually going through with them, if only because I consider our date of birth to be a more symbolic moment on which to close one chapter and open another. So at least I can keep calm and wait a few months before my birthday in the summer. Besides, is it worth doing any of this if one of the richest people in Hungary, who grew up in abject poverty, when asked what to do to get rich replies, as he smokes one cigarette after another: play cards, play chess and first of all read books (his favourite genre is romantic literature). I am speaking to  Sándor Demján – the founder of the  TriGranit Holding development company, a major player active across Central and Eastern Europe – and I’m thinking, yeah, that might just be possible. He is a remarkable individual and also the winner of the Eurobuild Lifetime Achievement Award 2014. In this issue he tells us all about his childhood, starting out in the business and the style in which he runs his companies (in the article ‘Not writing his memoirs just yet’). Sándor Demján is one of more than thirty Eurobuild Award winners to whom we have given over pages of this month’s magazine. Unfortunately, the next gala – as is the case with New Year’s Eve and the morning of New Year’s Day when we make our resolutions – will be in a year’s time. So we can relax about our plans for self-improvement until then.