Digital Proust Questionnaire: Nicolas Borgis

Emakina Group has rapidly grown in recent years, in part thanks to our managing directors leading the way. But who are these MDs, besides leaders in digital, creative and business growth? Let’s sneak a peak inside their heads with this new series: Emakina’s Digital Proust questionnaires!

The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlour game popularised (though not devised) by Marcel Proust. The French essayist and novelist believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature. This is an adapted basic Proust Questionnaire for the digital age.

Nicolas Borgis, managing director of Emakina.FR since October 2016, may have worked on projects in France, India and Singapore during his career at Microsoft, FastBooking and eYeka, but many of his inspirations come from the English-speaking world. He’s a fan of former British prime minister and WWII leader Sir Winston Churchill, Welsh novelist Ken Follett, Bill Gates and American cartoonist Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes.

Nicolas Borgis.

1. What is your idea of happiness? 

The laughter of my wife and kids.

2. What is your greatest fear?

That I stop learning new things.

3. Which historical figure do you most admire?

Winston Churchill.

Sir Winston Churchill, just after hearing there was no more Johnny Walker left anywhere near Downing Street.

4. Which living person do you most admire?

Bill Gates, amazing entrepreneur-turned-extraordinary philanthropist.

5. Who is your favourite writer?

Ken Follett, especially Pillars of the Earth and The Century Trilogy.

6. Who is your favourite fictional character?

Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes.

For those of you who do not dare ask: Calvin is the one with the hat.

7. What part of the digital media industry do you enjoy the most?

The opportunity to impact businesses in ways which were unthinkable five years ago

8. What part of the digital media industry do you enjoy the least?

Digital fads without tangible impact.

9. Who inspired you the most during your career?

Jim Barksdale, Netscape CEO.

10. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Raising my kids (work in progress).

11. What tech company do you wish you had started?

Salesforce, for its relentless focus on clients.

12. What digital project would you have loved to be a part of?

Obama for America, 2008.

Barack Obama answering questions about USA’s defeat against Belgium at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

13. What is your favourite digital app or tool?

Adobe Lightroom.

14. What digital app or tool that does not exist would you like to create?

A reliable resume screener to win the war for talent.

15. Which trait are you the proudest of in yourself?

Curiosity.

16. Which trait do you most admire in others?

Fortitude.

17. What is the trait you most dislike in others?

Cowardice.

18. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?

Any entrepreneur.

19. What is your most treasured possession, and why?

I have little interest in things: people are the only source of wealth.

20. What is your motto?

“If you think education is expensive, try ignorance” – often attributed to Harvard Business School former president Derek Bok or Eppie Lederer (aka Ann Landers, a Washington Post advice columnist).