I was born in the most beautiful town in Montenegro, in Kolašin, as the only child of my parents, Ratko and Vinka Radović. I am the fifth generation of descendants of Captain Petar Vuletin Radović, who lives in Lugovi, a small village near Kolašin. I was a happy and loved child. I was the youngest child of my paternal grandmother, Bojana, and the oldest grandchild of my maternal grandparents, Milika and Stanka-Taji Bulatović. The love that I received in my early childhood from my parents, two grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts from my mother's side, my late uncle, my late uncles and aunts from my father's side, wonderful neighbors of my grandfather Petar Bulatović, and my dad's aunt Dunja Radović, are priceless treasures, with says Sonja Radović with undisguised pride.
She graduated from "Risto Manojlović" elementary school and "Braća Selić" high school in her hometown. She was an excellent student, holder of "Luče". The teenage period is remembered for war and sanctions. Her family on her father's side was in Sarajevo...
"Young, mobilized fellow citizens died, families came from war-torn areas. We got school friends, who left everything that was dear and familiar to them. The shops were empty, there were no textbooks, notebooks... At that time we had only two television channels and we were exposed to toxic content, war-mongering news shows, kitsch... I remember well the show "Folkmeter" and the first "stars" created and promoted by the then political and social elite", recalls Sonja Radović.
Despite the new reality, he emphasizes, we were a generation of happy, social and empathetic children. We hung out a lot, laughed, loved each other, helped each other and in all circumstances were and remained each other's support.
After finishing high school, Sonja entered and graduated from the Faculty of Law in Podgorica. She lived in a student dormitory, where, she says, she also made lifelong friends.
What was your first job?
After graduating from university, due to the political ineligibility of my father, who himself was unemployed, I waited for employment for two whole years. I persistently responded to all the ads and received the same answer: "We inform you that you meet the requirements of the competition and that another candidate has been accepted for the position." And so about twenty times.
I got my first job, after two years of applying in vain, "through a connection". My father's friend, lawyer Dragan Šoć, knew the recently elected Minister of Justice, the late Željko Šturanović, who provided me with a position in the Basic Court in Podgorica. In March 2003, my legal career began.
I was very lucky to learn the craft from the wonderful and expert judges with whom I was an intern, Vesna Moštrokol and Senka Danilović. I spent three years in court. After the first year of internship, I passed the professional exam, after the second year, the bar exam, which gave me the opportunity to spend another year in court. In the court, I gained knowledge and experience that were the foundation for my further training and career. And in court, I made lifelong friendships.
You didn't stay in the judiciary, though?
I managed to establish myself with my efforts and work, which is why the president of the court, Zoran Pažin, suggested to my colleague Radonja Baćko Radonjić, now a judge of the High Court and a member of the Judicial Council, that we continue our careers in the court as professional associates. At the same time, I received an offer from the company "Čelebić" doo, which at that time did not have a lawyer with a passed bar exam. Namely, my friend Ivana Borović, who had an offer to work both in "Čelebić" and in Hipotekarna banka, decided on Hipotekarna banka, and she suggested me for the position that was offered to her. The founder of the company, Tomislav Čelebić, and the executive director, Milašin Borović, offered me a permanent employment relationship after the conversation if I performed well during the trial period. I had to choose between a permanent job in the court, a job I like and the risk of continuing my career in a company where I don't know anyone, where I have to do jobs I've never done before and where, after a trial period, I may lose my job.
I loved the court very much and fantasized about being a judge, but on the other hand, I knew professional associates who reached retirement without being elected as judges. Judges were then elected by the Assembly. I didn't want my career to depend on anyone's political will, so with a heavy heart I decided to go on trial work at the company "Čelebić" doo. It is the most difficult business decision I have made in my career.
You also left the company "Čelebić"?
In "Čelebić" I got excellent conditions. In the court, I received a salary of 174 euros, with every working Saturday. The first salary in "Čelebić" was higher than the salary of the president of the court, and he was free every weekend. "Čelebić" is one of the few companies that paid its employees the entire amount of salary via account. The period spent in "Čelebić" was also the period of the first investment boom in Montenegro. I gained valuable knowledge and experience in the field of commercial law, real law, obligations, labor relations. My employers recognized my hard work and rewarded it with an increase in salary, which doubled in two years. In "Čelebić" I felt safe, I quickly made friends. I knew that as their employee, I could solve the housing issue under favorable conditions.
However, you didn't stay in "Čelebić"?
I missed the court, so I decided to take the risk again and accept the offer to continue my career in a law firm. I worked for a salary, represented well-known companies, a bank, met almost all Montenegrin courts and a large number of judges. I was doing a job that I love.
You didn't stay long in the legal profession either?
From the first day of my career, I fantasized about being independent, not having a boss, being free. Her own. The Ministry of Justice created the conditions for the introduction of notaries. Trainings were organized, and at the end of 2010, the first notary exam in Montenegro. I passed the notary exam with an average grade of 10. As a small number of candidates passed the exam in the first period, it was not possible to immediately announce a vacancy for a notary public. At the beginning of 2011, a competition was announced and about twenty notaries were chosen, including me, as the youngest notary in Montenegro.
I had no savings, I was a tenant, which was not an obstacle for me to take a risk for the third time in my career and enter something completely new and practically unknown.
You graduated from law school and work as a notary. Have you fulfilled your childhood dreams with the career you are pursuing or did they go in a different direction?
As a child I fantasized about other things. I loved literature, I read a lot, wrote beautifully, won some awards. With special piety, I remember my professor of Serbian language and literature, the late Dragan Vujisić, a great gentleman and erudite, whose fantastic lectures influenced me to love and get to know the wonderful world of literature. In addition to literature, I was interested in psychology, archaeology, ethnology, art history... I chose law because I could not stand injustice. I always protested when I or someone else was wronged.
To be honest, I never dreamed that I would have this kind of career. I was always ambitious and I believed that I would be successful in the business I was engaged in. The career I am achieving has exceeded all my expectations. I entered the notary's office without political, godfather, or family ties that would provide me with clients. I knew that the only way to impose myself was knowledge, quality, honest attitude towards clients, dedicated work, precision, professionalism, kindness. On the other hand, I was uncompromising towards the illegal demands of some clients. With my clear attitude that I will consistently and in every situation without exception respect and apply the law and that I will never "turn a blind eye" I resented some very influential people, I even received open threats.
Podgorica is a small community, so word quickly spread that I am strict, that I insist on strict compliance and application of regulations. With such a relationship, I achieved that our office is bypassed in the widest circle by parties trying to conclude simulated or fictitious legal deals, greenbacks, dubious investors...
On the other hand, I have received honorable and virtuous people as clients, who earn money with difficulty and seek maximum legal protection within the limits offered by our legal system. I am honored that many successful and respected people from all spheres have chosen me as their notary, whose names I cannot mention because of the notary's obligation to keep all the information he obtains in the course of his work as a secret, although some of them have become mine precious friends and great support in the fight I am now fighting.
The quality of our office was also recognized by the profession, so once a year at the Faculty of Law, I gave lectures on notary, at UDG I taught legal culture to students of the Faculty of Culture and Tourism for two years. In addition, I was on the expert list of lecturers of the Center for Training in the Judiciary and the State Prosecutor's Office.
What, in your opinion, are the most important qualities you possess that have determined your path to success?
Empathy, self-criticism, integrity, ambition, fairness, courage, analytical, persistence, self-sacrifice. I'm trying to get rid of some traits. I'm not happy that I'm a hypersensitive person, although I don't give that impression, I'm trying to get rid of the pursuit of perfectionism and excessive self-criticism. I hope to be much gentler with myself in the future.
Today, looking back on your business journey, would you do something differently and what are the most important insights your career has brought you that you didn't think about before, as a young lawyer?
I would do a lot of things differently. I would take more care of myself and my needs. I would not personally experience what happens at work and in relation to work. I would draw a clear line between private and business life. I would try to be immune to numerous attacks, slander and discredit attempts, which did not threaten my career, but seriously damaged my health. The stress and pressure I endured at work led to my becoming seriously ill in 2021, on the XNUMXth anniversary of the notary.
What and how much did family mean to you in the struggle for success - during schooling, building a career, all the troubles that reality brings?
The family is a refuge, a source of love, support, a motive for struggle and victory. Apart from my parents and extended family, as I already said, I can always count on the support of my friends and some colleagues, who have been with me since the beginning of my struggle. I receive support every day from a large number of clients, who call the office, inquire about my health, send greetings, and offer financial assistance. I use the opportunity to greet them all, to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart. A person who receives so much love every day, regardless of current unfortunate circumstances, cannot be unhappy
Your team is working and functioning successfully. How to build a strong team? How is talent recognized in business and how important is dedication for success?
When it comes to my colleagues from the office, I can only say that I was very, very lucky to have honest, hard-working, professional, dedicated and self-sacrificing people working for me. They keep our office like their house. I'm sure none of them would do better or more in their own office. When I started working as a notary, I didn't know if and how much work I would have, and I didn't dare to hire someone who was already working, with experience, because I wasn't sure if I would even be able to provide salaries. I knew that the brother of my good friend, lawyer Maja Čvorović, Igor Čvorović, did not have a job even though he passed the bar exam. My friend Kristina Mićunović took a vacation and came to help me. We three musketeers started a joint venture. I prepared the records. It happened that I worked until four in the morning, and Tina and Igor did certifications and administrative work. Over the course of a few months, my colleague from the law office, Danilo Bošković, my close friend and long-time roommate Nela Rakočevič, who is now a notary in Tivat, and my daughter-in-law Sandra Medenica, who was unemployed after graduating from university and now works, joined us. in her profession, Danijela Raičković has been with us since 2012, then Vesna Goranović, who has been a member of our team since her trainee days, is now an experienced lawyer who has passed the bar exam. Part of the team was Ivana Ilić, now a notary in Danilovgrad. Just before I got sick, Bojana Nenadić was hired, while my colleague Tijana Marić was hired after I got sick. In the meantime, my colleague Igor Čvorović was elected as a notary, so we have one of a total of two joint offices in Montenegro. I had to mention these people, because I am endlessly grateful for their loyalty and dedication.
In our business, it is not difficult to recognize talents. These are people who think quickly, easily recognize legal institutes, correctly interpret norms and always check their knowledge by reading regulations and court practice. I personally believe that anyone who is not expected to know everything, but is ready to learn and work dedicatedly, must succeed, no matter what kind of work he does. I value honesty and loyalty the most in my colleagues. That was and remains the most important criterion when choosing collaborators. A diligent and interested person, even if he has no talent, will learn the job.
What qualities do you value most in successful women you meet or who you recognize in public as leaders?
Humanity, integrity, simplicity, modesty, determination, courage. Many of them are family women, so above all I appreciate the fact that they have balanced family obligations and careers, that they are also successful leaders and good wives and mothers.
When you go back to your childhood memories - what is that important person or event that contributed to your determination, but also the empathy you possess?
Empathy is a trait I developed in my home, watching my parents and my two grandmothers. From early childhood, I recognized the needs of people around me, trying to help. Life, or more precisely, business circumstances contributed to my becoming a determined woman and fighter.
What kind of institutional support do you expect young women, who are just studying or starting a career in modern Montenegro, to receive, which you and your generation of successful women did not have?
I believe that women, in general, do not enjoy adequate institutional protection, and that, unfortunately, a much larger number of women than we can imagine feel threatened in their own homes. The victims are not only women who are financially insecure. Among the victims of violence, there are very successful and well-to-do women who, due to distrust in institutions and fear for the fate of their children, suffer mental or physical abuse for years. I believe that it is the obligation of society to protect and protect the most vulnerable categories. In order for a young woman to grow into a leader, it is desirable for her to grow up in a healthy and stimulating environment, to acquire a good education, to believe in herself and her abilities. It is necessary that her business ideas be recognized by institutions and financially supported. I believe that it is necessary to establish a state fund, which would enable young entrepreneurs, farmers, small and medium-sized enterprises, based on business ideas, to finance through loans under significantly more favorable conditions than those currently offered by commercial banks. From my notary experience, I know that a person who does not have his own real estate (or a family member's real estate) as collateral cannot get a loan from any bank or IRF. I believe that the state must start financially supporting women because it is an investment in the future. I believe that part of the funds can be obtained from EU funds.
Is our environment ready to accept women leaders with all their successes and personal struggles? Do you recognize the stigma and how to get rid of it if it really exists?
Our environment still does not allow success that is achieved through hard, honest work and sacrifice. On the other hand, it approves of people who have acquired capital in a dubious and difficult to verify manner. These are people who "made it". I recognize the stigma. I have felt it on my own skin more than once. As I mentioned earlier, I experienced open threats in the office because I refused to close an illegal legal deal. The road sign, which is located in front of the office, was broken four times. In 2020, the Secretariat for Communal Affairs passed a decision on the basis of which we are allowed to put up a road sign, the dimensions and appearance of which are prescribed by the Rulebook on the work of notaries. Half a year ago, we received a new decision from the same Secretariat ordering the board to be removed. There was a lot of unpleasantness, which I don't want to remember.
Problems are solved by persistently and openly discussing them, with adequate institutional support. When the system is much better than it is now, i.e. when the depth and breadth of party recruitment, which has been going on for more than three decades, ends, and when competent and dedicated people come to important positions in institutions, all topics that burden our society will be opened up.
Fighting cancer
Life brings us different challenges, experiences, knowledge, but also struggles. Are you fighting one of the fiercest battles right now?
Starting in April 2021, I am fighting triple negative, inflammatory breast cancer. It all started innocuously. At the beginning of February 2021, I felt a lump. On the same day, I made an appointment with a radiologist, whose name I do not want to mention. After the ultrasound, the doctor said that it was an inflamed cyst, that I had nothing to worry about and that I should not have a mammogram because I am "too young". I started taking antibiotics, and the condition got worse. I made a magnet on my own. The test showed that I have cancer. I panicked, even though I suspected the diagnosis before I got the results. I did not know what to do. In those first days, I received guidance from my dear relatives, doctors: Ana and Nebojsa Bulatović and Danijela Jauković, and from my doctor friends Dragan and Zorica Đurović and Ljilja Bojić. Dragan scheduled an appointment with the wonderful and responsible doctor Sanja Čejović, who performed a mammography and biopsy. Danijela and Ana took me to Dr. Dragana Bogdanović, who confirmed that it was an extremely aggressive cancer, which from February, when I felt a change, until April 27, when I received the first chemotherapy, had spread to the lymph nodes and did not was operable. I went to the first council, still unaware of what was happening to me, accompanied by Nebojsa Bulatović. Apart from the doctors I mentioned, who are my support all the time, no one knew what was happening to me, except my brother Zoran Medenica and my friends Nela Rakočević and Tanja Čepić. I should have gathered the strength and told my parents about the diagnosis. I don't have enough words to describe that pain, their pain and mine.
How did you fight with that, for you, new situation?
At the Institute of Oncology, I was treated by Dr. Nevenka Lukovac Janjić, a great man and expert. In addition to therapy, Nena treats her patients with love, support and empathy. Even after the first therapy, I was still not aware of what was happening. I knew I had cancer, but I could not come to terms with that knowledge and accept the new reality. I only faced the disease when my hair fell out. It was one of the worst days of my life. A difficult and exhausting struggle with the disease, the side effects of therapies, the struggle with my own demons, weaknesses, pride began... In one day, my life changed 180 degrees. Before cancer, I was a free and in every respect independent woman, who manages her life and who tries to help everyone, starting from her family, friends, acquaintances, to complete strangers. I never asked for help from others. I didn't burden my family and friends with stories about my problems, the stress I experience at work, chronic fatigue. In one day I stopped working, lost my freedom and control over my life.
Unfortunately, it did not end there. New trials awaited you.
At the Institute of Oncology, I received 16 chemotherapy sessions, followed by a mastectomy, then radiation. The pathological finding after the operation was very bad. I continued treatment with oral cytostatics and biological therapy. Last summer, metachanges appeared on the skin and lymph nodes on the opposite side. A new fight has begun. This time I was more prepared and experienced. I continued treatment in Berlin, at the "Charitee" clinic, which I visited for the first time at the beginning of the disease, after the third chemotherapy. I continued my treatment abroad, because I received a recommendation from the German council to receive immunotherapy and chemotherapy (pembrolizumab and taxol). According to the valid protocols of the Institute of Oncology, pembrolizumab, the drug available in Montenegro, is not given to patients with triple negative breast cancer, but to patients suffering from some other types of cancer. I recently received the sixteenth cycle of immuno and chemotherapy. Meanwhile, my hair fell out again, I had corona twice, herpes zoster.
After all, what advice would you give to people who find themselves in a similar situation?
I can advise people who are currently fighting cancer to use the period of fighting against the unpleasant "tenant" to get to know themselves first of all. Illness is a consequence. I deeply believe that anyone struggling with a serious illness, in order to win, must discover and eradicate the causes. Disassemble and reassemble your life before the illness in a spiritual and psychological sense, like a puzzle. The second message is to believe. If they are not believers, I advise them to definitely believe in themselves, in their strength, endurance, to believe that they are precious human beings who can and should win. In the end, if we have created enemy cells that attack our organism through an inadequate attitude towards ourselves, we are also able to destroy them.
How important is it for strong people like you to share your life story publicly to encourage others to think about all aspects of life?
Unfortunately, the disease is still a taboo topic in these areas. There is literally a cancer epidemic in Montenegro, to which, in my opinion (taking into account the experience with "Charite"), there has never been an adequate institutional response.
When I received chemotherapy in Montenegro in 2021, the oncologists had 50 patients a day. Neither the doctors nor the very kind and dedicated medical staff ever took a break. They often didn't even have time to eat or even go to the toilet. In the toilet for patients, in the year of corona, there was never toilet paper or soap. There were a total of 13 chairs for receiving chemotherapy, for all patients suffering from all types of cancer, with different stages of the disease, throughout Montenegro. There were not enough chairs in the corridor for all the patients to sit down, so patients waiting for consultation or control were mostly sitting in front of the clinic on benches. I believe that every minister of health should start his mandate by visiting the Institute of Oncology (not when it is empty, but when it is full of patients), and then visit an oncology clinic in the European Union. I highly recommend a visit to the "Charitee" clinic (with which KBC already cooperates). "Charitee" has an Oncology Clinic where only breast cancer patients are treated in humane conditions.
I recently received information that at a private clinic in Podgorica, as many as 40 women are operated on each month for breast cancer. If that information is correct, we have a lot to worry about.
My story can be significant for all people who burn out at work or are constantly exposed to stress for other reasons. I constantly warn my friends who work a lot both at work and at home to listen carefully to their body, to take seriously the warnings they receive from the body and not to exceed their physical and mental limits. The second message is that we should not take anything that God has given us (I am not referring to material goods) lightly, but that we should be aware of what we have and be grateful at every moment. Here, above all, I mean health. It is not a platitude that a healthy man has a thousand wishes
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