Millennials are like assholes: everyone has an opinion – on them. So does Babba Canales. Her actually being a millennial might lend her views some substance, though.

– Young people today are very focused on their needs, and I’m all for it. But you also need to understand what you’re actually good at. And how that fits with your employer’s needs.

Ms Canales (Barbara in her passport, Babba everywhere else) seems to know both ends of that argument. Still only 25, she accomplished one of her childhood dreams a year ago and left her native Sweden to work in New York. Her new job: lead marketing manager at one of the world’s fastest growing start-up companies. Kids take note – in January, Babba made Forbes magazine’s prestigious 30 Under 30 list, and was named one of the brightest young business leaders of 2016.

Since she knew of nothing else, all this seemed natural to Babba Canales – and, in turn, awarded her with what some might call a supernatural self-confidence. Ambition, she says, was just as innate. Young Babba loved going to school, thus was a great student. She was into fashion from a very early age, and consequently wanted to make her own money to be able to expand the wardrobe.

But it had to be by doing stuff she actually liked:
– I probably realised I was an entrepeneur before I even knew the word. A neighbour was an awesome seamstress, so I asked her to help me make changes to dresses I got cheap at H&M. Then I started selling them on eBay. Not that I made any real money from it, but I was 16 and it was more than enough.

Things moved on from there. Babba Canales is myoptic, and being fashion-conscious she soon realised something was missing on the world wide web: A stylish blog on glasses.

What’s in a smell? Ask Ben Gorham – founder of scent emporium Byredo, entrepeneur extraordinaire, family man and former basketball pro – and you will probably get a rebound: What’s in a dream?

Byredo launched in 2006 with a line of four perfumes. A decade after its inception, the Stockholm based brand boasts 23 different fragrances, close to 150 beauty and body care products, scented candles, a capsule collection of sun glasses and a full range of leather goods, including backpacks and duffels.

But what psyches Ben Gorham the most is not really the products in themselves. It’s their effects. Take Insensatus, his joint project with Belgian-German artist Carsten Höller. It’s a toothpaste. But it also someting that, potentionally, takes your brain to another dimension.

Ben Gorham explains:
– Scents have amazing ways of affecting your mind. They revive memories, paint very vivid pictures. I wanted to create a fragrance that would sort of guide your dreams through the night. Carsten Höller then had the brilliant idea of adding taste to the process.

Sneakers, in a way, is also what led Ben Gorham to where he is today. – Being so obsessed with something, just an accessory really, but also something that carried meaning and mirrored your identity and culture, was really an eye-opener for me. When I started drawing up plans for Byredo, I brought that with me.

These days, Ben Gorham lives just a few blocks from the first Sneakersnstuff store in the Södermalm district of Stockholm. And in terms of entreprenurial core values, they’re still on the same page:

Three years ago, Sabina Ddumba’s world rocked. Sort of. Growing up in Fisksätra, a high-rise neighborhood in Nacka outside of Stockholm, the recent Grammy winner always assumed she was born at the local hospital. Then, newsflash:

– One day my older sister tells me “no no, you were born at the hospital in Södermalm in central Stockholm. I know this for a fact, ‘cause I was there!”. I always felt like a city kid. Turns out I actually am one too!

Of course, by this time Sabina Ddumba’s sense of self had already taken her to the city. Coming from a Ugandan background – big, church going family, Bible studies in school and singing in Stockholm’s premier gospel choir in Tensta – she says she had to find her own way early.

– I’m very close to my family, the 7 out of 8 people in it that are still here in Sweden. My mother left us and went back to Uganda when I was really young. Obviously I was devastated. But I also realised quickly that there was no point in staying furious or resentful about it. So I accepted that this was the way things were going to be. And started focusing on what I wanted to do with my life.

– But I always felt faith was something rooted in me, personally. The parts of the Bible that spoke to me I took to heart. The rest I didn’t care so much about. It is a book with a lot of pages.

Joining the Tensta Gospel Choir, arguably Stockholm’s finest, was a step on this journey: Going her own way. She’s never liked praying, she reveals. Singing the gospel is Sabina Ddumba’s way of talking to God.

– Before joining the choir, noone really told me I was good at singing. I just did it anyway. And then, people started paying attention.