How a rejection gave rise to a career

By Birgit Baustädter Aged 18, Anita Emmerstorfer-Augustin had to say goodbye to her original career aspiration - and then found her vocation in biotechnology. . "I was extremely frustrated back then," says Anita, as she sits at home in her study casually dressed in her hoody and recalling the time before her university studies, and the rejection she got when she applied to train as a physiotherapist when she was 18. "As a child I dreamed of being a physiotherapist. In my youth I danced in a ballet ensemble when I hurt my shoulder. I had a really nice physiotherapist who really inspired me." But in every failure there's an opportunity, and so Anita sought out a new career. And the now 33-year-old found it in her second great passion: nature.