“… by learning the language I could understand the group, the community, the society. An important milestone was when I started getting the neighbors’ jokes and I could reply. I think this is an essential aspect of being able to enjoy other people’s company in a new place, it made me feel at home.”
“Here, I feel there are no limits, the sky’s the limit, as the saying goes. It’s all up to you and the chances that you create for yourself. I feel free to do what I can, without having the feeling that I give up too much of what I am.”
“In the collective consciousness in Romania, success means having a steady job, a family, a house, and a car. To me, success is achieved the moment you attain what you’ve set your mind on, although the journey, the process leading up to that attainment is much more important. Success can be exactly what you’ve learned from that journey.”
“I get agendas as a present from the Dutch, from the Romanians, the habit just doesn’t stick to me. When someone asks something, now I’ll say out of fear “I’ll check my agenda”, but, in fact, I’ll check the agenda in my head.”
“To me, success means not to feel any longer the need to justify myself every moment. Not to feel that I have to choose between here and there – it’s to simply be at home right there where I’m at. It’s to be able to live by the values which I deem important, without bothering anyone. It’s no longer feeling lonesome during important life moments, whether good or bad.”
“… I think it’s not even nice to say that I’m a successful person. I’m a kind-hearted man. That’s what I think and hope. The innovators, the mathematicians, the physicists, they’re the successful ones, not us, traders.”
Copyright Noi Rădăcini – ©
