Entrepreneurs make the difference between stagnation and progress, or between communism and democracy
There is a clear line of demarcation that separates societies that are stagnating from those that are evolving. I mean the freedom of private initiative.
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At the heart of this freedom are entrepreneurs, people who dare to create something where there was nothing before, people who take risks to open new paths and new opportunities for more! It is about value, jobs and additional income to the common budget. I say it's something we need, something we want more and more!
Under communism, entrepreneurship was forbidden by definition, individual success was viewed with suspicion, personal initiative was discouraged, and innovation was stifled. Man was not allowed to dream higher than the system allowed him. I mean extremely low!
In a democracy, the entrepreneur is the exact opposite of this mentality. He (or she) is the symbol of freedom, courage and risk-taking. He does not wait for the state to give him something. On the contrary, and it's normal, he builds for himself, for himself, for his family, for his employees, for the whole community.
I repeat this word, community, passionately in the context of entrepreneurship, because no business happens in a vacuum, and no successful business has effects limited to those who initiate it. The multiplier effects are large, in all cases, and influence the community, whether we are talking about the national level, the county, or even the commune. That's why it's so important!
Personally, I know very well what this road means. For 20 years, together with my wife, we have a design company – Pro Arhitectura. She is the manager and I am her first supporter.
My wife knows what it means to sit every month with worries on the table: rent to pay, employees' salaries, state taxes, the responsibility (including legal) of each project. In entrepreneurship, you first work for others, and if there is hardly any profit left, it means that you have also worked for yourself. It's a harsh but extremely valuable lesson that only real life can teach you. And which, as an entrepreneur, you take on.
That's why I want to congratulate all entrepreneurs in Romania. I know how hard every day is. I know it's a constant battle, no break. And I know it's beautiful. And I want to especially congratulate my wife, who has kept this company upright for two decades, with hard work, seriousness and respect for people. For everyone! That's what real entrepreneurship is all about: character!
The entrepreneur is the type of man whom communism has suffocated and whom democracy supports. It is the man who creates jobs, who innovates, who keeps the economy alive. It is not the state that produces welfare (not directly), but brave people who face insecurity and build with their own hands, sometimes 16 or 18 hours out of 24, and with their teams. The responsibility, however, is always one's own, personal. There, as an entrepreneur, you are always alone.
However, the entrepreneur wants something from the state: as few obstacles as possible, of any kind, especially bureaucratic ones. Here, I think we still have work to do but it is equally true that nobody and nothing can stop you in today's Romania from trying and fighting for your success. We have, at all levels of companies, tens and tens of thousands of examples.
But today, when sometimes, or too often, success is attacked, and private initiative is viewed with distrust, we must say that there can be no dichotomy between entrepreneur and society! Entrepreneurship is the foundation of our common success! Where entrepreneurs are respected, there is prosperity. Where the people who build are respected, there is a future.
I would like, at the end of the year, to see these lines and these thoughts as a plea for a strong Romania. And the country we dream of having is not built with slogans. Never! It is built with and by people who have the courage to start something.
I would also like the new year to inspire as many of us as possible, especially the younger ones, to start a business, to feel the taste of risk, failure sometimes, but also success, the satisfaction of having fought for something and succeeded!
I think we need as many people trying as possible. Sometimes they will succeed the first time, although it will not be easy, but I know for sure that each attempt will teach them a lesson and make them stronger, more creative, more ambitious.
And if there will be more of them, Romania will be stronger and will progress, every day, and will definitely stay on the path of democracy and prosperity, the only path that honestly rewards freedom and initiative.
