Three keys to your future
There is an old Romanian saying that states that you can tell a person by its company. And by the people one looks up to, as role models, I would add. Mircea Goia is surely a role model for those young people who believe in their dreams and do whatever it takes to fulfil them only because they have this inner knowing that, consciously or not, they create their own life. They love challenges, are not afraid to fail and are constantly reinventing themselves. Mircea Goia left Romania years ago, becoming a web guru & expert, whose skills were recognized even by the European Commission that uses him as a consultant on several important projects. Here are some tricks from Mircea Goia to the daring and creative you.
1. Embrace open mindedness, curiosity,inquisitiveness, patience and perseverance.
I spent part of my adulthood in that “Miorita” country too J. And not in just any part of the country but in one of the hardest, called Jiu Valley…where life was and is not easy. In the beginning, it wasn’t everything possible but quite the contrary. I was a skeptic, a pessimist if you want (that has to do also with the place I was living). I thought my life won’t change a bit from a regular life somebody in the region of the country would have had. I didn’t know much about the world and I didn’t know much probably about myself either (when you’re very young it suppose to be like that, I guess). But then, if you are not living like a robot, you will want more from life. You will want to know more people, to do more interesting things, to know more of the world and to improve yourself. And you are doing something towards that. What I have is that I changed my career, entering in a field of which previously I didn’t know anything about. That led me to opportunities, to knowing more new people and also know something of the world (although not through direct experience yet). Slowly, my mind opened (my native curiosity helped too) and I started to change from a skeptical and pessimistic person into a more optimistic one. It took years, of course, it took patience, but nothing changes overnight. You just have to make a step…then another one…and then yet another one. And stay on that path no matter how many obstacles you will encounter (because you will encounter some for sure).
I know it sounds cliché but it is pretty much it. Be open minded, be curious, be inquisitive, be patient and be perseverant. Maybe some are not born with all these qualities, but we are Homo Sapiens. Put that Sapiens to work: learn.
2. See fear or doubt as a challenge that makes you even stronger
The fear or the doubt is still there. But it’s a challenge which I like to see it overcomed everytime. It’s like a mountain on itself and when you are on top you are feeling nice that you overcame it. The fear or the doubt is, somehow, a “sand” in my energy “gas tank”, it is always in my engine and it is always trying to stop me. Can’t get rid of it totally but I can fight it. And fighting I am until I move forward. I am comparing it with my fear of heights…I know I will have fear of heights every time I ride a roller coaster…and I ride one in spite of this fear of heights. I always hope I will cure it and it never happens. But I am still trying…
3. See the silver lining of the Internet and social media era: they provoke you to think more.
I wonder if a library full of books ever provoked alienation. My guess is that it didn’t. I don’t think the Internet and social media provokes alienation. On the contrary, it provokes you to think more. The Internet is a gargantuan library, albeit a disorganized, yet, one. What can, maybe, provoke alienation on the Internet and social media is the real-time part of it. Not many people are prepared to interact in real-time online because online you don’t interact with one by one or several people at once. You interact with more. You also have suddenly more access to a ton on information about everything (much more you can find in a library and on TV). It’s like being used to drive on a country’s road…and then quite suddenly be thrown on a six lane highway in a big city. How do you cope? You have good chances to choke.People will have to adapt and learn this because after the Internet there is no going back to the pre-Internet era. This is a classic “if you can’t beat them, join them” situation. The present and more so the future will be driven by the interconnected networks, aka The Internet. The future illiterates won’t be those who can’t read/write but those who can’t use a computer and the Internet. And I suppose nobody wants to be an illiterate. You have to learn how to use this in your benefit, because there are lots of benefits to be extracted from. And also not lose sight of the real human interaction as well (let’s not forget that behind every screen is a human being mostly, even if not right away visible).
If you liked this article, you may also want to read an exclusive interview with Mircea Goia.
