Guest Blog: Maria Nica & Johanna Kulcsar, Senior Students at Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania
For the past several years our own Cammie Hauser has traveled to Romania to teach business skills and concepts to a new generation of entrepreneurs. This summer we have had the pleasure of having two interns come to our country to learn and contribute. It
may be beneficial for you to see business through the eyes of young entrepreneurs living in a country that is getting its first taste of business and economic freedom.
America through our eyes
20 days ago after 24 hours of traveling we arrived to Orlando International, we were waiting 2 hours at customs to enter the land of the free. Romania is also a free country now, but it wasn’t always like this. Back in the days of our parents there were darker days…
We had an image in our mind created by the media and other communication channels that life is better
in America, or it used to be better. We arrived with these expectations to America. Some of these came true, but most of them were just our imagination…
In the past weeks many people asked us “what is different here? What is new for us?”.
Here is what we have found:
- Everything is bigger here than at home:
- the roads are wider and people drive more because of the long distances;
- the cars are bigger (pick-up trucks, jeeps) and people drive differently;
- our big cup of coffee at home is the small one here;
- you can get refills for your soda as much as you can drink;
- a lot of food all the time, a lot of restaurants.
- Better customer service – Employees are very kind and attentive with customers.
- The gas is cheaper than in Romania – also in Romania people don’t drive that much.
- Higher life standard than in Romania-but still our understanding about life in the US is very narrow, we have seen only a glimpse of America.
- A lot of credit cards – in Romania debit cards are more popular.
- You can leave your home without closing the doors-you can have a home without fences (Don’t try this in Romania!)
- People tease each other all the time! In Romania we are not used to that…
- People have a different mindset and entrepreneurial spirit is well developed – a lot of small businesses.
- In America it is not a question that marketing is essential for the success of a company. In Romania, people start to realize how important is to the success of their company.
We can see that the effects of consumerism are more noticeable here than in Europe, or in Romania. People want more and more, trying to fulfill their hunger for food, movies, video games, nice cars, nice home and a lot of credit cards. But if we look past the surface, we can see that people have the same problems, the same difficulties, the same struggles here in the US just like people in Romania, in Europe and all around the World.
At the end of the day we are all the same and all those differences don’t really matter. What matters is to be content with what we have and to use our God given gifts becoming the best version of ourselves.
