I did some coaching training, years ago, with dr. Cătălin Zaharia, PhD.
Years passed, and at some point I told him I had realized something – „Look, I understood X”.
His reply was nice (approximate quote):
„If you don’t do a thing you wish to do for a change, it’s just information.”
Implementation is everything; you have to apply what you said is important to you.
In the play „Jurnal de România #AiciSeViseazăLaSchimbare” (Teatrul Masca edition), I kept thinking about one actor who was saying – „You have to make important decisions in life.” (approximate quote)
Again and again, I kept thinking about this.
It seems like the opposite of
“Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” ― Mother Teresa
I don’t think it’s a contradiction. If you plant one tree, build a house, create a family, these are big things because you consider them so. You make them big with love.
Is David Popovici becoming World Champion a great thing? Yes, as long as he (and his community) see it that way. There is an objective part (winning the race), and there is a personal part (what the victory means to both David Popovici and his community). You need to put love into things.
I also liked the fact that you should focus on a target. Think of doing something you love and is big (because you love it), and focus on that thing.
I’ve seen around three plays already in the series, one in Bucharest, another one in Constanța, and another one on the Internet (there were some plays you could watch for free online).
I liked them all. I thought they were extremely real. The visual part was superb, I enjoyed it a lot.
At some various times in life, I was told I say boring, simple, obvious things. This happened both offline and online.
Of course, most people would likely be boring at some point, while at other times less so.
Another „of course”, sometimes I would actually say something boring, not a clever idea, just some form of a thing which, although true, everyone knows already.
I recently read that online people tend to go to extremes. They pick a point of view, while others take an opposite one, and what’s lacking is the middle point, the crossroad of various opinions, the melting point of opposing thoughts.
Online, people tend to be either A or non-A, but not in the middle of those views.
In this case, perhaps the observation I got, „you’re boring!” might not be so disheartening.
This isn’t a way to start saying boring and simple things.
There is a case, though of saying something less obvious, but not in extremes.
Năvodari expanded in the previous years. Houses got built. I got to walk through its streets and found some disturbing facts: the houses’ gardens are small (1), the roads are not wide enough for my taste (2), there is little emphasis put on parks (3), everything is crowded (4), there seems to be no general design rules in architecture – everyone builds their house however they see fit (5).
At one point, there was a piece of news stating that some fire trucks couldn’t enter some streets due to not following street width requirements.
Suppose you think of a communist-era neighborhood block of flats, things like „crowded” come to mind. But at least they followed a few principles and rules.
There is a game called Caesar III. In the game, you could expand a city. If you did so, people would move into a specific neighborhood.
There was a catch, though – you needed to keep the people happy. It was not enough to just build some houses; you had to think about things like entertainment, safety, public health – things like that. If there were a larger area without any means of amusement, people would become unhappy and move out of the buildings.
It keeps surprising me – who would want to move to a neighborhood that is crowded, has no entertainment, each house looks different than the other, and there is a general little emphasis on the Quality of Life?
I like the books written by Carmen Tiderle – they are joyful and funny. They amuse me.
I read the books trying to see – „Hmm, what’s the hidden agenda?”. Most children’s books have a hidden agenda – they try to give you a moral story. You learn ethics, principles, and values.
In her books, Carmen Tiderle doesn’t generally focus on morals; the books seem to be like children seem to be – sometimes righteous, at times not so much.
There’s a different Trojan horse, though, harder to spot, at least for me – education. I’m 43 and have some studies, and I’ve read some books; yet, some references are not that easy to comprehend for me, a 43-year-old person.
What would a child likely do when they meet a sentence with a reference they won’t understand fully? That’s right – they will likely either ask their parents or search the Internet for an answer.
Her books make you want to find out more.
The moral part is a compromise on the idea of „OK, I will treat you, a child, not as a superior moral. But, in turn, since you connect with me on the emotional level, try to catch up on the intellectual level, and find out more about the references in the poems”.
What would you do if you met a person you fell in love with, but there’s a catch – the person doesn’t love you back?
There’s a saying that:
„All is fair in love and war” – John Lyly’s Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit
If you insist, you would say something like „Oh, but you are wrong, you didn’t get the situation properly, let me explain things to you”.
I prefer a different approach – consider that the person thinks properly, there is no fault in the person’s logic, and do not insist. Avoid insisting, pushing things, and trying to make things work. Get the message and put the other person, like you say you already do, on the first rank. Adjust the situation to her perspective, don’t force your view on the world.
I recently took part in an event about start-ups.
One of the mentors told me one thing that stuck with me – it’s important to dedicate full-time to a project.
It’s not easy to create something big without a full-time dedication.
În data de 28 septembrie 2025 a avut loc la Biserica Sf. Ilie (Tabaci) din Ploiești Sfânta Liturghie la Duminica a 18-a după Rusalii (Pescuirea minunată).
Dr. Stelian Gomboș a susținut un cuvânt de învățătură.
Mai jos, imagini, video și audio de la eveniment.
Milton Friedman — Human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do.” ― Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism
Some people ask for lots of things. They want this, and that, and then put some conditions, oh, and don’t forget about this, how about that, and so on.
I’ve found that if I ask for something simple in return, suddenly the criteria change. Why do I ask for this? Why do I need this? OK, but it will be done very late. I don’t have time.
I once organized a series of meetings in Bucharest. At the second meeting, we were supposed to have both a meeting at a coffee shop and some PowerPoint slides, but there was a logistical misunderstanding, and I couldn’t use a digital projector to show the PowerPoint. One person was very upset. I told her I would hold the presentation just for her, and do a one-to-one meeting on the spot, just for her, basically having all the advantages of a previous meeting, not to mention having the presentation just for her. She was upset and didn’t take my suggestion well. She left the meeting, although we could have stayed around the coffee table.
I then changed the format of the meeting just for that person and switched to a PowerPoint-only series of meetings.
We held the events for years, but the person never came.
Years later, the person came back. During that day, she saw a PowerPoint presentation, and then some more.
At the end of the meeting, she came to me, and said – „Look, all these PowerPoint meetings are fine, but could you organize some meetings around a coffee table?”.
There’s a saying in economics:
Milton Friedman — Human wants and needs are infinite, which means there is always more to do.” ― Calum Chace, The Economic Singularity: Artificial intelligence and the death of capitalism