Gerke Witteveen, CEO NN Pensii: “If you don’t make mistakes, it means you haven’t pushed your limits.”
Fuckup Nights, the global series of events organized in Bucharest by DiFine PR communications agency, returned on August 21st with stories full of emotion and inspiration for those who do not see failure as the end of the line. Fuckup Nights Bucharest, edition XXVI, took place at the Bucharest International School of Management (BISM). The event brought to the public a unique mix of speakers from different fields, but with the same courage to learn from any challenge.
Gerke Witteveen – CEO NN Pensii, Delia Necula – entrepreneur and sales coach, and Radu Nemeș – lawyer and managing partner ONV LAW spoke on stage at Fuckup Nights Bucharest about challenging moments in their careers and how these contributed to their personal and professional development.
Gerke Witteveen, Originally from the Netherlands and having moved to Romania in 2008, he spoke about the impact that the society you grow up in can have on how you relate to mistakes.
“When I was growing up, I saw in my parents and in the Netherlands in general the idea that you learn from your mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes, it means you haven’t tried hard enough, that you haven’t pushed your limits. So mistakes are part of life, you accept them and you become better. In fact, mistakes help you improve. Compared to Dutch culture, which encourages risk-taking and learning from mistakes, Romanian culture seems to be more cautious and careful when it comes to failure”, says Gerke Witteveen.
He recounted how he tries to tell his employees when they make mistakes, “Let’s try again, it’s okay,” but they tend to fear that they will be fired or that something serious will happen to them because they grew up with the perception that failure is not allowed.
Gerke Witteveen also said that “failures often happen in your mind” and proposed a system to measure their magnitude.
“If you feel like you have stones in your stomach, like the ground is disappearing, do a mental exercise. If I wake up tomorrow, will it still matter? If the answer is no, no one will hold you accountable. If the answer is yes, will it still matter in a week? And then move on. If it will matter in a year, then yes, maybe you should feel the stones and the ground a little and maybe you should do something. Otherwise, maybe you should relax. So, we start with a day, a week, a month, six months, a year, and if it’s not a year or five years, go to sleep, relax, you’ll wake up in the morning and everything will be fine”, ads Gerke Witteveen.
Entrepreneur Delia Necula shared a professional failure that cost her approximately €800,000. In 2013, after lengthy analysis and visiting a self-service gym in the La Défense business district in Paris, she decided to bring this concept to Romania. She opened a similar gym in Ploiești, with dozens of machines that customers could use on their own, without trainers, and with video-recorded group lessons.
However, the reality in Ploiești did not match that in Paris. A few months after opening, the new fitness center was mostly empty. He quickly realized one of the reasons: he hadn’t talked to enough fitness enthusiasts to find out that they were attached to their personal trainers and didn’t exercise on their own. So he learned a lesson that he now passes on:
“Get out of your bubble. Don’t fall in love with your own ideas. Ask someone else. And, as my mother taught me: «Smart people learn from the mistakes of others. Mediocre people learn from their own mistakes. And naive people never learn»”, explică Delia Necula.
About how this failure made her feel and how it changed her, Delia says: “On a personal level, I felt shame and guilt. I saw the signs, but I didn’t interpret them correctly. I learned to be more critical of myself. So now, I think twice before doing something and I don’t make rash decisions.”
Lawyer Radu Nemeș shared a personal failure that also affected his professional life – his struggle with excess weight. He talked about how the path to balance is not just about willpower, but also requires awareness, support, and the courage to change the context when inner strength is no longer enough. Transformation begins with the lucidity to recognize that we cannot always succeed on our own. No matter how much pressure we put on ourselves, or others put on us, support and the right context are often stronger than mere willpower.
„Every person has their own path, and sometimes change does not come from an exhausting inner effort, but from the courage to adjust the context, to build something that supports transformation. For me, failure is part of life. Because, after all, life is not a straight line and predestined. It is a field of possibilities, where every decision, every gesture, every change of perspective can open new paths”, explains Radu Nemeș.
Focusing on your organization and professional life often distracts you from what is truly important – your health. It is important to understand that self-care is not an act of selfishness, but a prerequisite for being able to care for others. In his search for answers, Radu argues that not all personal development books or theories are suitable for everyone, and even the best ones do not contain absolute truths.
For yet another edition, Fuckup Nights has demonstrated that failure is a universal experience and that it comes with valuable lessons, regardless of title, field, or moment in life.
The 26th edition of Fuckup Nights Bucharest has ended, but a new event is coming up on November 20. New guests will take the FUN XXVII stage with valuable experiences and lessons, in which failure gives rise to stories worth passing on.
Fuckup Nights Bucharest is part of a series of events taking place globally in 215 cities across 62 countries around the world. The events change the paradigm regarding professional failure and are aimed equally at small and large entrepreneurs, those working in corporations, freelancers, and students. Fuckup Nights is a global event with a national license, organized in Bucharest by the DiFine PR communication agency.
Partners of the event are: BISM (Bucharest International School of Management), FAN Courier, Radio Guerilla, Maidan, Centrul EKA, Complice, Fonduri Structurale, https://epicprints.ro/Bizilive, Learning Network, Psychologies, IQAds, SMARK, IQool, Revista CARIERE, Techcelerator și ROTSA – Romanian Tech Startups Association.
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About DiFine PR
DiFine PR is a full services communications agency that combines the team’s solid experience of over 20 years, both nationally and internationally, with the satisfaction of creating success stories. Besides full PR, communication and business consulting services, the agency also organizes technology and business events (e.g. NASA Space Apps Challenge, TechFest, Fuckup Nights Bucharest). The agency’s client portfolio includes NN, Stefanini, TH Essers, Dulcinella, Seedblink, GapMinder VC, Seedblink, FintechOS, Techcelerator, ROTSA (Romanian Tech Startups Association), Examin.ai, Goldring, Klass Wagen, Eyerim, Bricklofts, Undelucram.ro, Restart Energy, Tema Energy, Verita International School, Bitcoin Romania. Over the six years since its launch, DiFine PR has worked with over 250 tech startups.
