It’s more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly – Isocrates

My journey to Amsterdam and Copenhagen did not start today; it started back in 2000, in Romania when I was teenager who had an odd desire of learning Finnish and dreamed of meeting her favourite bands.

My decision to join this project and to dare think about being an entrepreneur are the direct result of my long journey to Finland, an experience which has taught me a great deal about the effects of believing strongly in something. At the same time, the idea and desire to invest my energy into a start-up came from a series of events in Romania which showed that, for some, reaching a destination means cutting the journey short at any cost.

The Romanian summer of 2012 has been rocked by a series of political scandals but possibly the most telling has been centered around the PM’s plagiarized PhD. thesis. Other members of his cabinet could not escape similar accusations: copying scientific articles and inventing degrees they never rightfully obtained. But these errors were not as telling as the fact that, while in any civilized country, the respective politicians would have kissed their career good-bye, in Romania, the act of plagiarism was explained as a legitimate stepping stone to success. Plagiarism is rife in Romania and I have had the misfortune of experiencing it first hand. The main issue now is how to encourage young people to understand the moral bankruptcy that cheating represents and how it undermines almost every single institution in a society.

My idea is now plain a simple: to come up with a project that would deal with academic practices and moral standards. At this point, I don’t know what will come of this; I just want it to be a promise to myself that I try to do my best whether or I fail or not ; because I don’t like cutting trips short.