• With over five decades of experience in the field of milling and baking, Mircea Ureche looks back at the path traveled so far, with the wisdom and modesty that characterizes him.
Growing up in an era where resources were limited and living conditions harsher, Mircea Ureche managed to keep his optimism and enthusiasm thanks to his education and valuable life lessons received from his parents who taught him to look at things calmly and to adapt to the changes around.
The wisdom he received from his father, to work both hard and hard, he has always respected and considers it one of the keys to his success.
During his career, Mircea Ureche had many satisfactions, but he believes that the defining moments were related to his family and the choice of business partners. For him, success means having balance in your personal life and being able to create a team that works as a unified whole in business.
1. You have an impressive career in milling and baking. How does it feel when you look back and see how far you've come? When did you know this was the right path for you?
It's hard to say I knew. 54 years ago I could not have predicted what would happen and what my path would be. In those days, it was important if you could go to school. The saying worked quite well "You have a book, you have a share". And for me it proved over time that a little book helped me a lot. It somehow helps you get through certain sorting stages faster. It was equally important to be disciplined, to learn as much as possible and to be respectful, which has now kind of disappeared. If you followed these three conditions and took it one step at a time, you would see what life offered you along the way.
2. What was the most important lesson you learned from childhood and adolescence that has guided you in life and business?
I can't say it's a specific lesson. I learned many things from my father, a simple man with only 4 classes, so I can't say that he was giving me lessons. But when I read "From the world gathered and back to the world given" and "The story of the speech" by Anton Pann, I found that I already knew 80% of the parables from my father. When I asked him how he knew all those things, the answer was "of old".
But the most important lesson I have from my father is : "Children, to work long and short", something respected by him, day by day. I have followed this story throughout my life. I participated in everything that came my way, big and small, good and bad. The important thing is to be there, present on the road that lies before you, a road that no one chooses. Everyone is with their own luck, with their own path, with their own cross...
3. Were there times when you had to make sacrifices on the road to success? How do you see those sacrifices now?
Again I say: things were of such a nature that it was complicated to say that you were making a sacrifice to achieve something. Now that I think about it... I lived in times when we didn't have electricity. We had very few tools to work with and everything was stored for decades. My father even had items left over from his military training: a backpack, a bowl, an aluminum bowl, which he had with him wherever he went. Young people today would have no way of understanding how life was then and would probably see it as a sacrifice. But it seemed normal to me: both the hard and the easy.
4. Every time we talk you always have a smile on your face. How have you managed to maintain your optimism and enthusiasm despite the challenges you've surely encountered throughout your life and career?
That's how I was born! As I told you: my father had four classes and my mother had only one. And if my father was close to Anton Pann, I can say that my mother was also very wise. He always looked at things calmly, simply and wisely, despite the fact that he used "digital signature"… he could not write.
Thus, I cannot say that they put me on a certain path: it was something native. I inherited both from one and from another. Added to that I was always paying attention to what was around me and I adapted. That in the end, as Charles Darwin said, neither the strongest nor the smartest will stand the test of time, only those who adapt. And history has proven that this happens: you don't adapt, you quickly disappear.
5. What are the greatest satisfactions you have experienced as a businessman and what motivates you to continue to be involved in this field? What is the most memorable or proudest moment of your career and why?
The failures that I have had in life come to mind most quickly. The rest seemed normal to me. But I think the defining moments were when I got married, that it is important to have peace in the family, support and help, and when I chose my business partners.
Being a hardworking man, I was always actively involved with others, regardless of the activity carried out. This quality of mine has led to many partnership offers from many people. The first to convince me was my partner, who is also a citizen, Boromiz. I didn't even know him that well, because when I left home at 15, he was 6 and we lived in different areas of the village. But I think that was a good sign. You can't choose your path in life, but your partners can and that's defining!
I am satisfied with the choices made in life. But even if I wasn't satisfied, what could I do? This is where stress comes from: when you are unhappy. For the most part, you have nothing left to change. What happened yesterday you can only note and possibly try to correct some other time. Many people because of this stress themselves, from the fact that they are constantly dissatisfied with something. If you managed to throw the stone into the water, for nothing! Ten smart people struggle to get it out.
And we mustn't forget that luck also matters a lot in life. I have been lucky all my life and luck has never eluded me because I faithfully applied the same rule: "Be content with both much and little".
6. How do you maintain work-life balance given that you are involved in such a demanding field?
First of all, you have to propose this to yourself. Also from my father I learned another important word: "purchase". This is what I try to convey to those around me: absolutely in any activity, anywhere, balance is the most important. We need look no further than nature. When there is balance, everything is quiet, peaceful. When the balance is broken, either a severe drought or a flood, it is woe! I don't think there's a more appropriate word, no matter what you do in life, than balance.
I have always aimed to be frugal, that is, to keep my balance. And I mostly succeeded. Again, even if I had failures, I was still satisfied.
7. In difficult times, what gives you the strength to move on? What motivates you?
Faith in God and balance. You don't have to lose your balance in difficult moments: you wait for them to pass. Like desert people caught in a sandstorm; they stop, take cover and wait for the storm to pass. If you are lucky enough not to get caught in the storm or the wave it is fine. If not, there's nothing you can do anyway. But here comes another important word: patience. You have patience for the difficult moment to pass, you keep calm and do not take rash actions.
8. Do you share the experiences and learnings acquired throughout your career with those around you, especially with young aspiring entrepreneurs? Is mentoring important in their development? Or should everyone find their own way?
Yes, mentorship is definitely important. It is good not to learn on your own, but to pay attention to what is happening around you. But it's not so important what I tell young people, it's more important what they want to understand and apply. For example, my son, for the most part, did not really listen, as if he wanted to butt his head, so to speak. It's more complicated that way. There are also young people who listen, young people who try to copy me. But I repeat: what is important is what they understand, not what I tell them.
I have had many situations where I have been called upon to tell them from my experience, in my simple way. Between 2000 and 2003, when the situation was complicated in the business environment, I was called by an association of economics students to talk. My advice to these young people was to be patient, that their time will come.
The most important thing in your career is to start from the bottom. Many aim for certain positions and most of the time they don't get there. If you have value, start from the bottom and you will reach the top. Don't leave college for an engineering job so that the workers laugh at you for being inexperienced. If you have the will and determination to do something, you will start from the position of an unskilled worker and you will reach the top. That way you will be supported and receive advice from all sides. And with time you will reach where you set out to be.
Unfortunately, today's young people are running out of patience. That's how society is today. They all want to live alone, to have a car immediately, a well-paid job, and around them the inequalities are much greater. In our time, inequalities were not so obvious. But it's not their fault, it's our fault. We have created a system that ultimately turns against us, all of us.
9. What does success really mean to you and how do you measure a person's success in life and business?
It's hard for me to define success. Everyone interprets it differently. As for me, I had 100 times more than my father, my child has 100 times more than me. But you know what the paradox is? He is the unhappy one! So everyone sees things differently.
But I think it's important to keep your balance and be calm. And you can provide this peace to those around you. I think I've said this a hundred times, which is that my first job at work, where in the last few years I coordinated about three hundred people, my first concern was always not to let my colleagues work with stress. And this for the simple reason that they work worse!
I say that would be success: being able to create a functional team. When the team works, there is no need for leaders. Of course, every team needs a team leader. Someone has to coordinate them, but also as a team member. I am not a follower of leaders; it's the team that has to function properly all the time. Because if one who thinks of himself as a leader disappears, the team must be able to take over the duties without problems. You must give your people confidence and freedom. It is very important. If you don't trust them, they will always work out of fear.
10. How do you see your role in the local community and what social initiatives or projects are you interested in supporting?
And these are random...First of all, you will never be able to solve all the problems and needs around you. I am of the opinion that the basic things should be done by the state, not left to chance, and I am referring here to education, culture, sports, health. These should be state priorities. Unfortunately, I see people coming and humiliating themselves for little things when the state should be solving them.
From my point of view, sports should come first. Education through sports is much healthier. I would only give grades at school based on attendance at sports classes, not on performance. Or there should be no grades at all, but the idea would be for everyone to do sports.
I come back to the question: we intervene randomly, depending on various situations, more that someone convinces us, and that's because you can't do them all. It happened, to our luck, to be able to participate in some actions that had a certain value in Sibiu, but I think that what you don't know is infinitely more than what you know, what you don't do is much more than what what are you doing. And then, what do we put in the balance? The little part with the big part?
We are generally interested in intervening where there are groups and especially where there are children. Children should be helped as much as possible. Because not all parents have the opportunity to help them, we intervene. As examples: we happened to be the main sponsors of his Statue Brukenthal from Sibiu, the emblem of the city, and our last action was the endowment of a bakery and pastry workshop at the High School of Food Industry in Sibiu, where I studied and trained as a baker and miller, a quite successful action in which they many people from the community participated. And this is very important: that people join hands and participate as much as possible in achieving such a goal.
11. What advice would you give to the young Mircea Ureche, at the beginning of his journey in the business world, knowing what you have learned and experienced so far?
The same things I took over 50 years ago: to work long and short, to be respectful and it is important, if possible, that this respect be mutual in the environment in which you work. Reciprocity is very important, otherwise we end up with another proverb: "Hit the bull that pulls". It is important for a team to function as a unified whole and for everyone to contribute to moving things forward, "to pull" in the same direction.
Other aspects depend on everyone's luck, on his path, mostly on himself, on how he benefits from certain opportunities that come to him in life, how he chooses them, how he orders and balances them. And it's important to learn from the one who knows. I couldn't give any other advice.
Interview conducted by Gabriela Dan, Editor of Arta Albă
Read on White Art and: Investment for the future – Inauguration of the new bakery-pastry line of the "Terezianum" High School in Sibiu
