Discurs pg1-4

Side-uri pg5
Parti scoase pg6

Discurs final + Tedx Pitch

1). Hi! My name is Vadim Radu Toader and Im here today to talk to you about Alzheimer
and how terrible of a disease it is.
To realize what this means imagine losing your brain cells. <powerpoint slide losing brain
cells>
You start by losing your words, your thoughts. Then, you lose memories, you lose your friends.
You lose your ability to communicate, your language, yourself.
And the worst thing is that you cant do anything about it, that you are completely defenceless.
Once you have it, you know it's only going to get worse and worse. Quite terrible, ha?
Now imagine this happening to a country. It starts by losing all its brain cells - its elites. This
leads to a drop in culture, art, politicians, it starts losing its mathematicians, its inventors, its
writers, economists, its creators of tomorrow, it starts losing its language, its stability, and
finally, it loses itself.
These are the dramatic brain drain effects. And the worst part of them, is that it cant be stopped.
Quite the contrary actually, once a country reaches a low enough life standard to lose its elites it
enters a vicious circle (. which comes from poor government and scarce resources.) Because, the
more elites it loses, the less able people would be left to advice the government, the worse the
situation will become so even more elites will leave creating a never ending vicious spiral to a
countries downfall.
2). Ive started to wonder why this happens.
And I think it has something to do with the word country. <powerpoint slide country>
Imagine the word in front of You. You - that's another magic word. If you look closely, you'll see
its embedded in country. If you take o,u and y out, you form "you". What's left doesn't seem
much: cntr. However, if we add the letters "o,o,l and s" and the previously mentioned low level
of economy, which translates into low salaries and badly motivated teachers, then it becomes
quite easy to feel that leaving in such a country will limit your future. That such a country will
control your path in life, will limit your from reaching your full potential, your dreams. So what
do you do

3).But I'm too young to accept such a tragic faith! So I started wondering if there's
anything we can do to change this?
Over the last summer I realized that we can. I realized this in the "Dare! Fulfill your dreams"
campaign. For me, this was a test to conquer my mountain of fears, my "I can't" mountain - a
mountain you may know as Mt. Kilimanjaro. I say mountain of fears because, two months before
the expedition, I had no climbing experience, no physical training and no money. But we didn't
give up, and 2 months later we succeeded/ At only 21 years of age, I've lived my dream. And
since then, I can say that I started to live life differently.
However, it wasn't Kilimanjaro that changed me. Romanians did! When I got back I was
surprised to see how many people I have never met before started telling me how I have changed
their lives. How I made her realize how superficial she has been. How now they have the power,
confidence and will to do what they wanted for years. How they now DARE to try! At first I was
shocked! I didn't even know what to answer back: "Thank you!" or "That's amazing! Go do it!"
So I answered: Thank you. That's amazing. Go and do it!
-More about how many people
-tell how this is a thing you realized through which you can empower the people again!
-through elites and by sharing their great stories to inspire people.

4). But, apparently, I'm not the first one to think of this. This autumn I heard about
GRASP, an organisation that has been doing this for 4 years.
When I met the first GRASPers, I knew I belonged amongst them. First of all, because these
people, may not climb mountains, but they move them every day.
Second, because GRASP is not one Kilimanjaro campaign, but a continuous series of projects
like it. By organizing summer schools for tomorrow's diplomatic leaders, by the support it gives
to students through the Mentorship for Success program, by caring for young entrepreneurs
through the Start Up Your Idea campaign, GRASP aims to fix Romania's biggest problem: braindraining .
Since Romania is an ex-communist country, with average universities and low salaries, the
brightest people emigrate to study at top universities and never come back. By continuously
losing its elites, Romania's situation will only get worse and worse.
GRASP has identified this to be simply a problem of motivation. It believes that Romania can
and will change, it just currently lacks the motivation to do so. But how do you motivate an
entire nation? Easy, with the power of example. By showing that its people achieve greatness

every day. Where do you find these examples? Hmmm guess! If you answered the very elites
that initially left the country, then Bingo! But how do you motivate the motivators? How do
you motivate people that study day and night to get the top scores at Harvard, MIT, or people
that hold high positions in companies like Google or IMF to take time off and volunteer for your
cause.

You might think it's with a great big whip. We torture them until they accept.
Actually, no!
Ironically, they don't need to be motivated. It turns out, that no matter how big your success or
salary is, if you feel that your home, your nation, your very roots are falling apart and you play a
role in that, you will never feel accomplished.
To get them involved, we simply promote their stories of sacrifice, hard work and success, and
show them how those inspire Romanians to also reach for greatness. Even the loved ones they
left behind. Tell them how much power they have over the people back home.
5)Such a simple change of perspective made over 100 elites join GRASP in less than 4
years. - and gave birth to the Project Romania 2020.Since, they have been helping GRASP not
only stop Romania's brain drain effect, but fight to educate the people, improve Romania's image
world-wide and, finally, create a social bridge between Romanians abroad and those loved ones
they left back home.
6)The projects through which GRASP wants to remove Romania from this vicious circle of
brain-draining by 2020, are:
a)Mentorship for Success - where with the aid of videos, skype conferences and face 2 face
meeting, people - normal people like you and me - can be inspired to reach for the impossible as
well as obtain the needed know how to get there, by talking to an elite that has achieved a similar
path.
- Example of me getting into Oxford
b)Start-up you Idea - where we sprinkle eager Romanians entrepreneurs with our elites'
experience and know-how obtained from the most prestigious Business Schools around the
world, such as HBS, Oxford Said Business School, LSE
c)Young Diplo - Academic and political experts from around the world in the field of Economy
and Diplomacy come to summer schools to train our current fleet of students on how to become
our future fleet of politicians. Besides this we aim to offer our students internships in embassies
and chambers of commerce to give them a chance to apply what they learned, but also grasp the
benefits of a hands on approach.

And many more.

7)These programs teach Romanians a simple, but very powerful lesson. Because they show
the people that the power lies in their hands. These programs are a live lesson, that it is not the
country that controls you, but you control you. And since a country is just a bigger version you.
You start to see that it is actually you who controls the country! And by switching the control
arrow, you stop motivating people to leave the country, and start making the to come back.
Because the start seeing the potential in Romania and want to see it happen.
8)Important - Now does this mean that we have a cure for Alzeihmer?
No, were not even doctors. However, we can twist it. What if all those brain cells that left, came
back and told you. Hey I managed to invent a new type of linear particle accelerator to replace
the outdated one from CERN, Geneva. And I'm just a cell. If I could do that, then maybe you and
all your thousand of brain cells should get off your lazy Alzeihmer ass and instead of losing
memories, make new ones! Reobtain a perfect 10 at the Gymnastics Olympics. Don't just admire
sculpture, but create incredible sculptures, like Brancusi did. Don't just try to recite poetry, but
write the most beautiful poetry once again, like Eminescu. If you can't be the old you, just go out
there and make a better you!
9)Now you might say: why do I care? How does this help me? Well, in everything I've just
said, replace Romania with Eastern Europe or even the Eastern World. I believe you will come to
see that we all share the same problem. Or is it the same opportunity?
Thank you!

Slide-uri
1) Alzheimer -losing brain cells
2) Alzeihmer country- losing its elites
3) COUntrY controls you
4) Kilimanjaro
5) Idea - light bulb!
6) GRASP - logo photo of website
7) How do you motivate an entire nation?

8) The whip
9) Promoting stories of success
10) 100 elites join GRASP - photo conference
11) Projects to sustain Romania 2020
12) You control the country - animation of switching the arrow
13) Cure for Alzeihmer
14) No.
15) However - small cell into a light bulb - a few cells into a great shinning light
16) Nadia - Brancusi - Eminescu
17) Romania coloured red in a world map
18) Eastern World - coloured red
19) Opportunity -all coloured green

! You see, at first I wanted to climb the mountain because I was competitive and selfish. Then, I
felt confidence, from Roxana and Claudia, my climbing colleagues. I felt love and support, from
my parents, my friends and some Romanians that I didn't even know. They heard of my attempt
and were moved by what I was trying to do. That's when I've changed. Then I started climbing
the mountain for them, their dreams, for Romanians everywhere, for Romania. With each step I
did, I felt like giving a bit of confidence to each of them to fulfill their dreams. To show them
that if I can, they can too! That's what made me reach the top - Uhuru Peak. 5896 m. -Mai putin
romantism, mai mult de ce pentru ei.

Diaspora voteaza - make it possible for elites around the world to vote, and so to get better
elected politicians. Better system to promote better values
You could benefit greatly by applying the GRASP philosophy in your own country. And it
would be our pleasure to help, by telling you exactly how GRASP will change Romania by 2020,
and the projects, conferences and workshops through which it aims to do so. But for that, I'm
afraid you're going to have to invite us to the actual conference.

TEDx Pitch
Hello. My name is Vadim - Radu Toader - President of the Oxford Romanian Society and I
would like to talk to you about GRASP - the Global Romanian Society of Young Professionals which became a small factory of hope, when it turned Romania's biggest problem into its most
successful advantage.
To start with, I would like to say that I believe one of the key facts in life is motivation.
Ironically, in Romania, the words you grow up hearing are "No. Don't try! You'll fail!. This is a
belief which I continuously refused to accept. Even though I am from a small town in Eastern
Romania, I was the first one of my small town to get accepted into Oxford University. Even
though I had no climbing experience, no physical condition and no money, 6 months ago I
created the "Dare! Fulfil your dreams" motivational campaign, in which I climbed mount
Kilimanjaro - the tallest mountain in Africa.