Two words perfectly describe the woman who leads Mentor Finance in Romania: optimism and ambition. She kept both while making a new life in Romania.

Osnat Peled is Israeli and has been living in Romania for ten years. Unlike many expats on temporary assignments, she plans to stay here. She went through big life changes, made a new life in Romania, and stayed optimistic.

If there is one thing she learned from working with money is that nothing is too hard or impossible.

“Every day is a day in Romania,” she says. There are bad days, good days, challenging days, but nothing seems to be important enough to make her want to leave the country. She loves Romania. But Romania was not so easy at first.

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She has always been an active person, with little free time. While still in university, she decided she wanted to work and not study that much. And she didn’t get one job, but three: she was a bookstore manager, branch manager at a volunteering youth organization and part-time teacher during a semi-scholarship.

That’s when she discovered that she wanted to focus on business. So, after she finished the university, she continued her studies for a secondary diploma in business training and consultancy. She also started working for an insurance company as training and business development manager.

It was not enough. Osnat Peled was dreaming of being self-employed. After two years, in 2000, her dream came true: she opened her own company active in business development and training.

It was going well when she got a job offer in Romania. That was when she took one of the most important decisions in her life. She sold her business and moved to Bucharest. It was a good decision, she says.

“I was not afraid because I knew that I can always come back. I was still young, and I could start again. It didn’t happen, I never thought of coming back, as I fell in love with this place. Challenges are everywhere, but I am happy here,” she says.

When coming to Romania she found that working with Romanians is different than working with Israelis. So she had to change her management methods and her behavior.

“In Israel we have a more direct approach, a little bit aggressive, we say it in the face, but here, no. I remember that the first time I spoke to one of my workers and I gave a direct feedback he started to cry. Maybe because of my tone, I was not yet adapted, it was one of my first months. And that’s when I realized I didn’t know everything. But now it’s ok.”

The pace is also different in Romania. Back home, in Israel, things are done “not yesterday, but the day before.” Not the same in Romania. Here, things take a little bit more time and go through several steps.

“The time is different, the rhythm is different,” she admits. The approach is also different. A creative person with solutions for every problem, Peled met some not so optimistic Romanians, even clients.

“I think there is always a solution, there is always a way. Yes, there are costs, but there is always a way. It took me some time to push this approach to my clients, to my partners, to the staff. Don’t give up so fast! There is always a solution!”

Besides these differences, Osnat Peled loves almost everything about Romania: from the people and the food to the shopping advantages and even the legislation. “Sometimes, I think you have better legislation than we have in Israel. You have order. For example, in Israel, if the child is sick, the parents can still send the child to school. Here, if my child is sick, there is a doctor at the school who will not allow him to attend classes. This is correct, that is how it should be.”

She also finds Romania to be a more relaxed and safe place than Israel, which is a country with many problems, as she describes it. The country’s war issue brings a lot of stress in the community, which affects people and their lives there. So, for an Israeli expat, Romania was a breath of fresh air from all that: no stress, no threats. Still, the roads and the traffic in Bucharest are among Peled's least favorite in Romania.

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Even now, Osnat Peled has little time for herself. She works with money and leading a financing company takes time and energy. She has to be ready to make a lot of changes, find solutions, convince people that her ideas can help them attract the money they need. The little free time she has, she spends it with her family - her kids are her biggest personal accomplishment in life - or running. She now manages to run 7 km, but she wants to achieve more.

Having traveled quite a lot thanks to her job, her favorite place is still....Romania. Every time she has the chance, Peled takes her family to the Brasov-Zarnesti-Predeal mountain area. Not for skiing, as most people do. For the fresh air and long mountain trips. “I think it is one of the most beautiful places in the world,” she says.

Although she specializes in management, she doesn’t like to manage. She would rather have things done than spend time “on other people’s heads”. That is why she works with people who know their jobs and manage themselves.

“I do manage, but it’s not something that I like to do. I prefer to actually do the work, for us to work as a team on things, and not for me to manage them.”

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com