"My strategy was to go full speed ahead like a tractor or a tank and everything I dreamt at night I tried to do the next day. Every month I was risking everything I had gained. Almost all my money was invested in highly risky things."

This is how Marius Cristescu, 40, one of Romania’s biggest industrialists, describes his start in business, with the businessman coming to control, together with his brother, Emil Cristescu, a group of firms with turnover worth 350m euros last year and employing around 10,000 people.

He started in 1990 with a kiosk in Timisoara student complex and by yearend had opened another shop or two.

It took him 100 German marks to open the first family association and he also used a Fiat car he’d bought in Germany with 1,000 marks. After a period spent in Germany, where he took many odd jobs, he returned to Romania and started his career as a retailer in the yard of the complex where he was a student. "(…) When I graduated from the faculty of medicine I already had 300 employees and teachers used to call me and say what I was doing had no future. In the fourth year I already knew I’d never be a doctor because my dreams were elsewhere," recalls Cristescu. He says the mistakes he made along the way did not discourage him.

He brought his brother into his business when he could no longer handle things on his own.

The businessman then expanded his activity with a footwear factory, several associations and petrol stations and finally built the first plant.

He recalls how he made the first million marks by selling TV sets. At that time, he used to sell almost anything because, he says, there was a huge shortage on the market. This was also due to the fact that there were no commercial spaces at that time.

"However, I saw production was the core. Gradually, we started buying either suppliers or some of our benefici