Cornel Amariei: Ordinary people in the right context can do extraordinary deeds

"Raise your hand if you ever failed a class, keep it up if you failed two," is how distinguished inventor, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker Cornel Amariei began his address at Inspire 2024.

He went on to tell the story of how the first app he was involved in, Chemcraft, was developed after a school teacher, noticing Amariei and a classmate were failing Chemistry, invited them to use their love of computers instead.

The app went on to become the leading app of its kind in the world for some time and, as Amariei joked, allowed him and his classmate to pass their class.

What had immediately followed was a journey through Junior Achievement with the app. The finals of the international contest, which Chemcraft's creators' reached, by coincidence was being held in Amariei's hometown of Bucharest that year, which he revealed had been a bit dissapointing for two teenagers looking forward to travelling.

"We did not win the finals but we learnt the importance of using problems to motivate us and for a time, the leading Chemistry app in the world was something made by two failing Chemistry students," he said.

Amariei went on to tell his own personal story of being born the only one of his immediate family without a disability. He confided how the associated difficulties coupled with his strong curiosity from a young age continued his path to eventual success.

But, not before a high school prank led to encouragement from his headmaster and a lesson in the importance of support and the provision of context.

Now living in a dormitory at high school, he had invented a robot that could go into collapsed buildings and, one day, decided to give it a different mission, giving the boys a glimpse of a forbidden area, the girls' dormitories.

The school director found out but, instead of expelling Amariei, asked him to help create a school robotics club, the first in Romania in that year of 2008. This year, the same club was voted number one in the world in high school robotics.

"So very early in life, I learned that, most of the time failure is an opportunity, and that breaking the rules led to an educational revolution in Romania," he said.

Amariei then moved on to the invention he has become best known for, the .lumen device, which aids navigation for the visually impaired through sensory substitution techniques.

Asking the audience to participate in a short demonstation of how limiting vision impairment is, Amariei went on to explain how the .lumen device also provided the conext for its industrial designer Dr. Ciprian Mihnea to be recognised as one of the best industrial designers in the world.

"He was always one of the best industrial designers in the world, but this gave him the context that led to his recognition as one, Amariei explained, encouraging those who were able to, inlcuding but not limited to educators, to help provide this context to others.

"Why did we succeed?," he continued, "Because we did it to help people, we did not care about the money. Make meaning, not money. If you help people, you will inevitably get to money."

The three main points he wanted to lave the audince with were:

Failure, most of the time, is opportunity in disguise.

Ordinary people in the right context can do extraordinary things. Give them context.

With everything you do, make meaning, not money. Money will come after.

Amariei was introduced by Project Coorindators at Junior Achievement Cyprus (JA Cyprus) Marios Kakouris and Eleni Tovletian, the Stage Masters of the Gen A Stage at Inspire 2024.

Cornel Amariei

Cornel Amariei, the CEO at .lumen, is a Forbes U30 EU, Global Business Hall of Fame Laureate, and one of JCI's Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World.

A distinguished Romanian inventor, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker, Amariei is known for his significant contributions to assistive technology and robotics.

He earned his Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Robotics, from Technische Universität München (TUM) in 2016. Amariei is the CEO and Founder of .lumen, a company he started in 2017 that focuses on developing assistive technologies for visually impaired individuals. His most notable invention is the .lumen device, which aids navigation for the visually impaired through sensory substitution techniques. Prior to founding .lumen, he worked as an Innovation and R&D Engineer at Continental AG from 2015 to 2018, where he contributed to the development of several patents and advanced automotive technologies. Cornel has been recognized with numerous awards, including being named in Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in 2018, receiving the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 honor in 2019, and being awarded EY Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Romania in 2018.

Don't miss the opportunity to participate in one of the most dynamic festivals ever held in Cyprus, Inspire 2024.

Discussions, podcasts, masterclasses and an atmosphere full of live music, cocktails and street food promise an experience that will inspire and motivate you to realize your professional and personal goals.

Inspire 2024 is not just a festival; it is an experience that combines business, entertainment and social interaction, creating a platform for knowledge exchange and inspiration for all participants.

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