The way to create a miracle is to believe that you can do it. The rest is easy.

~ Nicolae Iorga, Romanian writer and philosopher

A few weeks ago, in our post on Romania, we highlighted Diana Doroftei and her book on the country, which helped us learn about her homeland.  Today, however, we’re learning more about Diana, her story and her life as an entrepreneur and author.

While life for Diana is pretty rosy now, having her book reach #1 on Amazon for its category and a job at a strategic management consultancy, it wasn’t always that way. She first started supporting herself at age 16 and in her first year in college took a summer trip to the U.S. with promise of work and the chance to pursue the American dream. The job she was promised, turned out to be a sham and she was left 10,000 miles from home and nearly homeless. With a lot of hard work and perseverance, however, she managed to find another job and support herself for the rest of the summer. Even after that experience in the U.S., Diana still had the desire to return and in 2009 she moved to New York City where she now lives and continues to dream.

On her blog she keeps a bucket list of 100 things she hopes to do in her lifetime including: visiting all 50 U.S. States (she’s reached just over half), appearing on a magazine cover, and eating at the underwater restaurant in the Maldives.

Interested in learning more about Diana and how she uses about.me? Read her answers below to see how she takes advantage of the platform.

Eliana: What made you sign up for about.me?

Diana: I signed up for about.me after seeing the email signature of one of my friends, Melissa. The next moment I knew, I started playing around with pictures, words, colors and fonts and within 30 minutes I had a beautiful page that represented me as a whole person, work and personal. That was two or three years ago…

E: What’s your favorite feature on the platform?

D: I absolutely loooove the full-blown picture feature. I think and speak in pictures, so for me every user’s background picture speaks a thousand words.

E: How are you using the platform on other digital mediums?

D: I have my about.me page featured in my email signature. It is set up in my personal email as well as my work email.

E: How do “visuals” play into your day-to-day life?

D: I use lots of visuals in everything I do. That’s how many people consume information rapidly. Recently, I worked on an eLearning platform for a major corporation and visuals played a major role in everything we did. On the personal side, I take lots of pictures and videos for my personal blog where I share life stories and my bucket list.

E: Have you used about.me to connect with others on the platform?

D: Yes, I’ve made quite a few wonderful connections with people. I’ve been added to some boards (e.g. People to follow up with, Writers, Entrepreneurs), which is another great feature that I enjoy. This has caused my page to be visited by thousands of users. As a result of this, my network has grown considerably in the last few months.

E: Advice for people making an about.me page?

D: You never get the second chance to make a first impression, online or offline. Find the best picture of yourself and bring the whole You into the game. We are so much more than our work, our Facebook pages, our LinkedIn profiles and our Instagram pictures. We are all of these and a lot of other things… and that’s what I think the about.me platform allows us to do in a very easy and fun way—present a whole You.