Beginning of my entrepreneurship – I was paranoid!

When you move to completely new country, you feel that the only way to feel safe is to work. There are many distractions which might get in the way of your essential work duties –  such as vacation, alcohol, ladies, hobbies – you wouldn’t believe but people like to have a fun just after their business starts, and they feel that the business is doing well but without stable income and with limited savings you must stay alert and constantly work to succeed!

I have been off and on outside of the Czech Republic since 2006. However, the permanent move was in 2007 when I would study at three different universities at the same time. There would be one week when I would have to leave my apartment on Tuesday morning, pass an exam at the Gebze Technical University, fly to Prague to change summer clothes for winter clothes and fly to Oulu (the University of Applied Science in Oulu), Finland, where I would have to take an exam on Thursday afternoon. I would also study at Mendel University at the same time. My habit was to keep it up and get it done. I would never be capable of being satisfied with 90% regardless of the complexity of my system; I would always do 100%.

This habit has shaped my skills that it enabled me to forge ahead even this if it meant to stay out of my comfort zone for many years. If I look back,  I was without vacation for ten years! I was just running like crazy to make sure that I will not miss the boat.

When I moved to Hong Kong back in 2011, I was already experienced; however, all my previous money were invested in the Nopal business which we started back in 2008.

So I moved to Hong Kong, and there would be another period of my life when I would work very hard forge ahead five years without vacation or a single day off. I would be so afraid that I am not doing enough that I came up with unique formula:

Overtimes – 6 hours every working day – let say we usually have 225 working days in a year, times 6 hours a day = 1,350 extra hours per year

Paid Employee Holidays – 20 days times 15 hours = 300 hours – I would not take a single day off.

Weekends – there 52 weekends – 110 days in 52 weekends – I would work at least 10 hours every weekend. 110 days times 5 hours = 550 hours

Public Holidays – 10 days – 10 days times 15 hours = 150 hours (I would consider the public holiday as normal working day)

In this way, I spent extra 2,350 hours what I would have done compared to a regular schedule.

I did this practically from 2011 until 2015. Five years times  2350 hours extra per year = 11,750 extra hours/8 hours (normal working days has 8 hours) = 1,469 extra days. If we convert it to the working days considering 225 working days, I would work  6.6 extra years in this period 2011-2015.

This is how I achieved what I have built.

I would be very paranoid if I wouldn’t be working. It is just the habit I have build over the years. Even if the business is doing well after the first year, I wouldn’t really believe that It would be consistent if I would work less than 20 hours per week. I need to be there, I need to talk to my clients, coming up with marketing strategy, building up a product, hiring, making deals and developing my dream.

The picture above demonstrates my first working vacation back in February 2016. I still worked 5 hours every day on my vacation. Crazy? Mabe. Rewarding? In more ways than one. 🙂