# Transcript: How to build a company to last 500 years, where trees are the currency?

## Description

Our guest will show you why short-term strategies kill companies and their founders, how to survive crises, and why experimentation and the courage to take risks are not options but necessities. If you want your company to have value for your great-grandchildren, start thinking differently – today.



Who is Richard Krajník



Richard Krajník is the founder of the Sázíme Česko project, where he connects business with nature and builds a company with a 500-year vision through marketing and PR "in the forest."

## Transcript

**[00:00:00]** Hello and good day, my name is Hrubý Hrubý.

**[00:00:04]** Hello and good day, my name is Hrubý Hrubý.

**[00:00:08]** Hello and good day, my name is Hrubý Hrubý.

**[00:00:12]** Hello and good day, my name is Hrubý Hrubý.

**[00:00:16]** Hello and good day, my name is Hrubý Hrubý.

**[00:00:20]** Hello and good day, my name is Hrubý Hrubý.

**[00:00:24]** Hello and good day, my name is Hrubý Hrubý.

**[00:00:28]** Hello and good day, my name is Honza Mašek.

**[00:00:32]** We are here at another Brain & Breakfast.

**[00:00:36]** Thank you very much to everyone who made the trip here to Arkády Pankrác

**[00:00:40]** to the Magenta Experience Center.

**[00:00:44]** A big hello to everyone watching us live,

**[00:00:48]** whether you are at school, in a library, in a coworking space,

**[00:00:52]** or at some company.

**[00:00:56]** So, greetings to Zonentor and other companies who really take this seriously.

**[00:01:00]** This is a classic breakfast.

**[00:01:04]** Some of you who have been following these breakfasts for a while might know that

**[00:01:08]** about two hands ago we also made a clone of these business breakfasts,

**[00:01:12]** but this one is the classic, meant to broaden our horizons,

**[00:01:16]** and none of this would happen without our partners,

**[00:01:20]** which is frutissimo, to whom we owe a great and healthy breakfast,

**[00:01:24]** which unfortunately those of you watching live cannot enjoy,

**[00:01:28]** but that makes the offer even more tempting for you to consider coming next time.

**[00:01:32]** It’s Slajdu, a partner for interaction, so please,

**[00:01:36]** get your mobile phones ready, you will need them,

**[00:01:40]** we will definitely want to ask you something, but at the same time you can

**[00:01:44]** ask today’s guest a question. This is the already mentioned

**[00:01:48]** Magenta Experience Center, which we thank for this great environment,

**[00:01:52]** and the QR code you see there will take you to the newsletter

**[00:01:56]** Seat Red Button, called Shortcut.

**[00:02:00]** Seat Red Button is behind not only this little stunt,

**[00:02:04]** but many other mischiefs, so if you’re interested in

**[00:02:08]** what Seat Red Button does, this is definitely the key

**[00:02:12]** to find out.

**[00:02:16]** Now I’ll invite you to either

**[00:02:20]** scan this QR code or enter

**[00:02:24]** www.slajdu.com hashtag Brain.

**[00:02:28]** For those of you watching us live,

**[00:02:32]** you have the Slajdu screen below the one

**[00:02:36]** where you see me now, and I’ve already put it there

**[00:02:40]** the first question, which is

**[00:02:44]** classic, I always ask at the beginning, whether

**[00:02:48]** you have already had breakfast, or if you are having breakfast with us,

**[00:02:52]** or if this is your first time having breakfast with us, either virtually,

**[00:02:56]** or physically. So please vote.

**[00:03:00]** And I'll wait, I'll wait,

**[00:03:04]** but actually we don't have to, I'll just let it run for a moment.

**[00:03:08]** And now I'll invite our guest to the stage.

**[00:03:12]** That is Richard Krajník.

**[00:03:16]** He's someone I didn't meet in the forest, but we had several ways in the forest.

**[00:03:20]** Hi Richard, welcome here. I'm looking forward

**[00:03:24]** to your lecture, and you should look forward too, it's yours, you have an hour,

**[00:03:28]** and then we'll talk about what you said.

**[00:03:32]** Thanks a lot, Honza. Hi, welcome here. Today

**[00:03:36]** we'll look into the forest. I want you to relax today

**[00:03:40]** and have this really feel like a Thursday morning when you have time for yourself.

**[00:03:44]** We'll look into the forest and it will be relaxing. In the forest, we use informal address,

**[00:03:48]** so here I'd ask you to use informal address with me. When you're on the slide,

**[00:03:52]** please use informal address. I'm Richard once again, and now

**[00:03:56]** we can say we know each other.

**[00:04:00]** So first, the topic of the lecture is how to build a company

**[00:04:04]** to last 500 years, where trees are paid. I'm not 530,

**[00:04:08]** I'm 30. So I don't have a 500-year-old company yet,

**[00:04:12]** but I'm aiming for that. I'm building the values so that I

**[00:04:16]** can realistically achieve that the company outlives me, outlives

**[00:04:20]** nature in some way, and especially outlives

**[00:04:24]** future generations to come. That's why 500 years,

**[00:04:28]** and all the values I'll talk about today,

**[00:04:32]** I think they point in that direction. Maybe not, maybe I'm wrong,

**[00:04:36]** but I believe this is the right way.

**[00:04:40]** We plant Czechia, doing business for nature. We are one

**[00:04:44]** of the first companies, I say, in Europe, that

**[00:04:48]** does business for nature without subsidies or grants.

**[00:04:52]** We are among the first to create a nature positive business.

**[00:04:56]** There are 10 of us in the company, mostly IT people,

**[00:05:00]** marketers and so on, and

**[00:05:04]** we don't just protect what we created, because we're not a manufacturing company,

**[00:05:08]** but our output is trees in nature. Today we've

**[00:05:12]** planted over 400,000 and so after these three years we have some experience

**[00:05:16]** and I can say this model actually works.

**[00:05:20]** We verified that the idea works and that it functions.

**[00:05:24]** I have the first question for you.

**[00:05:28]** Have you ever planted a tree?

**[00:05:32]** It's kind of like a nod.

**[00:05:36]** Alright, I'll share a secret about myself in the meantime.

**[00:05:40]** I planted my first tree a week before our first official planting.

**[00:05:44]** Until then, I didn't know how to plant a tree, I'd never done it,

**[00:05:48]** I never knew how, but the story behind it is that we launched

**[00:05:52]** Sázíme Česko as such, and it took off relatively quickly.

**[00:05:56]** And sometime around September or October, we said, wow, I actually

**[00:06:00]** have probably never planted a tree. How is it done?

**[00:06:04]** So I found a planting spot nearby in the north with another organization,

**[00:06:08]** I went there and said, okay, like this, like this, like this, this can be improved,

**[00:06:12]** great, we did it a week later and it was even better and it was great.

**[00:06:16]** So planting a tree is actually quite simple once you learn how.

**[00:06:20]** And one more technical thing.

**[00:06:24]** This is just for the viewers, do you know how to plant a tree properly?

**[00:06:28]** It's simple here, when you take it,

**[00:06:32]** here's the stem, the roots, this way down.

**[00:06:36]** If you plant it like this, it grows badly, that's the only thing.

**[00:06:40]** Alright, quickly, in short, Sázíme Česko in numbers.

**[00:06:44]** We've been on the market for three and a half years, more than 850 companies are part of the process.

**[00:06:48]** Sázíme Česko is a holding of several companies, one of them is

**[00:06:52]** B2CVTF, which means you can come to our website, buy a tree,

**[00:06:56]** buy a hoodie, a cap, and similar items.

**[00:07:00]** For everything, trees are planted. Once a tree is planted,

**[00:07:04]** you receive GPS coordinates showing where the tree was planted.

**[00:07:08]** The second branch is IT, we create IT add-ons for e-shops,

**[00:07:12]** so that any e-shop can offer its customers

**[00:07:16]** the option to plant a tree in the Czech Republic.

**[00:07:20]** It is connected to a standard checkout system so that once a customer buys a tree,

**[00:07:24]** they receive a certificate with the company's logo, and once the tree is planted,

**[00:07:28]** they get GPS coordinates. There are no other marketing gimmicks.

**[00:07:32]** It's purely about building a relationship with the customer so they know

**[00:07:36]** the tree is planted somewhere here in the Czech Republic.

**[00:07:40]** And I try to bring the value of the forest closer, so it really sinks

**[00:07:44]** into the customer's fingertips, so they can truly feel it.

**[00:07:48]** This is the second branch. The third branch operates like a classic marketing agency.

**[00:07:52]** Only our currency is trees. I can manage your social media,

**[00:08:00]** We can manage your PPC, run campaigns, but it won't cost

**[00:08:04]** you a flat 70 thousand crowns, it will cost a thousand trees. That's our currency for everything.

**[00:08:08]** I sell that tree to the public for 87 crowns, planting it

**[00:08:12]** costs me 20 to 25 crowns including a sausage snack.

**[00:08:16]** That means we have some margin to make it work as a business,

**[00:08:20]** to pay people, cover all expenses,

**[00:08:24]** and continue to grow the company and so on.

**[00:08:28]** Just quickly in short, we've planted about,

**[00:08:32]** I think today it's over 40 forests,

**[00:08:36]** 420 thousand trees. The goal is to plant millions more trees

**[00:08:40]** in the Czech Republic and the long-term vision is to build

**[00:08:44]** private national parks. I believe protecting nature

**[00:08:48]** is very right and great, but fundamentally, if we only protect,

**[00:08:52]** we're protecting what's left. I want to create.

**[00:08:56]** So some build houses, some build bridges, I want to build nature.

**[00:09:00]** That's my dream.

**[00:09:04]** Now let's look at the individual values

**[00:09:08]** that guide us in the company and how we operate.

**[00:09:12]** Honza wrote me yesterday saying he wants to see lots of smiling people from the forest in the presentation,

**[00:09:16]** so okay, I'll quickly add that.

**[00:09:20]** So during this presentation you'll see many enthusiastic people

**[00:09:24]** planting trees. It will definitely look like this when we visit the forest together.

**[00:09:28]** These are photos from our team buildings.

**[00:09:32]** We hold about 20 to 25 events each planting season,

**[00:09:36]** meaning spring and autumn. We always visit the forest

**[00:09:40]** and do various team buildings and volunteer events.

**[00:09:44]** On Sundays we even do speed dating, so if you want, you can sign up for forest speed dating.

**[00:09:48]** Just a quick joke of mine.

**[00:09:52]** The tree is planted by taking the seedling, sticking it into the ground,

**[00:09:56]** sticking it in, planting the tree, and moving on.

**[00:10:00]** Our internal motto is that everyone plants with us.

**[00:10:04]** So if you want, come plant with us on Sunday.

**[00:10:08]** Nature is our biggest stakeholder.

**[00:10:14]** I believe that whatever you do, whether you make kitchens,

**[00:10:18]** floors, or anything else you produce,

**[00:10:22]** our primary resource is always nature.

**[00:10:28]** Even if you provide services to people, humans are still part of nature,

**[00:10:32]** nature is always the primary resource.

**[00:10:36]** If nature isn't here, neither will humans be.

**[00:10:42]** Even the resources, and over the long term from evolution, we see,

**[00:10:46]** that whenever humans exhausted a resource, they moved on and kept going.

**[00:10:50]** That's why I say nature is our biggest stakeholder,

**[00:10:54]** whether you like it or not. It's part of our companies,

**[00:10:57]** it's part of our society, and I think

**[00:11:01]** that today we've reached a point

**[00:11:04]** where we are such an extremely advanced society,

**[00:11:07]** that I believe we no longer want to just take from nature.

**[00:11:11]** We should be creating it.

**[00:11:14]** David Attenborough said that today we are so powerful,

**[00:11:18]** that we decide the fate of nature.

**[00:11:21]** So we hold the fate of ourselves and nature in our hands.

**[00:11:25]** Nature will always provide, but it can do so with us or without us.

**[00:11:29]** And I think we've reached a point

**[00:11:32]** where it's time to create nature, not just protect what's left.

**[00:11:37]** That's why I say Sázíme Česko is building a company for 500 years.

**[00:11:42]** 500 years from nature's perspective is a tiny blink.

**[00:11:46]** It's a very short time.

**[00:11:48]** But for us as humans, it's an unimaginable span.

**[00:11:53]** When you think about what a company will look like in 500 years,

**[00:11:56]** you know I definitely won't be here in 70 years.

**[00:12:00]** And suddenly it makes you think differently.

**[00:12:04]** Both ecologically and economically.

**[00:12:08]** When we founded the company, I thought,

**[00:12:11]** I want it to be sustainable.

**[00:12:15]** Not everyone understands the word sustainable.

**[00:12:18]** To me, sustainable means

**[00:12:21]** it can operate on its own, independent of me,

**[00:12:25]** the people in the company, or other entities.

**[00:12:30]** So basically, I said, what has worked here

**[00:12:34]** for more than a hundred years?

**[00:12:37]** The mechanism where we deliver value to the market

**[00:12:41]** and someone is willing to pay us for it.

**[00:12:44]** And we said OK, that means we have to do business.

**[00:12:47]** So what kind of business will we do?

**[00:12:50]** We have to solve people's problems, so that we can solve people's problems,

**[00:12:54]** whether it's marketing, customer relations,

**[00:12:59]** They will be very happy to pay us for that.

**[00:13:02]** And the only currency we have for everything is simply a tree.

**[00:13:06]** So automatically, when we solve people's problems,

**[00:13:11]** we can always pour money back into nature.

**[00:13:13]** And it's not dependent on subsidies, not dependent on grants,

**[00:13:16]** not dependent on the economy.

**[00:13:18]** We will always be able to solve the problem and pour money into nature from that.

**[00:13:22]** And that somehow fulfills the idea,

**[00:13:26]** that I don't really care if in the holding we plant Czechia,

**[00:13:31]** there will be a company doing financial consulting for trees,

**[00:13:35]** or a company that only organizes events,

**[00:13:38]** or glamping, or a gym in the forest.

**[00:13:41]** It actually becomes kind of irrelevant.

**[00:13:43]** Because we deliver value to the market and from that we pour money into nature.

**[00:13:47]** That's the main thing, that's sustainable, and that's what we're aiming for.

**[00:13:54]** Products and strategies change.

**[00:13:56]** The purpose remains.

**[00:14:00]** That's exactly what I just said.

**[00:14:03]** I don't really care if today's strategy to plant more trees is a PPC campaign or solving a company's problem.

**[00:14:07]** It doesn't really matter.

**[00:14:15]** The purpose stays with me.

**[00:14:16]** I want to create nature.

**[00:14:18]** And whether the final product for me is a tree,

**[00:14:21]** or a bush, or saving a single dolphin,

**[00:14:24]** or removing a kilo of plastic,

**[00:14:27]** I guess it doesn't really matter to me either.

**[00:14:31]** But the inner purpose fulfills me.

**[00:14:33]** And I came to the point that relatively recently,

**[00:14:36]** about a year, a year and a half ago,

**[00:14:40]** I wrote down memories from my childhood, what I remember from my head.

**[00:14:42]** I said to myself, I won't look at photos,

**[00:14:47]** I won't watch any videos,

**[00:14:49]** I'll write down what I remember directly from my head.

**[00:14:51]** And I divided it into three categories.

**[00:14:55]** I had a swimming category because I swam competitively for 12 years.

**[00:14:57]** I had a school category and a family category.

**[00:15:01]** And of course, from swimming, I remembered all the pools across the country,

**[00:15:06]** but none of the cities.

**[00:15:10]** From school, I didn't remember much.

**[00:15:12]** And when I wrote down family experiences,

**[00:15:15]** I was surprised that there weren't many things,

**[00:15:21]** that I would remember from the apartment.

**[00:15:23]** When we lived in the apartment building, we actually had a normal apartment.

**[00:15:26]** And there weren't really that many memories from that apartment.

**[00:15:29]** Most of those memories came from nature.

**[00:15:32]** I grew up in Krupka near Teplice,

**[00:15:35]** which, for those who know, is in the Ore Mountains,

**[00:15:38]** right on the fault up on the hill.

**[00:15:42]** So I remember everything,

**[00:15:45]** that my dad and I went sledding, that we skied,

**[00:15:48]** that we ran around in the forest and kicked a ball.

**[00:15:51]** And I actually thought that all my memories come from nature.

**[00:15:56]** Mostly what I remembered comes from nature.

**[00:16:00]** And to this day, I can vividly recall that memory.

**[00:16:05]** And now, I don't know if I was 9 or 10 years old, something like that.

**[00:16:08]** My dad and I were skiing at Komárka.

**[00:16:11]** Komárka is our hill, where to this day,

**[00:16:15]** when there's a lot of snow, they open the ski lift.

**[00:16:17]** It's not a regular thing.

**[00:16:19]** And we skied there until about four o'clock.

**[00:16:22]** At four, they closed the lifts.

**[00:16:25]** And because winters back then were really winters,

**[00:16:28]** we could ski almost all the way down to our apartment building.

**[00:16:33]** We were skiing across a meadow.

**[00:16:36]** My dad was about two meters ahead of me and just said, watch out, jump.

**[00:16:39]** And now I remember the fear,

**[00:16:42]** there really was a two-meter drop, or something like that.

**[00:16:45]** I was a kid, so that jump felt like about 100 meters to me.

**[00:16:48]** But it was probably about half a meter.

**[00:16:50]** But I clearly remember the fear when I got there.

**[00:16:52]** And that's how it ended. I said, okay, good.

**[00:16:54]** And we kept going.

**[00:16:56]** And that's a memory I still have vividly in my head.

**[00:16:59]** And I remember the feeling of absolute freedom.

**[00:17:02]** I remember that you are yourself there.

**[00:17:05]** That's where you really get to know yourself.

**[00:17:08]** That's where you emerge the most, you calm down.

**[00:17:11]** You feel good there.

**[00:17:13]** And you feel good there naturally.

**[00:17:15]** Because evolutionarily, we grew up,

**[00:17:17]** spending 99.9% of our time in nature.

**[00:17:21]** So it's normal that we feel good there.

**[00:17:25]** And it's not normal that here in the city,

**[00:17:28]** when you say Prague, Brno, Ostrava,

**[00:17:30]** it doesn't really matter,

**[00:17:32]** that we can't spend as much time there

**[00:17:34]** and that we look for escapes.

**[00:17:36]** We look for places where we can always run away to nature.

**[00:17:39]** That's why all Prague residents go to the Krkonoše Mountains every weekend.

**[00:17:42]** Because they just need to rest.

**[00:17:44]** They need to switch off. They need to recharge there.

**[00:17:47]** So that's the meaning for me.

**[00:17:49]** I found that the greatest luxury

**[00:17:51]** I've ever had in life is nature.

**[00:17:54]** I was able to find myself there.

**[00:17:57]** I was able to lose myself there.

**[00:17:59]** And it was a really pleasant feeling.

**[00:18:01]** And that's why I do what I do.

**[00:18:04]** And I want to give that feeling to everyone.

**[00:18:07]** That's why I build with nature.

**[00:18:09]** That's why I say I want it to be all around us constantly.

**[00:18:12]** Because it helped me personally.

**[00:18:15]** To find what I want.

**[00:18:18]** And now I have a question for the audience.

**[00:18:23]** I'm curious if you have found meaning in what you do.

**[00:18:28]** And if not, if you're still searching, that's okay.

**[00:18:31]** I think it's quite hard to find the meaning of life.

**[00:18:34]** But I'm interested in how it is for you.

**[00:18:39]** At least I'll have a drink with that.

**[00:18:41]** So far, it's...

**[00:18:47]** And that's good, about 50-50.

**[00:18:49]** That interests me.

**[00:18:56]** So I have a little detail about that.

**[00:18:59]** I found the meaning of life probably a year after I started doing it.

**[00:19:08]** What I was actually supposed to do.

**[00:19:10]** I didn't know for a long time what I was supposed to do.

**[00:19:13]** And you really want a story about that.

**[00:19:16]** We founded Sázíme Česko in 2021 with FICO.

**[00:19:22]** But for more than three quarters of a year, we were just putting together the idea,

**[00:19:27]** how it should work.

**[00:19:29]** The first thing was an add-on for an e-shop.

**[00:19:31]** And we thought, great, we can actually have an e-shop,

**[00:19:34]** that can be the size of one employee or 100,000.

**[00:19:38]** Anyone can plant it.

**[00:19:40]** And at the same time, it met the condition that it would be planted here in the Czech Republic.

**[00:19:44]** And we launched our website sometime in June 2022.

**[00:19:51]** The first month it made a turnover of 100,000.

**[00:19:54]** The second month it made a turnover of 2 million.

**[00:20:00]** I was a complete mess with problems I couldn't solve.

**[00:20:04]** Like, I really couldn't.

**[00:20:06]** And since then, it was really one big ride,

**[00:20:10]** when suddenly we had to deal with marketing,

**[00:20:12]** we had to handle recruiting like HR,

**[00:20:14]** we had to manage sales.

**[00:20:16]** We had a lot of companies, we were supposed to just cooperate,

**[00:20:18]** and we were two guys sitting at a computer

**[00:20:20]** and asking, how is this possible?

**[00:20:23]** So within the first full year, there were fifteen of us in the company.

**[00:20:27]** We have no investors, no loans,

**[00:20:30]** no grants, it just took off like a runaway rocket.

**[00:20:34]** And it was a ride.

**[00:20:38]** But there were moments when I suddenly didn't know,

**[00:20:42]** who we would plant with, how we would plant,

**[00:20:44]** how to do it all, because originally there was some chaos.

**[00:20:48]** Fortunately, there was a moment when private forest owners and municipalities came

**[00:20:56]** and started saying, hey, what you have in that ad,

**[00:21:00]** we could really use that.

**[00:21:02]** And I said, yeah, how so?

**[00:21:04]** They said, well, we don't have the money, we don't have the resources,

**[00:21:07]** and we need people in the forest, we just need help with the forest.

**[00:21:11]** So they said, okay, let's put it together.

**[00:21:14]** We managed to plant in the fall, then it was again a runaway rocket,

**[00:21:18]** and the day came when we said, hey, we haven't stopped,

**[00:21:22]** because we were just putting out fires, doing nothing else,

**[00:21:26]** let's give it some structure, let's give it some strategy,

**[00:21:30]** let's somehow correct it.

**[00:21:33]** And it still kept pushing us, it kept pushing,

**[00:21:37]** and May 2025 came, when my partner came to me at a low point,

**[00:21:42]** or the partner at that time, when things didn't look good,

**[00:21:46]** our cash flow was sinking fast, we were almost hitting bottom,

**[00:21:50]** and he said, look, I'm not enjoying this, I won't do it anymore.

**[00:21:55]** And I was great, like you just said, right now.

**[00:22:00]** And he told me, look, decide if we lay it down together

**[00:22:04]** or you take it, this dilapidated, sinking village,

**[00:22:08]** and deal with it yourself. So okay, thanks.

**[00:22:12]** So I probably reconsidered it in half a day.

**[00:22:15]** The only thing I knew at that moment, and I didn't know much,

**[00:22:18]** was that I thought, look, I want to take care of these people.

**[00:22:22]** And I won't come to them and say, look, I got bored,

**[00:22:25]** go away. I couldn't do that and never would.

**[00:22:29]** The only thing I knew was that I had to take care of those people.

**[00:22:33]** So I did just that. I cut all the costs,

**[00:22:38]** went to the people in the company,

**[00:22:41]** and told them, look, the situation is tough,

**[00:22:44]** either you work like this and the rest is variable,

**[00:22:47]** and you earn it, or you leave.

**[00:22:50]** Some decided to leave, some stayed,

**[00:22:53]** but it filtered down to a hard core.

**[00:22:56]** At that time, I was also going through a personal breakup

**[00:23:01]** and a bit of a personal crisis. I say I experienced

**[00:23:04]** a midlife crisis before thirty.

**[00:23:07]** I sat down and asked myself, okay, what should I do

**[00:23:12]** and why should I do it?

**[00:23:14]** And you naturally start asking those questions,

**[00:23:17]** like why should I plant some trees.

**[00:23:19]** Meanwhile, we were getting total crap from journalists

**[00:23:22]** and from nonprofits, not competitors exactly,

**[00:23:25]** but nonprofits didn't like us.

**[00:23:27]** We were getting total hate and crap,

**[00:23:29]** and suddenly I asked, why?

**[00:23:32]** Why me?

**[00:23:34]** Does it make sense, should I do it or not?

**[00:23:38]** And somehow I found my purpose there.

**[00:23:41]** I realized that what I do,

**[00:23:45]** going to business meetings, building the business,

**[00:23:49]** making the numbers, making the numbers in marketing, in PR,

**[00:23:52]** and putting in the effort, going to coffee meetings,

**[00:23:57]** That's me, I'm a café lounger,

**[00:23:59]** and I enjoy building business over coffee.

**[00:24:02]** And on the other hand, I also enjoy,

**[00:24:04]** to be in the forest, in the clearings, and covered in mud.

**[00:24:07]** And I actually thought, this is a good combination,

**[00:24:11]** that I can be dressed nicely and do some business

**[00:24:15]** and at the same time be in the forest and be muddy,

**[00:24:18]** and drive there in a Ford Ranger, getting mud up to the roof.

**[00:24:22]** And there I thought, okay, I like this.

**[00:24:25]** But I only realized it after a year of doing it,

**[00:24:27]** intensively, that this is actually it.

**[00:24:30]** So a kind of purpose defined itself for me there,

**[00:24:34]** I found out why I do it, why me and nature,

**[00:24:38]** what it all gives me.

**[00:24:40]** And I found out, for example, how I came to such decisions.

**[00:24:45]** When I visited my great-grandfather in his garden,

**[00:24:49]** I always jumped on my bike there.

**[00:24:52]** And as I was jumping, I was doing skids on the grass,

**[00:24:55]** and he came up to me and asked, what are you doing?

**[00:24:58]** And I said, you know, I'm doing skids here, it's great.

**[00:25:02]** And he asked, do you enjoy it?

**[00:25:03]** And I said, yes grandpa, it's great, look at this,

**[00:25:05]** you just do the skid like this on the grass.

**[00:25:08]** And he said, hmm, and what does that do to the grass?

**[00:25:10]** And then he talked with me like that for five minutes.

**[00:25:13]** Then he said, okay, go play.

**[00:25:16]** So I jumped twice more like that.

**[00:25:18]** And then I thought, hmm, that's actually kind of stupid.

**[00:25:21]** I'm damaging the grass, and he takes care of it,

**[00:25:23]** he tries to water it.

**[00:25:26]** And I've had more moments like this in my life, of course.

**[00:25:31]** And this is what made me rich and free.

**[00:25:35]** Because he gave me the chance to decide.

**[00:25:38]** He gave me the choice to do it my way.

**[00:25:42]** The way I want.

**[00:25:44]** And this is what I want to pass on.

**[00:25:47]** So people can do it their way.

**[00:25:50]** So they have the free choice to decide.

**[00:25:52]** And we won't tell them left or right.

**[00:25:54]** Do it your way.

**[00:25:59]** You surely know Simon Sinek.

**[00:26:02]** I assume some of you have read the book Start with Why.

**[00:26:06]** And I want to build on that exactly why it is so.

**[00:26:12]** I am an introvert by default.

**[00:26:15]** I know I don't look like it, but really, my default setting is introversion.

**[00:26:19]** The fact that today I can talk to people and meet them and so on,

**[00:26:23]** that's something you kind of learn.

**[00:26:27]** But I learned it precisely because,

**[00:26:31]** during the crisis I just told you about,

**[00:26:35]** I was able to define why I do the things I do

**[00:26:39]** and my own human purpose.

**[00:26:41]** And more than once, it was much easier for me to come anywhere,

**[00:26:45]** whether among colleagues, the business community,

**[00:26:51]** or complete strangers.

**[00:26:53]** And right away tell them that I do this because of this and that,

**[00:26:57]** and because it was me, all of this here, as I am, it was me,

**[00:27:03]** so it was easy for me to say it.

**[00:27:07]** I didn't have to say I was selling computers,

**[00:27:09]** because my dad wanted me to sell computers.

**[00:27:13]** I didn't have to say I was doing it this way or that,

**[00:27:16]** because someone else wanted it.

**[00:27:18]** Suddenly, I was doing it all for myself and because of myself,

**[00:27:21]** and because of that, it was easier for me to approach people.

**[00:27:26]** And I think there are many people in our society

**[00:27:30]** who divide that society.

**[00:27:33]** We are here to bring society together.

**[00:27:37]** I want to connect people.

**[00:27:40]** And even in the forest itself, when volunteers meet there,

**[00:27:45]** and you see a bus driver arrive, a CEO

**[00:27:50]** of some multinational corporation, and students,

**[00:27:53]** and suddenly they go plant a tree together.

**[00:27:55]** They have common topics. They talk.

**[00:27:58]** It's fun for them, digging in the soil.

**[00:28:01]** Then they go eat sausages.

**[00:28:03]** And you think, we brought together a group of people,

**[00:28:07]** who otherwise wouldn't meet.

**[00:28:09]** Who are completely outside their social bubble.

**[00:28:12]** Some are old, some are young,

**[00:28:14]** some are this, some are that.

**[00:28:16]** And you eat together and these people talk.

**[00:28:19]** And this experience, where it doesn't matter at all,

**[00:28:23]** whether they are company employees or neighbors.

**[00:28:28]** That feeling is like... I don't know if you've ever had it like that.

**[00:28:32]** I grew up in a village with my grandmother.

**[00:28:34]** Every weekend we were there when we were training for swimming competitions.

**[00:28:38]** And whenever we ran off all day with the neighbors

**[00:28:42]** and came back in the evening,

**[00:28:45]** at that moment you are best friends.

**[00:28:50]** Maybe you didn’t keep in touch as adults or so,

**[00:28:54]** but at that moment, when you come back from the forest,

**[00:28:57]** from the wild, from exploring,

**[00:29:00]** you are the best friends in the world.

**[00:29:04]** And that feeling is what you get from the forest.

**[00:29:08]** So when we take companies into the forest,

**[00:29:11]** when we take volunteers into the forest,

**[00:29:14]** whoever we take into the forest,

**[00:29:17]** we suddenly become a community.

**[00:29:20]** For me, a company is not a customer.

**[00:29:23]** For me, it’s a friend.

**[00:29:25]** With all the companies that work with us,

**[00:29:28]** we all use informal speech like good friends.

**[00:29:31]** And when we go back to the forest together,

**[00:29:34]** or meet to create campaigns or whatever,

**[00:29:37]** it really doesn’t matter,

**[00:29:40]** we’re always like old friends.

**[00:29:43]** We’re like old acquaintances, even if we’ve only been in the forest together once.

**[00:29:46]** This is something I really love

**[00:29:49]** and that fulfills me so much,

**[00:29:52]** that I’ll just say now, I don’t know if CV is watching,

**[00:29:56]** but CV was with us in the forest.

**[00:30:00]** Their HR manager came and brought two bags full of bananas, and I asked what she was carrying.

**[00:30:07]** They were guarding the fact that every Wednesday they have fruit here and they didn’t have enough bananas.

**[00:30:13]** So here are the bananas divided up for you.

**[00:30:15]** She just dropped them off and said, here are your bananas.

**[00:30:18]** We spent the whole day in the forest, great fun, here you go.

**[00:30:22]** And today, when I come to CV, first I greet the reception, then all the colleagues on the floor,

**[00:30:34]** I meet everyone, say hi, and bring them the bananas.

**[00:30:40]** So you know, little things like that.

**[00:30:42]** And suddenly, when you’re friends, business becomes much easier.

**[00:30:46]** You’re no longer enemies, never competitors, never...

**[00:30:50]** You don’t go against each other, you go together and figure out how to do business better.

**[00:30:55]** How to make it better, how to make it better for the employees, how to make it better for your customers.

**[00:31:01]** And suddenly none of those categories are your customer, suddenly it’s your friend.

**[00:31:09]** And you're on the same wavelength.

**[00:31:11]** And you don't actually have to be around people you...

**[00:31:15]** People you wouldn't want to be around.

**[00:31:17]** Suddenly, you've created the structure of your world only with people you want to be with.

**[00:31:23]** And that, as I said, is very pleasant for me as an introvert.

**[00:31:28]** I say the sentence that I'm an introvert and I don't want to meet new people.

**[00:31:34]** That's why I like to know everyone already, so I don't have to get to know them.

**[00:31:38]** So I say, whenever I come, I already know, okay, this one is with us there and I feel among my own,

**[00:31:44]** we're good there.

**[00:31:48]** The growth of the founder equals the growth of the company.

**[00:31:53]** I would also be interested, just here in the audience, a quick question.

**[00:31:57]** Who here is that nice fool like me?

**[00:32:02]** Am I the only one here? Right?

**[00:32:05]** Nice fool.

**[00:32:07]** I always tried to please everyone.

**[00:32:10]** I always tried to make everyone around me happy.

**[00:32:14]** And I always backed down and tried to make those around me satisfied.

**[00:32:20]** But when you have a company, that doesn't work well.

**[00:32:22]** And I say that entrepreneurship is beautiful in that it finds the gap where you have a weakness,

**[00:32:28]** that's where it always hits me.

**[00:32:30]** That's where it just hits me hard.

**[00:32:32]** And because I was a nice fool, I very often tried to please everyone,

**[00:32:38]** even when we were at odds, even when it was long bad.

**[00:32:42]** And we looked for a marketer for a long time.

**[00:32:47]** We searched a long time for a CMO who would want to develop the strategy,

**[00:32:52]** keep the set course and push forward at the pace we were going.

**[00:32:58]** And wanted to have that impact.

**[00:33:01]** Wanted to have that impact by helping people.

**[00:33:04]** And I found a guy who was very skilled.

**[00:33:11]** I think his know-how was huge.

**[00:33:14]** He really knew what he was talking about.

**[00:33:16]** He wasn't a guy who had no clue.

**[00:33:18]** He really knew what he was talking about.

**[00:33:20]** And what won me over, I say this very often, was in the forest.

**[00:33:24]** When we arrived in the forest to prepare the area,

**[00:33:29]** there was a very muddy path.

**[00:33:32]** And I said, hey, I'll just fix the path, I took a spade.

**[00:33:36]** And he automatically took the spade with me and said, okay, I'll go with you.

**[00:33:41]** He came to the path and I didn't have to tell him,

**[00:33:44]** that this is how hard he worked.

**[00:33:46]** And I said, okay, he knows how to take responsibility, he knows how to work.

**[00:33:50]** And I respect that when I see people step up and take initiative on their own,

**[00:33:54]** I don't have to push them, so that won me over.

**[00:33:57]** And I entrusted him with my trust and said,

**[00:34:00]** okay, I want the marketing to be like this and that,

**[00:34:02]** we set some guidelines.

**[00:34:04]** And after a month and a half, when he was working part-time with us,

**[00:34:11]** he actually didn't deliver a single output.

**[00:34:13]** And I said, look, this won't do, let's part ways,

**[00:34:16]** there had already been some warning signs before.

**[00:34:19]** And he said, okay, then send me the money and I'll leave.

**[00:34:24]** And I said, wait, for what?

**[00:34:27]** And he said, well, I've been here for a month and a half,

**[00:34:30]** and then for half an hour, maybe even an hour, he just yelled at me,

**[00:34:35]** called me every insult you can imagine, they were all there,

**[00:34:40]** and he yelled and attacked me.

**[00:34:42]** And after that half hour, he said,

**[00:34:44]** okay, so tell me, what do you think is fair?

**[00:34:47]** And I said, well, I think you should get zero.

**[00:34:51]** And at that moment, he couldn't handle it, he started shaking and left.

**[00:34:55]** And I was ready to give him half.

**[00:34:58]** But I saw that zero was fair,

**[00:35:00]** because he delivered zero outputs, zero work.

**[00:35:03]** We agreed on something and he didn't deliver.

**[00:35:07]** That was the moment I finally stood up for myself.

**[00:35:11]** When I said, okay, this is fair in my view,

**[00:35:16]** and I'll do it my way.

**[00:35:18]** And it was definitely a lesson for him and for me,

**[00:35:22]** but it was clear that once I stood up for myself

**[00:35:26]** and something clicked inside me differently,

**[00:35:30]** we had another harvest season,

**[00:35:33]** where in 6 weeks we did 25 events in the forest.

**[00:35:40]** We met about 500 people during those 6 weeks.

**[00:35:44]** It was all over the country, so you fly 8,000 kilometers,

**[00:35:48]** wake up at four in the morning, come back at nine at night, and do it again the next day.

**[00:35:52]** We did a count on Instagram,

**[00:35:56]** how many stories, posts, reels, and so on you post.

**[00:36:02]** We had about 300 posts that month.

**[00:36:07]** We also developed the entire B2B portal,

**[00:36:12]** which we have for our clients who work with us,

**[00:36:15]** through those add-ons.

**[00:36:17]** And now it shifted like this, but completely like a leap,

**[00:36:21]** in those 500 weeks.

**[00:36:23]** And I think, we managed it with just 6 people.

**[00:36:28]** Like, with 6, we're really good.

**[00:36:31]** And then I suddenly realized,

**[00:36:33]** that having one less person,

**[00:36:36]** we could significantly shift into a higher gear,

**[00:36:39]** the team just clicked more,

**[00:36:41]** and we were able to push much harder.

**[00:36:43]** And it was just about me doing something,

**[00:36:48]** that I hadn't done before.

**[00:36:50]** I was able to think a little differently,

**[00:36:52]** and I was able to push myself forward.

**[00:36:54]** And because of that, I moved the company forward.

**[00:36:57]** Every founder of a company is the narrowest bottleneck.

**[00:37:01]** And the company only moves forward as fast,

**[00:37:04]** as the founder moves forward.

**[00:37:06]** And I think it's up to us,

**[00:37:08]** to, like this again,

**[00:37:11]** each of us is a founder.

**[00:37:13]** Whether you have a company or not,

**[00:37:15]** each of you is a founder.

**[00:37:17]** Each of you is the founder of your own personality,

**[00:37:21]** each of you is the founder of your tribe.

**[00:37:25]** Each of you is a founder.

**[00:37:27]** And I think it's up to us,

**[00:37:29]** to come up with ways,

**[00:37:32]** how to grow, how to grow as fast as possible,

**[00:37:34]** how to move forward,

**[00:37:35]** how to develop and evolve.

**[00:37:40]** So that's why do things,

**[00:37:42]** that scare you.

**[00:37:46]** I've already told you the story,

**[00:37:48]** where I had that little crisis.

**[00:37:51]** And when everything was going down,

**[00:37:54]** I didn't really know what to do.

**[00:37:58]** And as a kid,

**[00:38:00]** I lacked a few things.

**[00:38:03]** Probably like everyone.

**[00:38:04]** I think traumas are healthy for life.

**[00:38:07]** And even though I had a wonderful childhood

**[00:38:10]** and really, I do,

**[00:38:12]** both my parents, I know they absolutely love me,

**[00:38:14]** and because of that, I can do what I do,

**[00:38:17]** of course, there was something I didn't get.

**[00:38:22]** I never had a male role model.

**[00:38:25]** That was simply missing.

**[00:38:27]** I never had that kind of support.

**[00:38:29]** Since I was fifteen, I lived on my own,

**[00:38:31]** and whenever I wanted to make any decision in life,

**[00:38:34]** I was told, do it your way.

**[00:38:36]** And that support was never there.

**[00:38:41]** I have a story from about three or four years ago,

**[00:38:45]** when my ex-girlfriend,

**[00:38:50]** at a very young age took over a construction company

**[00:38:53]** from her father, who died suddenly.

**[00:38:59]** And the values she inherited from him,

**[00:39:02]** I suddenly realized,

**[00:39:04]** I actually like that.

**[00:39:07]** I suddenly understood that he was a person

**[00:39:10]** who was a pillar of the community.

**[00:39:14]** A pillar of the community is someone

**[00:39:17]** who, whenever someone comes to him and says,

**[00:39:20]** hey, I really messed this up and don't know how to fix it,

**[00:39:23]** that person helps them.

**[00:39:25]** I'm not saying he gives them money, I'm not saying

**[00:39:27]** he finds a shortcut, but he helps.

**[00:39:29]** And people knew they could always rely on him.

**[00:39:32]** He's the kind of person who,

**[00:39:34]** when Mrs. Maruška's roof collapses in the village,

**[00:39:38]** he's the pillar who says,

**[00:39:42]** hey, this guy does roofing, that guy does this.

**[00:39:46]** Guys, come on, let's organize a fundraiser,

**[00:39:48]** and suddenly, in two months, Mrs. Maruška has a new roof.

**[00:39:51]** And this person solved it in the village.

**[00:39:53]** That's the pillar of the community.

**[00:39:57]** And I think I want to be that pillar of the community.

**[00:40:00]** I realized this is something that truly fulfills me, helping others.

**[00:40:06]** And it fulfills me because I never had it myself.

**[00:40:10]** And that's why I will gladly do it for others.

**[00:40:12]** That's why I will gladly pass it on.

**[00:40:14]** And I'll be happy when people come to me and say,

**[00:40:16]** hey, I don't know, I don't know what to do with my life,

**[00:40:19]** I don't know how I messed up, I don't know how to figure it out.

**[00:40:22]** And I only got there by that one path exactly,

**[00:40:29]** when in 2023 I simply took care of those people and said, okay.

**[00:40:35]** I didn't know much at that time,

**[00:40:37]** but I saw that I had to take care of those people.

**[00:40:40]** Thanks to the example I somehow inherited.

**[00:40:43]** So do things that scare you.

**[00:40:48]** You will truly experience an incredible life

**[00:40:51]** and it will push you forward extremely fast.

**[00:40:59]** The second point, which directly follows from that.

**[00:41:02]** Fail faster than others.

**[00:41:04]** I know that in Czechia making mistakes is seen as something bad.

**[00:41:07]** It's not bad, it's actually very good.

**[00:41:10]** When you make a mistake, you move forward very quickly.

**[00:41:15]** And I have a quick comparison here.

**[00:41:23]** If I compare profit and nonprofit,

**[00:41:26]** how nonprofits usually operate, and how profit companies like us as an LLC do.

**[00:41:31]** The average nonprofit of a similar size to ours

**[00:41:36]** has planted 20 to 50 thousand trees in the last 5 to 10 years.

**[00:41:41]** We planted over 400 thousand in 3 years.

**[00:41:45]** And the only reason I think we did that,

**[00:41:48]** is that we made all kinds of mistakes much faster.

**[00:41:51]** We made PR mistakes much faster,

**[00:41:53]** we made marketing mistakes much faster,

**[00:41:55]** we made sales mistakes much faster.

**[00:41:58]** In the first year, I interviewed 300 people.

**[00:42:02]** That's why we moved faster, that's why we were quicker,

**[00:42:05]** and that's why we got further faster.

**[00:42:09]** And this example of profit vs. nonprofit,

**[00:42:13]** I think we can also apply it to personal life.

**[00:42:19]** I'm 31 today,

**[00:42:24]** and I think I've lived many lives.

**[00:42:28]** I was a professional athlete,

**[00:42:30]** I swam for the Czech Republic's swimming team.

**[00:42:34]** I was a high school student, an athlete as a runner and cyclist.

**[00:42:39]** I used to ski cross-country.

**[00:42:42]** Then I was a university student, when you only have responsibility for yourself.

**[00:42:46]** I traveled a lot around the world.

**[00:42:48]** I worked hard all year, had two or three part-time jobs at once.

**[00:42:52]** When June came, by mid-June I already had a plane ticket

**[00:42:56]** and I flew away to travel for two and a half weeks, just traveling.

**[00:43:00]** I did nothing else.

**[00:43:01]** Because I earned enough to just travel,

**[00:43:04]** I always came back.

**[00:43:05]** I had zero on my account again and started over.

**[00:43:07]** So I had that traveler phase.

**[00:43:10]** I had the phase when I worked in a corporation.

**[00:43:13]** I worked in IT, I was a Linux admin.

**[00:43:19]** During COVID, I sat at home and my only morning concern was

**[00:43:22]** whether I would work in underwear, pajamas, or sweatpants.

**[00:43:26]** Those were my only three choices in the morning.

**[00:43:30]** Today I am an entrepreneur, today I own a company

**[00:43:34]** and we create the environment around us.

**[00:43:38]** If I translate that to just traveling,

**[00:43:42]** I have probably been to Italy more than 30 times in my life.

**[00:43:46]** I love that country, I am passionate about it.

**[00:43:49]** You will experience it with us in the forest too.

**[00:43:51]** By the way, whoever comes on Sunday,

**[00:43:53]** there will be amazing prosecco from my friend,

**[00:43:55]** directly from Conegliano.

**[00:43:58]** But I want to show that you can live life faster.

**[00:44:03]** You can experience a lot of things at once.

**[00:44:07]** And in a way, it's really beautiful,

**[00:44:10]** when you can no longer keep up with everything happening.

**[00:44:13]** The speed of it all, and you think,

**[00:44:15]** this just can't be possible.

**[00:44:17]** Just my last week, well, the week before last,

**[00:44:20]** we were in the forest on Monday, six meetings on Tuesday,

**[00:44:23]** team building for 120 people on Wednesday,

**[00:44:26]** in the forest on Thursday, meetings on Friday,

**[00:44:29]** cleaning the forest on Saturday, leaving for Zlín on Sunday,

**[00:44:32]** Zlín on Monday, yeah, and you just keep going

**[00:44:35]** and you cut through it like Baťa shoes.

**[00:44:37]** And in the middle of that, my first pet died,

**[00:44:40]** my little cat.

**[00:44:43]** And actually, so much is happening at once,

**[00:44:45]** that the brain isn't even able to process it.

**[00:44:48]** And it's incredibly beautiful and at the same time extremely demanding.

**[00:44:53]** But the reason I got there is that

**[00:44:55]** we simply fail faster than everyone else.

**[00:44:59]** It takes some guts,

**[00:45:01]** but you experience truly unbelievable things.

**[00:45:07]** Another point is why your company project fails.

**[00:45:13]** It's about facing that reality head-on.

**[00:45:16]** What happens if those people leave?

**[00:45:20]** What happens if you only have debts

**[00:45:23]** and everything falls apart?

**[00:45:26]** Suddenly, you can't avoid it anymore.

**[00:45:29]** And it's a very good exercise,

**[00:45:31]** whether you do it in a company,

**[00:45:33]** whether you do it in a family,

**[00:45:36]** or with friends.

**[00:45:38]** Why will this project, company, friendship, relationship

**[00:45:41]** fail?

**[00:45:43]** And suddenly you face the truth

**[00:45:47]** and ask yourself, okay, how do we solve this?

**[00:45:51]** And you can kind of prepare scenarios

**[00:45:54]** for how to handle it.

**[00:45:56]** My worst-case scenario,

**[00:45:58]** what happens if the company fails,

**[00:46:02]** is actually still relatively good.

**[00:46:05]** Yeah, if everything fails,

**[00:46:07]** if everything completely falls apart over the years,

**[00:46:09]** and I have seven people on the team now,

**[00:46:12]** with whom I will travel through time,

**[00:46:14]** they really are the right people

**[00:46:16]** in the right places, I love them,

**[00:46:18]** and they are incredible,

**[00:46:20]** but even if they all left me and said,

**[00:46:22]** we're done, we're out,

**[00:46:24]** that's probably my worst-case scenario,

**[00:46:27]** but at that moment I know, okay,

**[00:46:29]** even if we have to quit,

**[00:46:31]** we'll put the company on standby,

**[00:46:34]** we'll really do zero, zero, nothing,

**[00:46:36]** and reduce monthly costs to 100 to 130 thousand,

**[00:46:43]** Three hundred a month keeps coming in

**[00:46:46]** and the company can actually operate.

**[00:46:48]** And the moment I realized,

**[00:46:50]** ok, if this is the worst-case scenario,

**[00:46:53]** then we can actually move faster.

**[00:46:55]** We can take risks faster,

**[00:46:56]** we can learn faster,

**[00:46:58]** and even step on the gas and push harder.

**[00:47:00]** Because the worst bottom is actually still okay.

**[00:47:04]** And I think that even in relationships,

**[00:47:06]** when you realize what the worst bottom is,

**[00:47:08]** you often find out it's actually fine,

**[00:47:10]** you can solve it and keep going.

**[00:47:15]** The result of simply failing

**[00:47:18]** can only be 400 thousand planted trees.

**[00:47:21]** And that's actually good.

**[00:47:26]** In this category, I think,

**[00:47:28]** several of you have definitely read articles

**[00:47:31]** Osázíme Česko.

**[00:47:33]** You've definitely read some hate.

**[00:47:35]** You've definitely read that we're bad and expensive

**[00:47:38]** and that we're doing it wrong over there.

**[00:47:39]** And everything we're doing wrong.

**[00:47:41]** And as I told you,

**[00:47:43]** that I'm the nice fool

**[00:47:44]** trying to please everyone,

**[00:47:46]** this was tough for me.

**[00:47:50]** When people called me the one

**[00:47:52]** who steals, I thought,

**[00:47:54]** wow, me?

**[00:47:56]** I remembered,

**[00:47:57]** when we were kids,

**[00:47:58]** we used to go in Krupka,

**[00:48:00]** there was a shop called Minimál.

**[00:48:02]** We boys called it Kriminál.

**[00:48:05]** And we said,

**[00:48:06]** hey, let's go to Kriminál today.

**[00:48:08]** And we had exactly one boy in class

**[00:48:10]** who said,

**[00:48:11]** but guys, come today,

**[00:48:12]** Come on today,

**[00:48:13]** we'll steal a cookie there.

**[00:48:17]** I was kind of scared, you know,

**[00:48:20]** I was like...

**[00:48:22]** We went in,

**[00:48:23]** there were three of us,

**[00:48:25]** the bravest one,

**[00:48:27]** he climbed up,

**[00:48:28]** opened his hood like this,

**[00:48:30]** he had those Snickers,

**[00:48:31]** all those expensive cookies, you know.

**[00:48:34]** The second one,

**[00:48:35]** who was as scared as I was,

**[00:48:36]** stole at least the cheapest one,

**[00:48:38]** some Horalka,

**[00:48:39]** just crumbled there, you know,

**[00:48:40]** that was hidden.

**[00:48:41]** I wasn't able to steal a cookie.

**[00:48:43]** We said,

**[00:48:44]** I couldn't do it,

**[00:48:46]** I just couldn't.

**[00:48:48]** And I say,

**[00:48:49]** how can anyone say to me,

**[00:48:51]** that I steal?

**[00:48:53]** I never knew how,

**[00:48:54]** I just couldn't,

**[00:48:55]** I really can't.

**[00:48:59]** But then I actually understood,

**[00:49:00]** I thought, wow,

**[00:49:02]** we built our own market,

**[00:49:05]** like this kind of market,

**[00:49:07]** where someone adds value to that market

**[00:49:09]** and from that pours money into nature.

**[00:49:11]** That doesn't exist here.

**[00:49:12]** For someone to do that

**[00:49:14]** without grants and subsidies.

**[00:49:17]** I say, so actually,

**[00:49:19]** yeah, and now, you know what,

**[00:49:20]** I'll start,

**[00:49:21]** an average nonprofit was used to

**[00:49:23]** to come to a company and say,

**[00:49:24]** hey, give us money.

**[00:49:26]** And the company, because it knew,

**[00:49:27]** that it was for a good cause,

**[00:49:28]** would say, okay, we'll give you money.

**[00:49:29]** And suddenly some guy named Richard comes along,

**[00:49:31]** who says,

**[00:49:32]** hey, what problems are you dealing with here?

**[00:49:33]** And how have you solved marketing?

**[00:49:35]** And how is your sales?

**[00:49:36]** Hey, this could be done like this, like that.

**[00:49:37]** It costs 1,500 trees.

**[00:49:39]** And suddenly we were offering a service.

**[00:49:41]** We were doing something different.

**[00:49:43]** We created a different competition.

**[00:49:46]** We are the only ones here helping

**[00:49:48]** municipalities and private owners,

**[00:49:50]** because the public image,

**[00:49:52]** when you say a guy

**[00:49:54]** from coffee in Prague,

**[00:49:55]** is that owners

**[00:49:57]** must be filthy rich.

**[00:49:58]** They are swimming in money.

**[00:50:00]** It's unbelievable, they just mine gold from the forest and can't get enough of it.

**[00:50:06]** They haul it away with a Tatra truck, all the gold they extract from the forest.

**[00:50:11]** And when you suddenly find out that the forest owner has 100,000 under his pillow,

**[00:50:17]** got 30 from the harvested forest, planted for 500, it doesn't add up.

**[00:50:24]** So that's the first thing.

**[00:50:26]** The second thing, even if it did add up, well, he has the money.

**[00:50:30]** At that moment, he can apply for subsidies, which he will get after a year and a half, if at all.

**[00:50:35]** But he solved the money problem, so how does he do it?

**[00:50:39]** About 80% of all private and municipal owners don't even know how to do it.

**[00:50:44]** They don't know that a forester exists, they don't know that there is professional forest help.

**[00:50:49]** And now even if someone advises them, how are they supposed to plant it?

**[00:50:55]** We have forests near Loket, Karlovy, and Chvary, where we needed to plant two thousand trees.

**[00:50:59]** I call the forester and say, please, I just need to plant two thousand there.

**[00:51:03]** Do you have someone who could do it? And he says, no.

**[00:51:05]** There are no people here. I say, how come?

**[00:51:08]** Like, there is no person who would do it. And he says, no.

**[00:51:11]** Simply doesn't exist. You say, this region is dead.

**[00:51:14]** Simply put, such a person doesn't exist there.

**[00:51:17]** And now suddenly there are a thousand and one problems like in a forest,

**[00:51:22]** a thousand and one problems in the company, and we suddenly connected

**[00:51:27]** communities that had never met before.

**[00:51:30]** A company that wants to do something sustainable and wants to create that marketing,

**[00:51:33]** wants the PR from it, and wants to gain new customers,

**[00:51:36]** never knew the forest owners and farmers here before.

**[00:51:40]** And making the connection between them, we did that here for the first time.

**[00:51:45]** That's why articles came out saying a tree for 87 CZK is expensive.

**[00:51:49]** Because at a forest nursery, you can buy it for 15 CZK, that's simple.

**[00:51:54]** Well, we're not tree resellers.

**[00:51:58]** The price of the tree also includes things like our offices,

**[00:52:01]** and the cleaning lady who comes to clean.

**[00:52:04]** And suddenly, when you count the overhead costs into the tree,

**[00:52:08]** you realize no one plants for 87 CZK.

**[00:52:13]** You suddenly find out that everyone who plants, the final price is much higher.

**[00:52:18]** And we just showed the reality of how much it costs.

**[00:52:21]** And what it looks like.

**[00:52:23]** So we changed the rules of the game.

**[00:52:27]** I think we set up a completely new market.

**[00:52:30]** And those, as they say in English, early adopters,

**[00:52:35]** are always somehow hated at the beginning.

**[00:52:38]** But today, a large part of people know that we plant Czechia as such.

**[00:52:43]** I think a large part of people have heard about us.

**[00:52:46]** And after three and a half years, it's still quite a rocket start.

**[00:52:50]** So naturally, there will be people who hate you.

**[00:52:54]** And naturally, there will be journalists who just say,

**[00:52:57]** this is all wrong.

**[00:53:00]** Okay, fine. I know that what I do, I do well.

**[00:53:04]** I know that what I do is right.

**[00:53:07]** I know that when I take a company to the forest, the enthusiasm of those people.

**[00:53:12]** We just did the biggest planting for 100-110 people.

**[00:53:16]** It was a huge event.

**[00:53:18]** And when at the end of the day everyone comes to you and says,

**[00:53:22]** you wouldn't believe how close to my heart you are.

**[00:53:28]** How human you all were here.

**[00:53:30]** How great this was.

**[00:53:32]** He says, we planted too few, we'll just do it again next time.

**[00:53:36]** And on the other side, you see the owner who tells you,

**[00:53:39]** you planted 4,000 trees today.

**[00:53:41]** Hmm, intense.

**[00:53:42]** We wouldn't have managed that on our own either.

**[00:53:44]** And suddenly you do this.

**[00:53:47]** So I know that what I do, I do well.

**[00:53:49]** And that helps me know that others can hate me,

**[00:53:54]** because they can justify it to themselves.

**[00:53:56]** I know for myself that my compass for what's fair and what's not is set right.

**[00:54:01]** So thanks to that, I am the way I am.

**[00:54:03]** And I always say, I have it with swimming.

**[00:54:06]** I'm just in that sport...

**[00:54:08]** There was one republic where I was about 14,

**[00:54:11]** and we swam the 200-meter freestyle final.

**[00:54:15]** I finished first, touched the wall,

**[00:54:18]** and it really felt like a truck, I totally won.

**[00:54:20]** I touched the wall, stood up, next to me my friend touched the wall,

**[00:54:23]** stood up, and the timer showed him as first.

**[00:54:26]** We looked at each other, wondering what happened.

**[00:54:30]** And we said, this is weird.

**[00:54:34]** I got out of the water and the referees said,

**[00:54:36]** no, you are first, it's okay.

**[00:54:38]** Then came the announcement,

**[00:54:40]** because back then the rules said,

**[00:54:42]** the official timer is the electronic one,

**[00:54:44]** and it is above the human,

**[00:54:46]** so Simon won.

**[00:54:48]** So they announced him first, me second,

**[00:54:50]** and I don't even know who was third.

**[00:54:52]** But what was nice,

**[00:54:54]** the head referee came to me

**[00:54:56]** and said, you won, congratulations.

**[00:54:58]** Simon said,

**[00:55:00]** you won,

**[00:55:02]** you're better, congratulations.

**[00:55:04]** And his coach came and said,

**[00:55:06]** congratulations, you won.

**[00:55:08]** That was fair to me.

**[00:55:10]** That's what fairness looks like to me.

**[00:55:12]** The rules can be whatever,

**[00:55:14]** but we treat each other like people.

**[00:55:18]** And this is fair.

**[00:55:20]** So I carry these values

**[00:55:22]** into my business.

**[00:55:24]** And the more I anchor myself within,

**[00:55:26]** the more confident I become

**[00:55:28]** and actually okay with others hating me.

**[00:55:34]** This is our internal saying.

**[00:55:38]** Shortcuts don’t work, take the stairs.

**[00:55:40]** Because when you take the elevator,

**[00:55:42]** the elevator can always drop to zero.

**[00:55:44]** If you take the stairs and trip,

**[00:55:46]** you only fall to the landing,

**[00:55:48]** and you can always keep going from there.

**[00:55:50]** And if someone absolutely doesn’t understand marketing,

**[00:55:54]** like I didn’t,

**[00:55:56]** don’t just look for a marketer

**[00:55:58]** who can do it for you.

**[00:56:00]** Find a marketer who will teach you.

**[00:56:02]** Find someone who will explain it to you,

**[00:56:04]** as if you were a complete beginner,

**[00:56:06]** and find someone who wants

**[00:56:08]** you to grow.

**[00:56:10]** Then you can move forward much faster.

**[00:56:12]** So in any team

**[00:56:16]** and at any stage of life,

**[00:56:22]** don’t look for shortcuts.

**[00:56:24]** Really, take the stairs.

**[00:56:28]** And this is the very last slide.

**[00:56:32]** I just want to briefly tell you

**[00:56:36]** that I’ve been self-employed since I was 15.

**[00:56:38]** As I said, I’ve been to Italy more than 30 times in my life.

**[00:56:40]** I’m here to build nature,

**[00:56:44]** I was a dad to my family,

**[00:56:46]** and I enjoyed life.

**[00:56:48]** And I want you to enjoy life too.

**[00:56:50]** And I want you to love life,

**[00:56:52]** but also want the most from it.

**[00:56:56]** Because life can truly be beautiful that way.

**[00:56:58]** So, thank you very much for your attention

**[00:57:04]** and I'll hand over to Honza.

**[00:57:06]** Thank you.

**[00:57:36]** It actually didn't hit me,

**[00:57:38]** until you told me,

**[00:57:40]** it felt really powerful.

**[00:57:42]** You mean, well, the forest owner

**[00:57:44]** is always, let me give an example,

**[00:57:46]** Dáša Hromadová.

**[00:57:48]** We planted a forest with her for the very first time,

**[00:57:50]** and Dáša Hromadová is the kind of

**[00:57:52]** operational servant of the community who,

**[00:57:54]** whenever something doesn't work in the village,

**[00:57:56]** say a children's group,

**[00:57:58]** she goes and tries to solve it

**[00:58:00]** and brings people together.

**[00:58:02]** And that's exactly the type,

**[00:58:04]** as I said,

**[00:58:06]** when a roof collapses somewhere,

**[00:58:08]** she goes and fixes it.

**[00:58:10]** She brings people together,

**[00:58:12]** creates the community,

**[00:58:14]** and she does the same in the forest.

**[00:58:16]** This person always has the forest.

**[00:58:18]** This person always has a forest

**[00:58:20]** that had to be cut down by the owner,

**[00:58:22]** economically it just doesn't work out,

**[00:58:24]** and they just need to put it back together,

**[00:58:26]** they want to take care of it,

**[00:58:28]** and they need a little push like this,

**[00:58:30]** and thanks to us,

**[00:58:32]** because we do the project, buy trees,

**[00:58:34]** do the planting,

**[00:58:36]** we just give them a nudge,

**[00:58:38]** so they can take care of it again,

**[00:58:40]** and keep bringing their area together,

**[00:58:42]** not to mention that often people from the village come to the planting.

**[00:58:44]** So it all connects again,

**[00:58:46]** and I don't know if this is the point

**[00:58:48]** you had in mind exactly.

**[00:58:52]** Yeah, yeah, you actually said,

**[00:58:54]** that around this person,

**[00:58:56]** who owns the forest,

**[00:58:58]** it means that a local community forms around him,

**[00:59:00]** that there are some, I don't know,

**[00:59:02]** parties, celebrations, and so on.

**[00:59:04]** And I thought that was really nice,

**[00:59:06]** because it's like how we at Brain&Breakfast

**[00:59:08]** create those little squares where people meet,

**[00:59:10]** so you actually bring them together

**[00:59:12]** through this.

**[00:59:14]** Here's a question

**[00:59:16]** that follows up on that, lots of planted trees,

**[00:59:18]** great work, how do you handle

**[00:59:20]** the care of the planted trees, thank you.

**[00:59:22]** The great thing is that

**[00:59:24]** we cooperate with the locals,

**[00:59:26]** which means very often

**[00:59:28]** the municipality or the owner lives

**[00:59:30]** within five to ten minutes of the forest

**[00:59:32]** and can take care of the forest,

**[00:59:34]** so the ongoing care is on them,

**[00:59:36]** but that can be managed by one or two people,

**[00:59:38]** it's no longer,

**[00:59:40]** like the planting, when you need to plant eight thousand trees,

**[00:59:42]** that requires a few hands,

**[00:59:44]** that's demanding,

**[00:59:46]** but then when you need to mow or

**[00:59:48]** check the fence, repair it, and so on,

**[00:59:50]** the owner can always handle that,

**[00:59:52]** so he manages it himself,

**[00:59:54]** and because he lives nearby,

**[00:59:56]** he can devote some time to it.

**[00:59:58]** That person, I’d say, works a tough job Monday to Friday and goes to the forest on weekends.

**[01:00:00]** So he's always in the forest and has to mow, check the fence, haul dead wood.

**[01:00:05]** There are a thousand and one problems, and for example, we have a forest near Popovice owned by David.

**[01:00:11]** David is about 23 years old, he has a huge forest, which is really old, bark beetle damaged, he has to manage it.

**[01:00:19]** Now he cuts the trees, hauls them, cuts, chops, splits, and then gives it to neighbors for free.

**[01:00:25]** And I say to him, what? You give it away for free? And he says, well, the owners are used to going into the forest,

**[01:00:41]** Basically, I took the wood for free, and they cut down the good stuff for me.

**[01:00:44]** So he says, I prefer to give them the finished product like this, so they leave the good trees standing.

**[01:00:50]** Just on your last slide, a shoutout to the elevator company, because an elevator can't just fall.

**[01:01:00]** So greetings, I kind of guess which elevator company it is.

**[01:01:04]** But there's a really good question here, because you basically say this is for e-shops.

**[01:01:16]** I still don't understand how the tree payment works.

**[01:01:19]** Try to describe somehow what it offers, how the e-shops actually work.

**[01:01:24]** I'm interested in the mechanism, because we talked about the tree being some kind of token,

**[01:01:29]** but you said you can export it to the world and the currency could be shark or anything else.

**[01:01:36]** So try to explain it.

**[01:01:37]** Exactly. We said the currency will be one tree.

**[01:01:40]** One tree equals 87 CZK.

**[01:01:42]** If you buy it as our customer and buy 10 trees, you pay 870 CZK.

**[01:01:48]** It costs me 25 CZK to plant it, including the sausage, for one tree.

**[01:01:53]** The rest goes exactly to the company, marketing, and so on.

**[01:01:57]** When it's the IT solution, meaning someone buys it on the e-shop for 87 CZK exactly the same,

**[01:02:03]** the price includes the whole solution so far.

**[01:02:06]** That means a certificate comes, GPS comes, we have a report like those e-shops,

**[01:02:11]** we can do some promotion for them and provide those services,

**[01:02:15]** so they have a better relationship with their customer.

**[01:02:18]** Or in a marketing agency, I say, we can make a marketing strategy,

**[01:02:24]** build your brand, simply build your numbers and get new customers,

**[01:02:29]** I just sell it to you for trees.

**[01:02:31]** Normally, that marketing agency service would cost 100,000,

**[01:02:35]** with us it won't be 100,000, it will be 13,000 trees.

**[01:02:38]** So I always know that 13,000 trees are guaranteed to be planted.

**[01:02:43]** I hope that's...

**[01:02:45]** Go ahead, feel free.

**[01:02:47]** No, no, try, try, actually this company model,

**[01:02:52]** can be universal and now just replace the tree with anything else.

**[01:02:58]** Yes, exactly.

**[01:02:59]** The goal is to take this method and really replicate it worldwide.

**[01:03:04]** And I don't really care if in the Philippines we save dolphins,

**[01:03:09]** or somewhere in the Amazon we just plant more trees.

**[01:03:14]** Or we plant bushes. I actually don't mind.

**[01:03:17]** The goal is to help nature.

**[01:03:19]** So the unit of measure can be anything that helps nature.

**[01:03:22]** It doesn't have to be one tree.

**[01:03:24]** And even with us, of course, I sell you one tree,

**[01:03:27]** but on the other side, we earn a lot of other things.

**[01:03:31]** We create ponds and leave the brushwood there.

**[01:03:34]** We do many other activities for nature to make it thrive.

**[01:03:37]** The goal is to build a species- and age-diverse nature,

**[01:03:42]** so that nature can take care of itself.

**[01:03:45]** That is the result of our work.

**[01:03:48]** So that nature can manage on its own and do the best it can.

**[01:03:51]** How do you decide where to plant?

**[01:03:54]** How do you find such areas?

**[01:03:56]** And what requirements does the landowner have? Do you plant monocultures?

**[01:03:59]** We look through private owners and municipalities.

**[01:04:04]** Often it's some PR in local newspapers,

**[01:04:07]** of course on Facebook and social media campaigns.

**[01:04:11]** But now we’re quite successful because we have several owners,

**[01:04:15]** and they tell their neighbors, so it spreads within the community.

**[01:04:20]** The requirements are that the owner takes care of it,

**[01:04:26]** prepares the area so it’s ready for planting.

**[01:04:30]** That means some clearing, it doesn’t have to be completely bare,

**[01:04:34]** but there should be piles of brushwood and similar.

**[01:04:38]** Ideally, a fence is made.

**[01:04:41]** The first thing that matters to us is that

**[01:04:44]** the owner aligns with our mission and vision.

**[01:04:47]** As I said, the goal is a species- and age-diverse nature,

**[01:04:51]** so we don’t plant monocultures.

**[01:04:53]** We visit each location individually.

**[01:04:56]** We create a project for each site.

**[01:04:59]** Most often, it’s beech or oak.

**[01:05:02]** In most of the country, it’s simply beech and oak.

**[01:05:05]** The rest is a mix of maple, linden, sometimes cherry,

**[01:05:09]** hazel on the edges like fields, fir, and so on.

**[01:05:13]** Spruce is a very small minority.

**[01:05:17]** Of all the trees we’ve planted,

**[01:05:20]** spruce makes up about 3%.

**[01:05:22]** So the vast majority is a real mix.

**[01:05:25]** Even on one hectare, we often have 3, 4,

**[01:05:29]** sometimes 5 tree species, so it makes sense

**[01:05:32]** for the forest as a whole and for nature.

**[01:05:34]** We don’t plant the forest to be harvested.

**[01:05:37]** We plant it so that in 80, 100, 120 years

**[01:05:41]** it will truly be species- and age-diverse.

**[01:05:44]** And thanks to that, and also thanks to legislation today,

**[01:05:47]** It wasn't possible to cut it all down at once.

**[01:05:49]** Because when you have different species,

**[01:05:51]** different trees, nature, even if it's infested,

**[01:05:54]** today it's bark beetle, next time it could be something affecting beeches,

**[01:05:57]** then something affecting waters, and if you have to cut down those trees,

**[01:05:59]** the forest ecosystem remains preserved and the forest takes care of itself,

**[01:06:01]** and suddenly you don't have to, it doesn't have to be done by humans,

**[01:06:04]** and you don't have to do those huge clear-cuts and so on.

**[01:06:06]** If your unique goal is the development of nature,

**[01:06:10]** why didn't you choose a form, why did you choose the form of an LLC

**[01:06:14]** rather than a nonprofit, a business form with beneficiaries,

**[01:06:17]** that would be set for 500 years ahead?

**[01:06:20]** I actually looked at it from a long-term perspective and thought,

**[01:06:23]** what mechanism can work for 500 years.

**[01:06:26]** And I thought, if it's a nonprofit,

**[01:06:29]** that means dealing with subsidies, grants,

**[01:06:34]** and subsidies and grants depend on politics.

**[01:06:37]** And politics doesn't necessarily prioritize nature first.

**[01:06:41]** Today it somehow works,

**[01:06:44]** there are grants and subsidies, but if someone comes next year and says

**[01:06:49]** we won't deal with this and cuts that budget item,

**[01:06:52]** and says we have a different priority, then we won't do anything for nature.

**[01:06:55]** At that moment, it doesn't seem sustainable to me.

**[01:06:58]** And the only sustainable mechanism seems to me to be,

**[01:07:02]** when we provide value to the market that it is always willing to pay for.

**[01:07:06]** That worked even 500 years ago.

**[01:07:09]** If you simply agreed with someone,

**[01:07:13]** or maybe not a glass, but to make you a little table,

**[01:07:16]** everyone was basically a tradesman, everyone was a contractor.

**[01:07:19]** The goal was, or entrepreneur, the goal was to find,

**[01:07:22]** give me this little table, whether it takes you an hour, two, or five,

**[01:07:26]** it was one thing, but you were paid for the work in a way

**[01:07:29]** that allowed you to keep doing it.

**[01:07:33]** So that's why the business format.

**[01:07:36]** And I think the business shows the difference also in how

**[01:07:39]** it's a huge engine.

**[01:07:42]** If I reduced it to a nonprofit form,

**[01:07:45]** mistakes aren't made as quickly, progress isn't as fast.

**[01:07:55]** We had to work damn hard to support those people,

**[01:07:59]** to feed nature, to survive economically at all.

**[01:08:03]** And because you have to work like that, there are 400,000 trees in the country.

**[01:08:07]** Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible.

**[01:08:10]** I think if it were a nonprofit, it would take much longer

**[01:08:13]** and you can't make such an impact.

**[01:08:16]** For me, it was important to make the biggest impact for nature,

**[01:08:19]** and that's why the business.

**[01:08:22]** And if I ask you the obvious question,

**[01:08:25]** where would you like to see the company, what would it look like?

**[01:08:29]** My goal is to build a private national park in the Czech Republic by 2030.

**[01:08:33]** That's what I'm aiming for.

**[01:08:36]** And how will that be done?

**[01:08:39]** It will be done by gradually combining land

**[01:08:42]** and letting nature take over.

**[01:08:45]** I want to buy dead fields,

**[01:08:48]** buy forests, meadows, and so on,

**[01:08:51]** and create one big whole,

**[01:08:54]** which together will form a piece of nature,

**[01:08:57]** and it will be there for people, but it will be wild.

**[01:09:00]** And that means that in the 87 crowns,

**[01:09:03]** which you actually pay, it's like some,

**[01:09:06]** how to say, some investment part that you need for the company,

**[01:09:09]** you are basically setting aside for this purpose.

**[01:09:12]** Is that how I understand it?

**[01:09:15]** Or what are you actually looking for now?

**[01:09:18]** Yes, I'm basically looking for other companies that need help.

**[01:09:21]** Whether with marketing, gaining customers,

**[01:09:24]** but they want to create some added value

**[01:09:27]** and want to do it through trees.

**[01:09:30]** That's actually the engine that drives it all.

**[01:09:33]** I help them do what they already do, but better.

**[01:09:36]** I think we are a very quality marketing agency,

**[01:09:39]** and doing the service better, delivering the service better,

**[01:09:42]** and charging for it in trees,

**[01:09:45]** because that's the engine.

**[01:09:49]** Here's a question, where do I find out about events?

**[01:09:52]** Can I come to plant? Do I have to register somewhere?

**[01:09:55]** Maybe someone wants to come on Sunday?

**[01:09:58]** Yes, a meetup, check out my LinkedIn.

**[01:10:00]** Or on Instagram, or on Instagram we have Sázíme Česko, and we usually have volunteer events on sázímečeskocz during plantings,

**[01:10:10]** but of course we also show it either on my LinkedIn or on colleagues' profiles.

**[01:10:17]** Actually, when I invited you, and you know this well, that you do research, I also found a few articles and so on.

**[01:10:27]** By the way, I think it will be a very nice discussion, then there’s the follow-up Digestive, which I’m already inviting you to,

**[01:10:35]** but the question is, do you have the ambition to collaborate with other organizations engaged in the same activity

**[01:10:40]** with the goal of increasing the number of planted trees and completed projects?

**[01:10:44]** Yes, my ambition is basically to support other entities that have a similar approach to us,

**[01:10:52]** meaning they deliver value to the market and from that invest money into nature.

**[01:10:56]** So I want to invest in this type of entities and also connect with some nonprofits,

**[01:11:05]** but that’s more of a nice-to-have, I know it won’t create a huge impact.

**[01:11:10]** I want to make that big boom, and I know we can only do that through business.

**[01:11:15]** So I’d like to help people—if ten more companies like Sázíme Česko opened, I’d be very happy.

**[01:11:22]** Many big entrepreneurs have been guests at Brain&Breakfast and more will come, you can look forward to it,

**[01:11:29]** because in 2026 we have some really great names, and usually they first built a functional business,

**[01:11:34]** then founded a foundation, and that creates a lot of good.

**[01:11:38]** So that’s the usual process; we at Red Button did it the other way around,

**[01:11:44]** we first made the foundation and now we’re building the business from it.

**[01:11:48]** It’s a more complicated path, but also not impossible.

**[01:11:52]** And yours is that it actually merges.

**[01:11:55]** Yes, because I understand the mechanism that once you fill the bucket, you can start pouring from it.

**[01:12:00]** I think that’s definitely the right path, but I thought,

**[01:12:04]** I want everyone to be able to pour already now according to their own means.

**[01:12:08]** And that means that really everyone can plant.

**[01:12:13]** I wanted the opportunity to be available to absolutely everyone, not just billionaires.

**[01:12:17]** Because it’s great when billionaires do it, but there are very few of them.

**[01:12:22]** And those people alone can’t change society’s setup.

**[01:12:27]** It has to be a societal effort that creates nature.

**[01:12:31]** That’s why I wanted to give the opportunity to everyone.

**[01:12:34]** And that’s exactly why I made a combination of business and that outreach.

**[01:12:37]** I also like that since you’re young,

**[01:12:41]** I saw the dating event, it passed around me sometimes.

**[01:12:45]** My wife probably wouldn’t let me go to such an event.

**[01:12:47]** But it’s good to involve young people, because it’s actually trendy

**[01:12:50]** to get them away from screens and into nature.

**[01:12:54]** Because when you make these things cool and trendy,

**[01:12:58]** it’s great, because then it creates a snowball effect and they,

**[01:13:03]** like Bára Starek told us here, thanks for letting us,

**[01:13:06]** and by the way, greetings, a lot of good can be done this way.

**[01:13:09]** It’s really nice when you see the people,

**[01:13:18]** Some are going to the forest for the first time.

**[01:13:20]** Now they come in those fancy shoes, so we have boots ready there,

**[01:13:23]** we lend them boots.

**[01:13:24]** Now you shake them out on the truck bed, still heading to the forest,

**[01:13:27]** on the way to the forest they get scratched by branches.

**[01:13:29]** Now they look for a moment, wondering what happened, on the way back they want more.

**[01:13:32]** You know you have to meditate on the way back.

**[01:13:35]** And just like on that list I mentioned, there will be prosecco,

**[01:13:38]** so the nice thing is that it shakes you up.

**[01:13:40]** You get on the truck bed to the forest, get prosecco in your hand

**[01:13:43]** and you think, what the hell happened, where am I.

**[01:13:46]** So suddenly you think, what kind of nonsense did these idiots come up with.

**[01:13:50]** There is a really nice connection and you can see

**[01:13:52]** that it’s not like what we remember from school,

**[01:13:55]** when you go with that old forester who shows you

**[01:13:58]** the root system and a leaf and you identify trees.

**[01:14:03]** I was always a klutz at that, so it didn’t work for me,

**[01:14:06]** but I want to make it fun, I want people to enjoy it

**[01:14:09]** and exactly, I want to connect them together.

**[01:14:11]** But many schools are watching us.

**[01:14:13]** We have a partnership with občankářema CZ,

**[01:14:16]** with whom we create materials for lessons from some of these dreams,

**[01:14:20]** and it’s a pretty nice collaboration.

**[01:14:22]** What role do schools play in this for you?

**[01:14:27]** Schools? Not economically.

**[01:14:30]** With my setup and values, they mean a lot.

**[01:14:34]** I would really like to...

**[01:14:36]** Schools do reach out to us,

**[01:14:38]** and now we have designed a program in South Moravia

**[01:14:41]** for schools systematically, but what bothers me is that

**[01:14:45]** I don’t have the system built to

**[01:14:48]** meet that demand.

**[01:14:51]** Because a school tells me about 700 students wanting to come to the forest,

**[01:14:55]** and I actually don’t have the capacity for that.

**[01:14:57]** And for it to be economically viable,

**[01:15:00]** it would have to be expensive for them.

**[01:15:03]** Because even if students pay fifty crowns per tree as a ticket,

**[01:15:07]** it’s often an expensive fun for those students.

**[01:15:10]** When they go on trips, it costs three to five hundred crowns.

**[01:15:13]** Every parent can afford that.

**[01:15:15]** So I haven't figured out the system for how to feed this.

**[01:15:18]** Several schools have joined us, it's a huge fun.

**[01:15:21]** It's just really nice,

**[01:15:23]** when you see little kids going into the forest and Mrs. Josefovka says

**[01:15:26]** watch out for your eyes, there's a branch, and he goes ouch, my eye,

**[01:15:29]** you see the experiences those people have from the forest,

**[01:15:32]** or those kids, that they recognize it.

**[01:15:34]** The same with those thirteen, fourteen-year-olds,

**[01:15:37]** when they're great, first of all their humor,

**[01:15:40]** I think most HR wouldn't approve,

**[01:15:42]** but their humor offends absolutely everyone equally.

**[01:15:45]** The great thing is that with their jokes they always outdo you,

**[01:15:48]** and you can throw anything at them, they always top it.

**[01:15:51]** So that's awesome, and for example, we had forest cleanup for them,

**[01:15:54]** and forest cleanup means,

**[01:15:57]** you pull together branches and leave the fallen trees there,

**[01:16:00]** boys who are thirteen,

**[01:16:03]** are just bursting with testosterone in all directions,

**[01:16:06]** so they see the biggest log there,

**[01:16:09]** and just go, guys, hold the birch, and now they're pulling the birch.

**[01:16:12]** So they need to show off in front of the girls,

**[01:16:15]** and you see they enjoy it, it's an experience for them.

**[01:16:18]** It occurs to me that many parents, including us,

**[01:16:21]** pay quite a bit for pleasant encounters.

**[01:16:24]** You know, business can be found there somewhere.

**[01:16:27]** I assume the school won't come and pay you for it,

**[01:16:30]** but still...

**[01:16:33]** Isn't it better to protect existing wilderness

**[01:16:36]** than to plant new?

**[01:16:39]** As I said, I think protecting is great

**[01:16:42]** and the right thing to do, but I think when we protect,

**[01:16:45]** we basically only protect what's left.

**[01:16:48]** And I don't want just what's left.

**[01:16:51]** I want us to have more.

**[01:16:54]** That's why I think it's important to build and move forward,

**[01:16:57]** because otherwise there will be less and less.

**[01:17:03]** Someone wrote here, and it caught my attention,

**[01:17:06]** that the meaning of life for me is family, not work.

**[01:17:09]** Many people feel that way. Do you want to say something about it?

**[01:17:12]** For me, it's family too.

**[01:17:15]** I think there isn't just one meaning of life.

**[01:17:18]** I believe we are in this world to become the best versions of ourselves.

**[01:17:21]** To discover who we are inside and to express that in a certain world.

**[01:17:24]** And then everyone finds their own meaning in anything.

**[01:17:27]** I found mine in nature,

**[01:17:30]** but of course, family means a lot to me.

**[01:17:33]** Everything I do, I do for my family.

**[01:17:36]** And I do it for my family as a parent,

**[01:17:39]** and I do it for my family as a parent to my children or siblings.

**[01:17:42]** Because, I don't know what I said there,

**[01:17:45]** but I've never had such a safety net in my life.

**[01:17:48]** I knew I couldn't lie to myself.

**[01:17:51]** I knew I definitely had two thousand,

**[01:17:54]** and I had to quickly figure out where to make more.

**[01:17:57]** So I build the system around me so that

**[01:18:00]** the people around me can fail.

**[01:18:04]** So my siblings can fail in life, and it's okay.

**[01:18:07]** And my children can fail, and it's okay.

**[01:18:10]** And there was always some safety net.

**[01:18:13]** I'm not saying I want to spoil my kids or give them money.

**[01:18:16]** Definitely not. At 15, you have to get a part-time job, and that's settled.

**[01:18:19]** But to build that safety net so they know they can fall.

**[01:18:22]** And that it's okay.

**[01:18:25]** Great. I think I'll end it here.

**[01:18:28]** Thank you very much for coming. Thank you for what you do.

**[01:18:32]** Thanks.

**[01:18:35]** Applause.

**[01:18:38]** We'd really appreciate it if you vote for us,

**[01:18:46]** whether you're here or watching us.

**[01:18:49]** Tell us what you thought of today's breakfast.

**[01:18:52]** Even just one word that came to your mind.

**[01:18:55]** Let's see if it's tree, or forest,

**[01:18:58]** or help, or something else.

**[01:19:01]** That would be great. Thanks for that.

**[01:19:04]** As I said, it's really nice when people come together

**[01:19:07]** and share their thoughts in some way.

**[01:19:10]** So if you'd like, and have the time and interest,

**[01:19:13]** you can, whether at your company or wherever you're watching, in a library,

**[01:19:16]** discuss some aha moments that interested you the most.

**[01:19:22]** If you want more,

**[01:19:25]** you can join us

**[01:19:28]** for our next Digestive,

**[01:19:31]** which you have the date for,

**[01:19:34]** you can register on the red.net platform.

**[01:19:37]** I'll try to invite a few people who focus on this,

**[01:19:40]** so we can really talk about the things

**[01:19:43]** that are still coming to us now.

**[01:19:46]** We see today’s breakfast as a kind of springboard.

**[01:19:49]** So anyone who wants to join the Digestive definitely can.

**[01:19:53]** And I’d also like to remind you about the business breakfasts,

**[01:19:56]** which are connected to our next Digestive.

**[01:20:00]** We have most companies available, we’ll tweak the concept a bit,

**[01:20:07]** but you can still look forward to current, pleasant, expert and practical topics,

**[01:20:12]** I can already mention health and mental resilience with Míša Šreer,

**[01:20:16]** and in December, with Petr Šídlo about innovation and the innovation mindset in general.

**[01:20:21]** I also have the honor, and we’re nearing the finale of the school of life,

**[01:20:27]** to host Ján Košturek, my great teacher, a man who has experienced a lot,

**[01:20:33]** and I feel he’s an inspiration to others. So on 26.11., always Wednesday afternoon,

**[01:20:39]** school of life, we’ll look at cooperation and Baťa’s principles.

**[01:20:42]** Red Button, many, many things behind us, including the book of the month,

**[01:20:49]** here you have Speed of Trust, I feel it’s a book that can help a lot.

**[01:20:55]** If you need anything, just press the red button, that’s what red button is for.

**[01:21:00]** And don’t miss the December breakfast invitation. For those of you who join us often,

**[01:21:08]** it’s usually a festive event, sometimes we even have a toast,

**[01:21:12]** we wish each other all the best for Christmas, and the guest will be Mark Orkovácha,

**[01:21:18]** so you have something to look forward to, it’s on 18.12.

**[01:21:21]** So, Richard, thanks again, thanks to you for coming, come on 18.12.

**[01:21:25]** Take care, bye and see you.

**[01:21:51]** Subtitles created by JohnyX