"For those who want to maximize their human potential, become the best versions of themselves, and on that path, perhaps even inspire others."
Nice to Meet You
Ever since I was a kid, I have been obsessed with becoming the best version of myself. Since we only get one chance at life (or at least from our conscious perspective, irrespective of our reincarnation or religious beliefs), we may as well use the time we have to its maximum. If there was only one responsibility we as humans have - that would be it: "To maximize our human potential and become the version of ourselves and, on that path, be a positive force and support to our family, friends, and others." This project is part of my quest to achieve that.
The fun thing about potential is that it is expandable. The older I get, the more I realize how limitless it is. How do we start? All we have to do is explore, experiment, and try new things with an open mind. Put your full heart and soul into them, and go get it! Find your purpose and passion, and create your Grand Slam Journey. You never know where it may take you. Life has interesting twists and turns.
How It Started
THE STORY
What is it that fuels each one of us in this world? For me, there are several things, one of which is my Grand Slam Journey project - Podcast and Blog. Since I started in the summer of 2020, I have found more joy, enthusiasm, and fulfillment in my life. I enjoy slowing down, speaking with my podcast guests about interesting topics, learning from their stories, and writing about my passions, interests, and observations. With each passing day, Grand Slam Journey gains more followers, and for that, I am grateful.
With love and grateful ❤️
Klara
Grand Slam Journey
ABOUT THE NAME
The name Grand Slam Journey signifies the journey of our life. In tennis, Grand Slam tournaments such as the Australian Open, Rolland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open are the 4 Grand Slam tournaments all tennis players strive to be part of and participate in. Competing at and achieving a Grand Slam level of tennis means a great deal to all tennis players worldwide. A very few achieve it, while the vast majority of them don't.
I have not achieved my goal of becoming a Grand Slam player, but one of my favorite writers Paulo Coelho would say, "It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." I lived a life of a professional tennis player, and that experience shaped me for the better. As I reflect on my tennis career, there are many things I could have done differently, but I would argue that all of life is for learning. Now, I try to apply those lessons and learnings to my second career.
Life is not about the destination but rather about the journey we choose for ourselves and decide to embark on. The journey shapes who we become and determines how joyful, fulfilled, and successful we feel about our lives. Choose your journey and focus on building good habits. I would argue that the achievement of the goal we set for ourselves is not in our control. In fact, if we lock our focus on it too much, it may make us more nervous, more distracted, and less present. We forget to enjoy the path we are on because we are too focused on the end goal. We end up living with a mindset projecting into the future yet never truly being present.
Create your journey.
Practice high involvement, low attachment,
AND most importantly, don't forget to have fun while doing it.
About Me
Foundation:
I come from a small town in the South-East part of Czech Republic called Lipov, on the borders of Slovakia and Austria. Most of the childhood I remember was after the communist era and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which was an interesting time growing up. It created a significant cultural and economic change when it comes to freedom of thought and opportunity creation. After the Velvet Revolution, my parents decided to auction a store. They became small business owners who knew nothing about running a business. They had to figure everything out, and they learned a lot. We all learned a lot with them as the business became the center of our family. This experience certainly fueled my passion for business. Before that, my mom was a kindergarten teacher, and my dad worked in a factory. My mom has always had a strong drive to achieve. She has a highly creative mind, chooses to see what's possible, and then puts her thoughts into action. When I was a kid, I remember her making clothes for the whole family because she liked fashion and wanted to be different from everyone else. She dared to be different. She is a strong, independent, and somewhat stubborn woman who has carried our family for many years. I find that a certain level of stubbornness is vital in life for one to achieve big goals. My dad has been an independent thinker with a high level of energy, passion, genuine heart, and imagination that runs way too wild for many to comprehend. He has been haunted by several poor decisions combined with bad luck multiplied by mental model challenges. By now, you can probably imagine that my childhood was very dynamic and multi-faceted. There are many lessons I learned, and some of the main ones are:
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Dare to dream and set high goals for yourself.
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If you work hard, you may be able to achieve your goals.
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Poor decisions have profound consequences.
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Fitting in is not important. Own your uniqueness, as that is what makes you special.
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Trust is important in all we do, and at some points in our lives and relationships, it may not be worth repairing. Pause often to evaluate the level of trust in your relationships. Am I better off by walking away and starting over? Is the energy I put into holding things together worth the effort of trying to rebuild trust?
Tennis:
I was a highly energetic kid who always ran around and was interested in various activities. I played the piano, did gymnastics, played volleyball, skied A LOT, did modern dance, and competed in track and field, poetry recitals, math, and foreign language contests in school. Still, tennis was the sport that grabbed me the most. I started learning tennis with my mom's best friend when I was nine years old, and it grew on me. I cannot remember much of anything else. I started, I kept playing more and more, and then I moved into a tennis academy to primarily focus on tennis when I was 13 years old. I lived on my own in an apartment close to the tennis courts, and I don't find it weird. It was what needed to be done for me to be a great tennis player. I had no second thoughts about it, and to date, this was one of the best things that happened to me, including the decision to come to the USA and play D1 college tennis. The sport and my coaches shaped me into who I am today. I learned to understand the world through tennis and believe that many tennis principles apply to business and life in general. Such as:
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Focus, prioritization, time management, and the power of creating a routine and structure
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Consistently being persistent, working hard, and staying fully committed to your goals
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Building good habits and making small improvements every day leads to large changes over time. Having a solid foundation will propel your growth later on.
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No matter how much you love something, at some point in your life, it becomes a job. Knowing the meaning behind why you do what you do helps carry you forward through challenging times. When in doubt, default back to principles #1, #2, and #3.
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Believing in yourself and the goal you set for yourself is crucial for success. It doesn't matter what others think; the most important thing is what you believe and how you see yourself. Work on yourself and trust that the rest will come.
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Creativity and adaptability are important - you never know what may work. Iterate often and try different things, especially when things are not going your way.
You can find my posts with some of these principles in the Blog section of this website.
Tennis was everything to me - It was my biggest dream, my refuge, my passion, my enemy, my biggest teacher, and my biggest failure so far. I never achieved the goals I set for myself, and I am undoubtedly better off for trying and experiencing my tennis journey because of what I learned and the person my sport helped me become. When I finished playing tennis - after college - I was broken-hearted and exhausted. My body felt worn out and old. At that point in my life, I felt like I wasted a lot of time and energy on something that didn't work out. I felt I needed to move on quickly and find something else to invest my time and energy into for the next 10-15 years to become great at something else. What should I do next? What else could I possibly like and enjoy?
Next Chapter:
I fell into telecom by accident - through tennis, and I have to say that the industry fits me well. It is constantly evolving and expanding, and what attracts me to it the most is the constant progress, innovation, and opportunity to explore and learn new things. I started in retail, which was a great way to learn about the day-to-day business - what it takes to run stores, manage people, and sell cell phones and service plans to customers. I then took an opportunity to move from Texas to California with Ericsson, where I spent a decade learning about the network infrastructure - 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G. I sold network infrastructure products and rollout services to Tier 1 customers from radio to the core and became interested in new trends such as private networks, edge computing, cloud, virtualization, digital transformation, AI, self-optimizing networks, and open RAN. I learned about the entire network rollout process, from site acquisition to network design, build, optimization, and operations. At Ericsson, I held various Sales, Business Development, and Partnership roles - working directly with partners and customers is something I have always kept at the center.
In 2021, I decided to grow my experience by accepting a new position at Apple with the Worldwide Health team under the leadership of Doug Beck. This was a new opportunity to learn, grow, and combine my passion for health and fitness while building on my strengths and experience in business and technology. It was one of my most fun jobs - a worldwide role working with some of Apple's most significant partners to inspire people to live healthier and safer lives while creating new programs that drive new revenue streams. There is something powerful and wildly satisfying about the impact of Apple's technology and innovation and how it comes to life. The most fun things don't typically last long, and Apple decided to change leadership and focus three years later. Yet - learning about the Apple culture and what Apple is about was a very unique experience. I find that exceptional companies - like exceptional athletes - have a lot in common - the uncompromising focus to constantly push the boundaries of what's possible, never settling for good enough, the deep attention to detail that is hard to explain without experiencing it, and surrounding yourself with some of the smartest people that always raise your bar.
Steve Jobs once said: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
In 2024, I decided to join Accenture - a 770k people large global consulting firm led by Julie Sweet. The breadth of offering to solve clients' challenges is unlike anywhere else I have experienced thus far.