Pavol Varga-from corporate to entrepreneurship

Pavol Varga flew in his Cessna plane to meet up with Mac and talk about his life and career changes.
After almost 18 years in leadership roles at major IT corporations he embarked on an entrepreneurship journey, building an IT services business in Vienna, Austria. A great listen!
Guest bio
Born and bread in Slovakia, Pavol studied business, worked and did business in several European countries. His first job was a business journalist for a news agency. After almost 18 years in leadership roles at major IT corporations he embarked on an entrepreneurship journey, building an IT services business in Vienna, Austria. Pavol and his wife Katarina live in and near Bratislava, Slovakia, raising 2 sons. Apart from his family and IT innovations improving our daily lives Pavol is passionate about running, hockey and generally outdoor sports. He recently decided to follow a childhood dream and completed a pilot training and is keenly building up his flying time as a rookie pilot of single engine aircrafts. At some point he plans to pick up skydiving again - a skill he got trained in many years ago as a conscript paratrooper soldier.
Pavol is a great believer in self starting and personal discipline in every aspect of life while being nice to others, he hates excuses, beating about the bush and blame games.
In this episode you will learn:
- what are Pavol’s ways of dealing with procrastination
- why it is important to make hard decisions
- that although transfering from corporate to entrepreneurship is demanding and stressful it can be worth it
Notes from the episode:
Our guest flew in from Slovakia in his Cessna. Pavol is an entrepreneur. He opened his IT company in Austria after having worked in a corporate environment for 15 years.
Inspired by one of Mac's questions: What is the most irrecoverable asset in his life - Pavol decided to take on one of his goals which was building his own business. It was hard for him to leave his former company, but he knew it was time to move forward. His company is an IT service provider. It is a small startup of which Pavol is one of the co-founders. He teamed up with experienced colleagues to give the company a good foundation.
Pavol’s aim in life at the moment is to build things and make them better. This applies to all aspects or his life. He feels that he made good use of the opportunities that have been given to him over the years- this also involved working hard to gain access to them.
After coming back from INSEAD our guest decided to move away from a
career in sales and go to HR. He wanted to have whole responsibility for the whole business. Pavol knew he was a "sales guy" but he felt that this decision would help in his development. He started as a recruitment manager.
At the moment Pavol focuses on building his business and spending as much
time with his family as possible.
Our guest gets most of this energy from being alone as he is an introvert.
When asked how he likes to spend this accumulated time and energy he says:
I like to invest my time, not spend it. He does things that can be considered projects and he does them at his own pace. One of the things our guest would like to improve on is minimizing procrastinating. He finds it helpful to make TO DO lists as well as
to do sports. Pavol is a runner. If he neglects this activity, he notices that his mental capacity goes down.
One of the life learning that our guest tries to never forget about is: You are responsible for whatever you do. To add to that, the last 12 months taught him that being busy does not equal to being productive.
What Pavol would like our listeners and viewers to remember is:
If you don’t do it, it will not happen. Stop waiting for things to just take place – take action!
Book recommended by Pavol: