I am 24

Ever since I have had this blog I have posted each year an article after I had a birthday. It's funny because last year I wrote the article a day before a Christmas party of our lab at the university and today it's again a day before that party.

Expectations

When I read the last years article I was laughing looking at the expectations I had. Here are some of them:

I thought I am going to create a company that will develop a system aggregating web services for B2B and I wanted it to be finished by February.

I was hoping we could so some project that would be successful in Microsoft Imagine Cup competition.

I haven't seen my girlfriend for quite some time so I was hoping I would get to see her soon enough.

I thought I was going to get the bachelor academic title and begin my masters.

How everything changed in January

I feel I am not the same I was a year ago really. In January I lost my girlfriend, my studies and money. I don't want to talk about that too much but thanks to the changes I got where I am today.

What to do?

I wasn't really doing much for quite some time, I had my head full of everything. I was lucky to have few amazing friends to help me and I thank them.

In February we made important decision not to create a B2B software but to try create a solution for the elderly and hit Imagine Cup with that.

So we started working on the computer system for elderly people: Celebrio, and changed our business plan. I was focusing on work and days were running by.

There was Imagine Cup in April and we had a system interface but it couldn't really do anything. But I managed to create all the applications nearly on my own within two weeks and the night before the competition I got it compatible with Windows Azure.

The next day we won Czech national round of Imagine Cup and we knew that we are going to New York for world wide finals. There were articles about us and we were happy. And my life has finally begun turning around.

Let's be winners

Winning was great feeling. We also decided another competition: Vodafone Idea of the Year. It was a true challenge, the projects there were amazing and we weren't really expecting much when we waited for the results. But we got the Ekonom Student entrepreneur 2011 award and we won the first place. I was on TV for the first time that night but it wasn't for the last.

Celebrio seems to be a golden egg and even people back in Uničov, the small town we are from recognized our achievements.

Five of our team mates graduated in June and 3 of them had red diploma (well Petr kind of had 3 red diplomas on his own for this matter). I felt like I should be part of it but I wasn't a student anymore.

Imagine Cup finals in New York were amazing and New York was amazing but there has been said enough about that at other times.

Summer

The day I got home from New York I found a new girlfriend for few weeks. It didn't work out but I don't think that we were a good match.

We spent the summer working in office in South Moravian Innovation Centre making Celebrio become a finished system and so I have spent most of my summer in Brno.

I was enjoying myself and working for what I believed in. I was going back to the university. I got to know about entrance exam a day before due time but I managed it anyway and got 93.8 percentil even tho my parents didn't even believe that I could make it as I never get much trust from them.

The business was going well and we even started talking to some big companies in Czech Republic about partnership.

Winter Semester

The university begun again and I have enrolled into few classes. I hope I am gonna finish it this time.

I have also decided to learn dancing which I really enjoy and I want to continue dancing.

Celebrio started really moving from a student project into commercial company and there is no way back. I can't wait for the next year to see that will happen.

Expectations for the next year

I don't really know much what the next year is going to be like and I don't feel like it's good to have much expectation although I have high hopes for Celebrio. I believe in our Celebrio team that they will be able to deliver the product we need.

I am 24, I am as far from 18 as I am far from 30. I don't really feel like a teenager anymore but I can see I can do things I have never thought that we possible for me. So the plan for the next year is to exploit everything that life will bring. I want to be wild on outside but I also want to be calm inside.