Filip Michalský

Life can be such a meandrous and convoluted path that I realized there is never “the” right way of what to pursue. As already Socrates put it succinctly “I know that I don’t know”, this saying pretty much sums up my current approach to my career. One thing I would like to highlight for anyone reading this, though, is that it is absolutely crucial to be open to new opportunities and to think outside of the box. After my high school in Prague, I started out studying chemical engineering at the ICT Prague, but after one year I departed to the U.S., to a very rural Lewiston, Maine, for college after being recruited to play varsity squash for that school. At Bates, I learned a lot about current cultural pains but also acquired a unique understanding of many matters beyond just my vials with chemicals. Living out in the buns was a huge shock for me, so after one year I decided I would like to perfect my German so I departed for one year to Munich where, apart from enjoying Oktoberfest, I studied more chemical engineering. Then, I decided to come back to the U.S. to finish up my degree at Bates, where I got fascinated by light and hence by quantum chemistry so I did my thesis in tandem with studying Russian Language. However, I realized I was likely not suited for academia. So I deviated to health care consulting for a bit and then thanks to the generous support of Bakala Foundation I was able to start a data science degree at Harvard in the fall of 2017. The concentration of talented people at Harvard is truly something remarkable and has broadened my horizons a lot. I also started contributing to a diabetes tech startup. My dream has always been to build a big business which will have as big of a positive impact as possible to as many humans as possible. Adopting the philosophy of “failing forward” from two failed startup projects (the diabetes one and then an another one for Commercial Real Estate AI-based Analytics platform), I pursued a career as a data scientist for a few years, building personalization algorithms not dissimilar to those which make us all so addicted to TikTok. After I acquired a few apartment units in the Boston area, I found myself building a real estate investment lending platform called corelant.com. I would have never expected this, had you asked me just a few short years prior to this endeavor. This is precisely what makes life interesting. I also moved to NYC and I had a moment of enlightenment of what I want to do when I grow up and what truly makes me happy. Namely, I realized that those who really make decisions in this world are capital allocators. I want to make decisions which will positively impact as many people as possible. I can highly recommend the book from Ray Dalio - Principles For Dealing with the Changing World Order and to study Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We will see where the journey goes by the time I write the next update! As I said in the beginning, you never know what life brings about next and the pure fact it is unknowable makes it just so much more exciting.