Interview: Marek Lehocky
CEO Marek Lehocky and swimming partner makes history in first unassisted circumnavigation swim around Oahu. We discuss perseverance, transnational business, swimming, goal setting, and determination.
In November 2022, Marek Lehocky (white cap in front) and his swimming partner Dr. Steven Minaglia completed a challenging, staged circumnavigation swim around the island of Oahu. This impressive accomplishment marks the first unassisted circumnavigation of the island on record.
Marek Lehocky, originally from Slovakia and now residing in Honolulu, is the CEO of Kreston ProWorks, a business support services company based in Tokyo, Japan.
During our conversation, we delved into various topics such as his upbringing, love for the ocean, the importance of goal-setting, transnational business experience, breathing and perseverance, and his insight into determination.
Marek brings a unique cultural lens to the conversation, which is invaluable in understanding and navigating the complexities of the modern world. His multicultural background and transnational experience provide him with a nuanced perspective in understanding and navigating the complexities of the modern world.
Connect with Marek and his Oahu Circumnavigation Swim
AI Generated Transcript of above podcast.
Leafbox:
Marek. Well good morning and thank you for meeting with me today. So tell me about this rough ocean today. What's it like the ocean today?
Marek:
Oh yes, good morning, Robert. It, it's just great when ocean is rough. Typically what that means is there's no boats, there's no surface, there's just big waves, strong current. We have some jelly fish in the water today, man of war actually. Not a jellyfish. It's man of war and it's just wild. It cleans your head, it cleans your body mind, everything. It's just great. And after four days of being sick, it was just great to be back in the water.
Leafbox:
So how far did you swim today?
Marek:
Not really far, because I had to dial in to speak with you. So I only did about two miles out of the Hilton Hotel side towards Diamond head.
Leafbox:
Nice. And how long have you been swimming, Marek?
Marek:
Well, I started swimming when I was five, that goes back to Eastern Europe, the old Russian school times. So I was very intense for quite a few years. Then I stopped swimming after my teenage years being fed up with being pushed too much and I came back to swimming when I was back in Hawaii, say about six years ago. So there was quite a big gap when I could not feel smell and seawater a couple of years.
Leafbox:
So in Eastern Europe, where were you swimming?
Marek:
Yeah, so a little bit of a background. I was born and raised in Eastern Europe in Slovakia, which is part of former Czech Slovak. People may know it it was part of the Soviet block, but not as many people think that it was part of the Soviet Union. We were just kind of under the extended wings, which is what I guess the current president is trying to reestablish again with all the craziness. So it was Eastern Europe, Slovakia, but the whole programs and everything was kind of ran by the whole U S S R type of methodology. So it was very intense. It was part of the Cold War kind of approach as well. So if you are participating in any competitive sport, you are part of the competition with the vest so to speak. So yeah, that was five and then it continued until it was about 14. It was strictly in pool. It was really competitive. So it's to in short period of time, get as strong as you can and win as much as you can type of approach. So it was very technical. And
Leafbox:
I'm curious, growing up in the east I guess, and under kind of a Soviet system or Soviet model, what would you say some of the positives of that kind of structure were in terms of education or sports or anything like that?
Marek:
Yeah, so first of all, I mean any kids, I was a kid. So when the whole thing ended, which was 1989 with what they called Velvet Revolution and maybe took us two more years to get the Russians up completely, all the troops move out. Basically when you're a child you find fun in everything and anything which is you just need the environment and you probably know it through your own daughter that whatever you have, it's fun. And so what we had then was a lot of free time. The school system was quite strict and quite structured, but at the same time it had elements of what schools, school systems like Montessori have now. So we had a lot of hands-on, we had a lot of say gardening type of stuff, cooking and all type of things. So we learned a lot. And so it was interesting for us the support sides of things in schools was really good as well because there were clubs after school the schooling system first of all was free.
So that that's a phenomenal thing when you come to think of it. It's it. And it is not on the level of say public school system here it was all the way through evening if you wanted. So any clubs, whether it was sports, arts, science in the afternoon, it was all free. And so that's why also there was quite a wide pool of talent coming out of Eastern Europe. And if you watched Olympics, it was quite competitive then. And as I said, partially it was driven by the fact that it was part of the Cold War kind of thinking as well. But also what was good that I think the Communis were kind of smart in a way that they knew that they cannot pay people much. So they have to give them different pleasures. They have to educate the people really well, so they good workforce and to keep the minds occupied, they give us programs so things were for free. So while people couldn't travel, couldn't have what people had in the west, we had things like free education, free medical system, we had three camps, what equivalent of Boy Scouts type of things.
We had quite intense military training, which for boys it's like it's equivalent of modern, I guess video games, but their life with military involved when you go out and you play with small grenades and run around and shoot air guns and stuff like that. So for boys it's cool. So that was really cool and we had a lot of time for each other and a lot of freedom schools basically there was only one school that you could go to which was the closest to your house, which I believe is very close to what the current school system in Finland is about. So you basically went to school with your buddies, so you were well connected, you went with people from different levels of life and different with different backgrounds. So we learned how to deal with each other. And after school we either went to clubs or we went home, which was very safe anyway. And we played outside for hours and hours, which is big challenge in today's society. So we had fun. So that was a great thing I think.
Leafbox:
What was the language learning? Was this in Slovakian? Did you learn Russian or English or German, other languages?
Marek:
Well, in a nutshell it was Russian as a foreign language, obviously because that was the mother Russia kind of thing that they were presenting to us. But from what I recall, not just how I felt, but also my friends, we were not really keen on because it's like with anything, with people in general, and particularly with kids and even animals, when the push approach doesn't work, it has to be pool, but it was more on the push side. So we didn't really like learning Russian. The good part was that it was part of the slavi group of languages. Even though it was on the opposite side of the spectrum, it was easy for us to learn in a way. So we learned it. Now, there were a few courses in English and German, but you have to remember that anything related to the west, west of central Europe, so to speak, as was enemy because it had different ideology and any ideology including say even Christianity and so on, was competing with the communist ideas and ideology. So there wasn't a lot of that, but there were some people who were able to speak German and English a little bit, but again, for the communist, that was an opportunity or they saw it as an opportunity for people to connect with the rest, which they didn't want even more. So it was quite limited.
Leafbox:
And then Marek, how old were you when the Soviet block collapsed and the Czech Republic broke apart?
Marek:
Yeah, so it all started with the Berlin Wall, which was 1989 if I remember. And soon after the Velvet Revolution, which started in track in the former Czechoslovak capital, that was basically a student's kind of small gathering and they got pushed back quite heavily by the police and suddenly this is still question till day, whether it was the communist managed exit or it was just really as intense as it was. But suddenly there were videotapes being distributed off that sort of oppression of the uprising of the students in the Prague to all schools. And what happened was we all set in whether it was cafeterias or somewhere, and we basically said no, we started jingling keys because somebody came up with it telling the communists, okay, it's time for you to give us the keys from the country. And that was when I was 14. So the difference between say how it happens, how the overturn of the communist regimes happened in other countries in Slovakia, Chico, Slovakia, it happened through young people and then artists joined us. And so we're out in the street at the age of 14, 15, 16, which is interesting.
Leafbox:
Then Marek, how did you immediately then move or have interest in the west then? Or what was that like?
Marek:
No, absolutely no, no. Well of course we were hungry, so we wanted to get to know things, we wanted to have things. And we did have a little bit of a veg because the communists did have exchange programs for some of the workers going to say Libya, that communist regime friendly countries. And they were paid in what they call bonds, not equivalent of the bonds that here, but it was just basically a fake currency that they could control. And then there were special stores that had Levi jeans and all that kind of stuff. So if you had the bonds, you could go and buy stuff. There was maybe one per bigger city of town. So we knew what the taste vest tastes like and smells like. But when the borders opened up, obviously we were still second class citizens. We were not part of the eu, we were just sort of between.
And the west was very cautious. They didn't want to get flooded, but it is eastern European, so it wasn't as easy from the beginning. But yeah, I mean we were all interested. I was a rock climber at that time, so I switched very quickly from swimming to rock climbing and that took me around Europe. We used to take old cars and just drive them around Europe, climb and then go to the seaside Oceanside. And that was the first time when I tasted the ocean and I started looking out and thinking, yeah, this is what I like, I want to swim in the ocean.
Leafbox:
And then just to iterate, how did you end up in the US then what is your trajectory there? Or maybe we can talk about Japan too and your interest in that.
Marek:
It's all kind of connected. So I did finish my first masters, master's in Slovakia, Japanese intercultural communication and diplomacy that related with master's and bachelor's degree together. So I was about 24 when I finished that. I learned English when I was 18. So I went to a language school, very intense language school. So for a year I didn't go to university and I just focused on learning English because I could see a lot of opportunities in Eastern Europe just to describe what was happening around then, which is about three, four years after we changed the system or we started changing the system because it's still sort of changing eastern Europe. But everything that you can imagine looking out of the window now, wherever you are, you can just look outside and imagine that everything belongs to the country today and tomorrow everything is available to anybody who will raise their hands I want.
The problem was that people were very risk adverse because obviously they lived on salary, they would barely get them by month to months with how it was controlled by the communist. So even if you had a chance to buy a factory or to buy your convenience store looking like small shop mom and pops looking like shop or anything or say car shop very few people would actually raise their hand. So there was a lot of activity among just a few small group of people who would participate in what was called privatization process and basically getting assets in terms of for free. So that's where I felt that I need to learn English. And at 18 when I was being asked by my friends to help them with joint ventures and so on, I knew that English was something that was going to set me free from and allow me traveling, allowed me to travel around the world. So that was the first thing. And second step, I took that master's and bachelor's together. So I 24, when I was about to graduate, I was approached by a Japanese company.
Leafbox:
Wait, wait, Marek, one second. So you're 18 learning English and then you choose to do a career in Japanese. Where does the interest in Japan come from? I mean Japan is kind of a far away <laugh>, very, very far place from Slovak. I'm just curious where that came from and where
Marek:
That Yeah, how much time do we have? But yes so originally I always want to be an MD and medical doctor. It happens that my older brother is a surgeon and he's traveled around the world and he is the smart one in the family. So watching him I kind of started have second thoughts, but anyway, when I was about 18 for some reason I decided not to pursue a medical degree and started thinking about what to do. And so the next one was obviously alternative medicine. And in Slovakia there were not many people actually, there was only one really famous people person who did acupuncture and similar things and she was quite famous even in the Chinese community that was very limited but was in Slovakia and I was talking that in the scientific world. But the problem was that she would not teach anybody.
So I spent about six months, I like the idea of being close to the real medicine but doing something alternative. And we always had our eyes on Asia at that time and particularly Japan. The view of Japan was very different from the rest of Asia. That was Asia for us and then it was Japan. And I find that that's quite similar across the world because Japan of the sophistication, because where they were during the bubble era and the development and how they were able to turn economy and environment and everything around from the seventies to the eighties. So the late eighties it was economic power. It was culturally very interesting, it was sophisticated. And we also had this running joke that if the communis were really to look for the ideal country for communism, that would be Japan. Because probably with the right leader, people would the right, like I'll say from tomorrow you're going to do this, people just go hike and could follow.
So there was also interest there, but with the alternative medicine it wasn't really still connecting to that extent. So when I actually finally got that lady to agree to become my tutor a faith took control and she suddenly passed away two weeks later, sudden death. And I was an eyeopener and kind of a closing to my whole MD kind of medical field career chapter. I just thought, yeah, that's a higher calling telling me that maybe not pursue. And my climbing partner at that time, just several days later just out of the blue came up, came with a book on Japanese characters that was probably the first one printed in check and I think check, check in Japanese on Japanese characters. And he just said, well I just saw this in a store for some reason I thought of you and I bought it. Here it is still, wait, I don't know why I bought it, but here it is, I just thought of you.
And he just threw it in front of me. So I started looking through the book and then that was probably the moment that when things started connecting with Japan and interest in Japan, when I decided to depart from the medical field and I just said, okay, I'm going to go for business, but if I do business, I want to make sure that it's something that will give me a skillset that I will not have to look for work by work will look for me. So I start looking around more and I realized that actually the first foreign investor in Slovakia was from Japan. It was a car manufacturer or car parts manufacturer, quite a large one with over a hundred thousand employees around the world. And they created a joint venture with the Slovak partner and knowing, and I did a little bit more research and I actually learned that there are not many, if any people in Slovakia who in fact speak Japanese.
I thought, well, okay, this is it. I'm interested in Asia, it's still nation that's closer to human side of things then the western cultures are, and also it's something that can give me an advantage in Slovakia. So I looked for school first. I found out that the only school was in Prague in Czech Republic and the oldest school, the CWA University, I did actually apply. I went there and I quit after a month when I learned that basically the teachers took advantage of the market, that there were Japanese companies coming to Prague and to the Czech Republic first because obviously they were closer to the west of the German border. And so they took all the gigs and I felt that they were not teaching us enough probably, at least that's what I felt, that they want to create more competition around them. So I didn't like that approach.
I left and luckily Slovakia and E two corporation had an agreement that they would invest money and they would start the same thing in Slovakia. So first time ever they announced that there would be a master's degree in Japanese and they connectivity intercultural communications and diplomacy. And I was lucky enough to get in first it was supposed to be six people, but we ended up being two guys in 18 girls for six years as a cohort group. And we had some Slovak teacher, but we mainly had a Japanese teacher who was a very interesting descent of Samurai, one of the fighting samurai clan families. So her whole family was very traditional in education and approach to life. And I've learned I was very lucky to learn a lot from her and that's how I connected myself to Japan and the whole Asian part of myself.
Leafbox:
Fascinating. So your friend, if you hadn't bought you that kaji book, I mean your life might be different.
Marek:
Absolutely.
Leafbox:
I mean what an amazing, and then at what level, I mean there's the N five to N one what level did you get to with that kind of Japanese level?
Marek:
Well, the school was intense. It was very intense and as I said, imagine that you have a summarize top woman
Leafbox:
Plus the Soviet
Marek:
Being a teacher, kind of
Leafbox:
Encouragement. Yeah,
Marek:
Yeah, she was extremely strict and she also happened to work as an announcer TV announcer for many years. So she was just impeccable. The cultural background education upbringing was just super strict, very traditional Japanese, but also her skills were great. And basically the way that she approached us, the very first day she said in Japanese, which was very ironic, she says it's more important to learn how to speak in English with Japanese minds than to speak Japanese with a foreigner or English mind in order to survive and in goodbye in Japan. So they kind of sent a message on what she was going to teach us that Japan is not about the language, but it's about the social cultural aspect of things and understanding how the culture works. That is much deeper side of the whole culture and it's not just in Japan. I believe that in general in Asia it's quite the case.
So that was one thing. And the second thing was basically she came to us and said, Mary, this is just between us, but I only have two students. And mind you again, I said that there were 18 girls and two guys because again, how culturally it is positioned and her mission was to bring up two guys who can lead the business side of things and the relationship side of things because Japan at that time and then probably even now still is largely patriarch, I think is the right word. So she put a lot of energy into us. And the third thing was, Mary, if you don't come to eat dinner at my house, and she was married with two kids, one of who was actually our classmate, she said they will not finish this school. And that was again, another extended way of teaching me the culture and being part of a family, see how to eat, how to eat, how to, how to function within the Japanese society. So I was very, very lucky in that sense.
Leafbox:
And then when was your first visit to Japan?
Marek:
During that was I think, yeah, that was during my study. So the studies were six years. It was quite intense. And just to finish answering your question we went all the way. So six years, you can imagine it's a lot. And first three, four years I could not put a full sentence together. And the reason was because we set a really broad base for the language is you may know Japanese has many different levels of language, whether it's the children's language, women and then the horrific and so on. So we were basically learning, it's building a big wall and you start sitting the foundations and you put the first level of breaks, second level of breaks, but in order to be able to complete sentence, you have to reach say, I don't know, a floor at least. And it took us because we are going on the full extent of the language from left to we're building the vocabulary, we are building the grammar that is different with the different levels of language and the linguistic aspects as well of that and how you pick the language that you use or the different types of language when you come use it, and also how you behave in those contexts.
So it took us about three to four years when we finally were able to, when it all rounded up for us as you were able to speak, but once we were able to speak we were able to speak on all different levels and that was just an amazing thing for me. So again, it's when I was about fourth grade we were quite there and with Kaji as well, we learned about over 2000 cji handwriting obviously as well because not the technology not being available too much then there. So we were quite advanced and then we started passing all the exams. So we went all the eq, we went straight to eq, we, I think we were exempt or something and I remember, but then we also went to Budapest for that. And we also passed inaudible test, which is the Ministry of Education in Japan, and that's gear towards Japanese who try to get certified on a higher level of Japanese sort of command of the language. And that was by the end of the sixth year.
Leafbox:
It's crazy especially since you're studying not in Japan, so you don't have the resource base to have a full immersion. So that's actually even more challenging.
Marek:
It was very interesting to first time travel to Japan, which is to answer your second questions, when I was in my fifth, I think I was asked to join the ministry of Culture of Slovakia because Slovakia is known for what they call Bek Fantasy, fantasy. And it's once a year an exhibit, exhibit of children's book illustrations from all around the world, the best of them. And apparently some group of Japanese came along and they really loved it. So they went back home, they got some funding, they built a gallery specifically for that and once they built it, they came to Slovakia and said, look, we build this gallery, please let us bring this exhibition to the Japanese children and people. And so they made an exemption and they did it. And so they asked me to be on tour with them and then bring that exhibition to Japan.
So that was my first time Japan. And I freaked out on the plane because I had never met any Korean people before and I had no idea what Korean sounds like and I had no idea what the differences are. But I was sitting on a flight straight flood from Vienna to I think Osaka the first time. And there was a group of young people sitting in front of me and I didn't know they were Koreans, but they were speaking and I don't know, but there there's some words that sound like Japanese, but you cannot just make out of it what it is. So I'm sitting there, I'm listening, I'm like, oh my goodness, is this what I'm supposed to be interpreting from? Because I had no idea what they were talking about. So this is real Japanese. So I've just lived in a bubble for this whole five years and this is just not good at all.
Luckily to my surprise, when I came out of the plane and people came the real Japanese, I could understand everything and I was so confused. So I asked my friend, whose daughter of my teacher and quite these people, why do they speak such strange Jackson accent? It's like, oh, because they're Korean. So it was in a very interesting kind of connection with being the lab mouse or mice coming out to the real world and realizing that, okay, you're fine, even though we were in the lab kind of conditions on the lab conditions for five years, but you will get by. And then it just started all connecting obviously in Japan. What was the culture shock at that moment? None Japan. Oh, we were gods, we were guards in Japan, this is going back to nineties, going back 25 years, like nineties. So obviously I was American America in.
So that was one thing that there was no, but anybody who was white who was tall long legs and big nose was America Jin. And it was interesting because we were never superstars with the underdog in eastern Europe. So coming out to Japan and all of a sudden everybody, it's literally people coming to me left, particularly when we were in Skok because that's where when the Kochi exhibits was taken they were not used to foreigners at that time at all on sort of unofficial side of things. So they're coming and asking me, they can touch my nose, they can know, measure their legs against me. And it was very interesting. So that was first cultural. So again, the second was food. It was just for me coming from eastern Europe. But really the choices are quite limited because again, we didn't have import of things, we didn't have good fish, we only had carb and stuff like that, like stinky pond fish and stuff like that.
So when I went there and I started smelling and tasting the new foods, it was just amazing and it will stay in my head and mine forever. I think that was the biggest thing. Everything else was very cool because like I mentioned in the beginning and as we said that we thought that Japan was the best country for communists to take over if some ever evil communist would to come and take over. It was exactly like that because it was very similar to what we grew up in. It's very systematic, it's very process based. So if you follow the process and it don't stick out of the line, it it's very easy to navigate. But the difference between the eastern Europe and Japan was that it was sophisticated into quite a great extent free, there was nobody kind of putting it back in line. So it was very enjoyable for me, it was just coming back home, but very sophisticated, modern than clean, a nice home. So that was when, I don't know if it's a cultural shock, but it was very nice kind of realization that yeah, this is a country I could live in.
Leafbox:
No, I think the thing that's so great about Japan is that it's such an alternative system that works in such a great way. So it's such a counter to the west and to other models. Obviously if you go to India or something, it's a different system entirely, but it's harder to appreciate at the first glance that culture for instance.
Marek:
So if you don't have problem with following the system, it it's actually extremely easy system to live in. It's only when you start questioning things. But again, being in a developed society, though it's still Asian society, and I apologize if it, it's sounds bad, but there's still limitation, but it's it, it's also open, it's been under the influence of the western society and they've been really good at taking over quite a few systems. Like accounting system is based on Germany legal system, it's based on Germany, very close and so on. So you can see that and thinking as well. So you can fall out of the system and you can be a foreigner can and I actually apply it quite often so I can be very Japanese I believe, and I can also be very foreigner just to push things through initiatives through so that that's a great part of Japan that you don't get shot for that you know actually still have that.
Leafbox:
Well most of my Japanese seems that yeah, it's maybe easier to be a guy, a foreigner in Japan than actually being a Japanese unless you're really willing to break the rules.
Marek:
Yes, that's right. That's right. Yeah.
Leafbox:
So it's selective passing, especially with your language skills, you can become a foreigner if you need to or become fully Japanese and keigo or whatever you need to according to the setting. Let, let's go back to your swimming for a second before we go back to Japan. I can see how you have the endurance now to do a daily practice of swimming and tell me about your latest adventure swimming and your congratulations on achieving your goal, but tell us about that.
Marek:
Well was so we called it swim around Oahu. So Oahu is an island here in how Hawaii it's about 135 miles to circumnavigate swim, that island, it was never done before except for one surfer who claimed doing it, but it was sort of a combination of crossing certain sections by a boat and having fins on and so, so on. So it was never really done properly and I think he did it in some sort of effort to bring attention to ocean and what's happening basically with the whole habitat. But what I do is, well it's not necessarily practice for me, it's more like it's my shrine in a way. You could describe it to people going to shrine that I just need to clear my head. I work through all different time zones here in Hawaii and so it happens that I work till late or work in the morning, so I do need to get switch out of things and the ocean is just the best thing.
Yes, people tell me that, how can you, and it's really it. I knew afraid of sharks. Are you afraid of jellies or the currents or the boats? But that's the thing that for example, we probably don't think about the risks we take that when we sit in a car and we on H one highway driving and when you actually pay attention to how many accidents there are and how many people die a year on H one and it's just as one short stretch of highway in Hawaii that has 45 miles an hour speed limit. And you put into perspective how many people die swimming in the ocean who are actual swimmers. I'm not talking about the tourists who don't know what they're doing. It's fairly safe I think statistically and particularly if you practice a lot, but it's the mental kind of cleansing that you get because obviously if you're a normal person you do feel fears, you do feel anxieties.
There're all different kinds of stimulus in the ocean. And just like this morning when the waves are coming at you from left and right to the point where there's absolutely no boats, no surface. So the ocean is very interesting this morning and the winds are supposed to be 50 to 80 miles a day, an hour today. So the ocean really is out there. But when we decided to do this swim, we used to do, and I still do from time to time channel crossings and the closest ones I've done are here in Hawaii islands of Maui and the Lanai and Molokai, it's a triangle of violence approximately all between about 10 to 12 miles depending on the line that you can hold and which is decided by the currents and the waves and the conditions and wind on that day when is swim. But it's a project, it's always a project because you have to plan, you have to have a boat, you have to travel somewhere.
And I happen to have 11, soon to be 12 and then eight year old children at home and I like to spend time with them. So it's been difficult for me to take the time away, particularly when I have to travel to Japan and other parts of the world for business. So I came up with this project to, I was just looking around sitting on the beach and thinking, well I have this greatest swim ever here. Nobody's done it before. And I get to know my islands, I'll get, there's some challenging parts, obviously what I call the corners of the island. So there's a sticking, sticky, sticking out parts of the island, which from what I researched before we did the swim are always challenges because we're in the middle of the Pacific. So if you really look at Hawaii and you look at the current map, the waters hitting those corners can be pretty crazy.
So I knew that we would have enough adrenaline doing that. And then also the most appealing part was that we can do it on our own time. We don't need a boat and we can sort of do a pioneer kind of approach where it was just two guys, two cars and we'll try to see how far we can go supporting ourselves, bringing water in our suits and some gels and just go, so plan ahead and do the swim. So we ended up taking 24 swims to cover the 135 miles over 72 hours total to swim circumnavigate Oahu. Between was March and November last year. Why it took so long. It's because my partner happens to be a very busy OB b gyn surgeon at the Queen's hospital here. And also I travel a lot and I spend almost four months out of that time outside of the country. So just physically impossible. But whenever we were in the country and we had time, we just took off and we would swim. Every swims would be about six miles at the time. So it was very interesting.
Leafbox:
How did those compare and challenge towards the channel crossings? Was this easier in terms of swimming or harder or I'm just
Marek:
Curious. Oh, it depends on challenge. It depends on the challenge on the channel, sorry you have say north channel or you have Cook Strait in New Zealand, which is very challenging because of the currents and particularly because of the temperature. So for people coming out of Hawaii, it's a super challenging swim and you cannot compare because you would have to use cold baths and I ice baths and so on to adapt your body to cold water environment. So it really is difficult. But on the contrary, we had guys coming from Europe who were trying to break do a double KK crossing, which is the channel between Honolulu and Molokai, 42 kilometers one way. So it'd be almost a hundred kilometers swim. They wanted to do a relay both ways. They give up after the first hour basically saying that the ocean is too hot, they could not breathe because they, they're exactly the open table swim.
And so for them Hawaii was challenging for me. I could not swim the north channel without actually relocating there for a couple of months and getting used to that temperature. So it's hard to compare on that level In terms of intensity, I think Hawaii has different type of water first of all. So really the ocean is, it's an element much stronger element compared to say even Lamont Chanel channel because you have boats and you have all the other kind of challenges there and you have currents, but the ocean doesn't get as crazy as here. And the difference between swimming also a channel and around the island, which at times we would get mile and even more off away from the shore off the shore because we would need to avoid all the shallows and all the outside reefs.
The ocean can gets really, really, really rough, but current's pushing the left and and you cannot just, okay say that's it, I'm going to go in because the coastline is rigid there, there's sharp coral reefs sticking out and there's big waves so you'll got torn up, torn into pieces if you just decided to go at any point. So you really need to know what you're doing, you have to be ready in your mind. Well I just have to go through it and see how far I go. And so that's what was very interesting and how in a different way it compares and doesn't compare to channels. And plus also we didn't have any support, which was another kind of specific condition that we set on ourselves that we do not want to have a boat. One was from logistical perspective because having a boat relying on a boat would probably slow down the project. But plus also we just want to try how far can people go on their own. And so we try to do a study, how much water can you bring in your suit and how far does it get you and are you okay? Because often we swim in the morning, we say we would start at 6:00 AM in the morning and we would have to be at work or still would've to be at work operating at one o'clock in the afternoon. So we would just go for eight mile swim somewhere around the island. It was interesting.
Leafbox:
What, was there any points that you wanted to give up or I'm just curious if, was there any danger points that you really felt like this is not safe for your family was starting to worry or everything was
Marek:
Possible? Well, starting with the family, half of the storm I did in secret, <laugh> in secret. Knowing that if I knew that if I told my wife now that we were going to do that, I would probably have a bigger challenge there. So we had to sneak out a few times and we set long swing days for practice. So we used those days as a cover for us to do the first half of the swim. So the first I know was 60, 70 miles. We did like that dangerous, yes, there were days there was hive surf advisory where we had 20 foot Hawaiian scale waves and we had to swim out and swim in. And those were kind of interesting days. All those waves are not a big deal because once you swim out then you're behind the brake. It's not a big deal. But there were days when it was very, very windy, but I think from all the different parts and people asked me about Kana point, which is the west most point where it drops off to say 3000 feet and north and south Kane's main and so on.
It was nothing compared to when we were crossing the Honolulu Harbor, which was our first day swim. We did not realize that we actually have to swim through a channel where the big ships come in and go out of. And when we got there, there was this huge sign sign of size of a building basically saying it's illegal to be there, you cannot be in the water. And we were there after six miles swim needed to cross the channel and we had maybe one more K or two more K to Sand Island and we saw ships on the left and and the channel is pretty wide. There was head current that we had and it was very scary. So we going to go then asked Steve to raid and the ship that was out big container ship that was way out looked like it's far and it looks like they go really slow but once they turn in they come really fast.
And it's really scary because I, I never swam past giant ship like that and I didn't know if it can pull me under or not and so on. So it was very scary, particularly when we waited for the right moment we thought. And we started swimming and we were in the middle of the channel, we see a big ship turning out because the Honolulu harbor is an L-shaped harbor. So there's a little street stretch and then it turns left so we don't see and as we were approaching middle of the channel, we saw a big ship turning straight and then coming straight on us. So that was the scariest part I think mean of course there were parts where with all this giant shark next to us or we saw something, but that doesn't really bother you unless you really get in trouble. We had a lot of manner of war kind of days when we were stung left, but that again it depending on how your body reacts and we were both lucky that we could reacted. Okay. I mean it gets on your nerves and your system and it hurts and it's really bothering. But actually I found out that it can help me sometimes focus because I get my mind off swimming and I had something to just work through and so it helped us a lot, particularly on the windward side, which is known for that you so even today, yeah, sorry, did
Leafbox:
You retain do you have any tips for remaining calm or how did you just not have anxiety break your rhythm resume or what's your tips and practices for that?
Marek:
I think it's breathing but it's when you set a goal, it's good to set a big goal in anything you do. So it helps your mind focus. And I think that that applies to business, family and even swims. And in this case, if you know what we did this case, what we had to do is we had two cars. So we would meet at the finish point, we would decide, okay, today we're going to swim 12 kilometers for example. So this is our exit point and we would have to submit there, park one of our cars typically be mine and then we would hop into the other car and drive all the way along the shore, the 12 kilometers to the starting point where we left of the Ang. You realize that driving 12 kilometers along the shore, it's actually pretty distance, very long distance.
You don't realize that when you do the same distance or 15 K even distance in a channel, you see the islands but you cannot really tell the difference or the distance. But when you drive by the coastline it's, and it's straight line mind you as well. So when you drive it's actually even more because you're going around and around and around those little days and so on. So your mind is really like, oh okay, I do need to be focused. And you stay focused until you're there. And also you don't know if you can find the landing because it all looks the same by the way once you're like one mile off the shore and you have waves between you and the shore, you can't even tell what the shore looks like quite often. So you really stay focused. So I think that having a big goal bigger than you helps you focus and get over things.
So he is just like, no, just keep your head down. And a friend of mine who is very a chief swimmer, he is done the ocean seven and has probably the fastest time still Hungarian swim at till he basically what he does, he says, just when I cannot swim I just remind myself to swim. So just put your head down just so nothing else, don't think about it. Don't make it very complicated because once you start analyzing things you can go all different routes. So I think keeping the message simple for you when you need to focus is what gets us by. And also ocean is another good thing is ocean is like watching a documentary like National Geographics. So there's always something that can get on your mind, you can look at. And the visibility in Hawaii, I would say 60 to 70% was good and in some cases it was wonderful.
Leafbox:
So what stroke are you using? The whole majority is freestyle or
Marek:
It's freestyle. It's freestyle that that's the most relaxed, the fastest and it works best with the currents and waves and so on.
Leafbox:
Did you and your partner engage in any kind of other physical training or weight training or yoga or anything else to build up for this or
Marek:
No? Been threatening for years now and when we swim together as partners, we're very comfortable with each other. Actually what happened to my friend, his shoulder was in a really bad condition, so he was scheduled for surgery and it ended up being three different procedures, reattaching part of his biceps and they said that in that and shaving of some calcification then, I don't know, I dunno what it's basically two reattachment and so on. And he swam through this whole thing in that condition, so we couldn't really do much more well. But having said that though, he's quite a maniac and so he participated in the Spartan race as you may know this once a year I think it's cooler around the ranch. They organized this Parton raise, which is three different events. One of them is 10 miler, five mare and whatever, and it's obstacle course through muds and all kinds of crazy obstacles.
And it was a weekend and he did it without much of a training, which kind of made his situation with his shoulder even worse. But he did it, which people say that you have to be world class athlete to be able to pass through those things because it's quite crazy and very particular certain exercise types. But yeah, he did that. I didn't, I just started running, but that's for my goal for this year. So I was just purely focused on swimming. So we did do stretching, we do kind of exercise before and so on, but swimming was, this was an ocean swimming kind of thing for us. We didn't necessarily go for the time and speed, it was more on focus and experience and kind of learning about what the human body can do in mind. So we were more focus on that aspect of it.
How did it feel to complete it as anything big? I'm sure you've experienced that though. People have experienced the feelings before this. I think first time was my university after six years I was so looking forward to it, to the big day until the big day came and then it's like, okay, this is it. So it was actually funny because the last swim was the first swim when we could actually choose the time and the current. So it was great conditions. And I told my family, Steve told his family, we told our friends we'll be finishing and we said, well maybe around one o'clock we'll be back at Kamana Beach. But the conditions were so good that we were just flying, so we were stopping, we were stalling and we still finished hour and a half ahead of the projected time, which is what shows how conditions in the oceans can change everything.
And it wasn't a long swim, it was only about five mile swim. We still finished hour and a half earlier. So when we finished, there was nobody on the beach. It was funny that we started alone and we finished alone, which for me it was symbolic and it was really good because it was just my idea, I wanted to do it. So actually Steve initially said that he didn't want to do it, it wasn't a good idea. And 24 hours later he called me, okay, can we start tomorrow? But I did it for just myself to entertain myself and to explore. So not having many people around was okay for me, but it was kind of sad because we've done it and doing it again will not be the same. So I like to explore, I like to do new things. Did you and yes, I could swim it the other way, but
Leafbox:
How did the rest of the, I'm not familiar with the ocean, open ocean swimming community, were they excited by this? Was this a new challenge for others to participate in or how did they respond? Well,
Marek:
Some of them responded in a great way, obviously because they know those who know, they know that it is not an easy thing to do. And from for different reasons, the people are afraid, obviously people know that it's physically challenging. People know that it's mentally and physically challenging. People know that just logistically it's a nightmare because you have to figure out everything and there are parts that really people have never swam before apparently. So it's just not easy on very many levels. And I think the most difficult level is that you need to find a crazy enough partner who is at the same pace as you and crazy enough as you who will actually stay with you the whole way and be excited enough the whole way to go and do it with you. So people who have swam and they know that swimming is an individual sport, even though we swimming groups is al always individual sport.
So we both achieved with Steve, we made it a team sport because you have to rely on each other seriously. You do when you do that, particularly when you're offshore. And we no bo boat around anybody around basically no lifeguards. So yeah, some of them reacted really well, some of them did not. And I think it's just a natural reaction because also, I dunno if it's envy or it's just like, yeah, whatever, we don't, and we also kept it secret. So some people felt unhappy about the fact that we kept it secret from people, but we didn't know whether we were going to finish it or not, how it was going to go, if it's even possible to people without boat, if it's safe enough and so on. So we decided to communicate it out to the community, two or three swims before we were finished. So that was also that kind of reaction then. Yeah, you want to be special. So we didn't want let us know, us know and so on. But that's okay because for me we didn't do it for fame or any recognition at all.
Leafbox:
And then Marek, what's the next big goal in swimming or running or anything?
Marek:
I don't want to be secretive, but there are some goals, but I don't want to jinx them, so I'll keep them. But there are some islands involved around us, not great
Leafbox:
Lana and Molly or whatnot. We'll imagine
Marek:
You almost hit it there. There's one more. So yeah, there's a lot of interesting stuff around us, but again that that introduces that element that we were able to avoid by swimming on Oahu, that we can stay at home and do it in sections. Now if you do any of the other outer islands, we have to focus that effort into say week, which will make it more interesting achievement if you do achieve it from the professional perspective or point of view because it will probably be able to swim longer or do at two swims a day. So instead of doing eight miles a day, we'll be doing 16 miles a day. So we'll split it in half and we come out, we get water and we go back in the water and swim. And so we finish double the distance and we can go every single day so we can finish much, much sooner. So we can basically do what we did with Honolulu or with Oahu we did in 24 swims. Maybe we can do it in less than two weeks time.
Leafbox:
Marek, what kind of diet are you following?
Marek:
Thanks to my wife very diverse. I'm a rabbit naturally, but unfortunately I'm from Europe, so I like gluten as well. She's not a good thing for me. But I love vegetables a lot. And I also found out what this swims day when I had veg, I'm not a vegetarian, I do need meat and all sorts of protein, but when I swam I found out that when I had vegetable protein the night before, the swims were just so much easier. So my body was just so much lighter, was so much well responsive and I had no paint. So that that's something to say to vegetables. But being who I am, I'm not ready or willing to be completely vegetarian. So my wife takes care of the diet at home. Not to say that I don't cook, I love to cook and I participate as much as I can, but when it comes to choices in what we eat, she diversifies what we eat.
So when it comes to protein, we have say meat twice a week. We have vegetable protein like beans and stuff twice, three times a week. We have fish two times, three times a week, a lot of salads. I don't eat a lot of carbs in the evening, but I compensate with some dried in the morning. But I do not eat breakfast, for example. And that's residual from my swimming times when I was young that I used to do early morning sessions so I didn't eat before I would go to school and have to wait for snack time. So I wake up in the morning, I don't need to eat. So part of the, I guess what people call diet, so what is it called? Intern or something? Yeah. So naturally I do it because I don't eat breakfast. So we have dinner with kids earlier, so we try to eat by seven and then I wouldn't eat until I'm done with the swim. Sometimes I eat until 11. Naturally I don't feel like I usually would start with an apple and a lot of water.
Leafbox:
Going back to Hawaii, you called it your island. What's your history with Hawaii? When did you and your family choose to come here?
Marek:
So I came here from New York after nine 11, so I didn't mention that, but I actually lived in New York. That was prior to little, my wife Naco. And that was when I finished working for a Japanese company in Slovakia. I moved with their job into New York City, but unfortunately the project wasn't very good. So I ended up closing the job down right before nine 11. And so when nine 11 hit the towers in the town, there was absolutely no chance to find a job for an eastern European without education in US and a lot to learn about the culture and how things work. So I picked up I decided that I do, first I needed visa second, I wanted to sync up with the US on the business side. So I found out that there's an MBA program in Hawaii that was ranked them on top 20 in international business and particularly with focus on Asia Pacific.
And then there's a chance to transfer to top universities in Japan. So that was my plan. And I came out to Hawaii in 2002. So I did my GMass in New York at right after nine 11, and I came out in January, 2002 to Hawaii. First time ever, I'd never been in Hawaii. I had some image of Hawaii, but not really. It was very blurry, kind of didn't have a particular picture. So I came out here, borrowed some money, came out here and started going to school. And that was my first connection with Hawaii. Now logistically didn't work out as well because my relationship that brought me over to Hawaii as well didn't work out. So I had to figure out my own life and kind of stand up on my feet. So I ended up finding a job on campus at the University of Hawaii that gave me tuition vapor, which allowed me to stay in Hawaii and enjoy Hawaii.
And that was also first time when I connected with the ocean because I was extremely poor. I was living off $8 50 hourly wage and on top of my tuition waiver, which gave me by $900. Forget about surviving today with that money, but I had incredible time. During that time, I was able to find a roommate. So those good times was where you would pay four 50 for sharing a two bedroom apartment with somebody and going to school and working and studying. And then I was asked to actually lead executive programs for the school of business. Just ironic, being a regular program student managing and hiring the same teachers for executive programs. But it was a very interesting experience connecting with the business community and the teachers community at the College of Business as well. And at the end of the two year period, I decided to transfer to Japan to Care Business School, which is one of the top schools for business and just general in Japan.
Although unfortunately on the world's ranking list, they, they're somewhere around 40, 50, 60, so they're not very significant in the global service. But in Japan, and the social aspect of that was quite interesting, and meeting people was good. So that took me to Japan for about 10 years. But I kept relationship with Hawaii through friends, obviously who I met here, local friends, and also through Ironman and Triathlon Race, which was one of the ways for me to deal with the stress in Japan. I never wanted to be a cyclist, but again, another friend, just like with Japan, Japan, another friend from Care Business School said, you should, you run your swim, you should start doing triathlon. You should buy a bicycle. So based on that, I up, I asked him to buy me a bicycle, which I paid for, and three days later there was a box in my office and I started cycling, and I ended up going for 150 mile bike rides from Tokyo to Fifth Station of Fuji and so on. And that was my kind of way of dealing with stress in Japan, but also a way to bring me back to Hawaii for races like Hon and so on. And Maui, that's, sorry, on the big island and also Marathon in Maui and so on and so on.
Leafbox:
And Marek, once you graduated from Cale, did you start your company then, or did you work for someone else, or what was the evolution there?
Marek:
Oh, no, I didn't. I had to learn how things are done. So first I started looking, I started doing the usual. So I started applying for jobs. And because it was a big name school in Japan, it was considered Ivy League school among the Japanese school. So we had interest from the top of industries like Mitsubishi Trading Company and so on. And they ended up chasing me down, and I had interviews with them and they offered me a job to potentially in the near future lead the energy business. But then they added that it was energy business with Russia, which kind of hit the wrong spots for me. And I said no. And so I kept looking and I came across this small private equity firm, which reason really wasn't a private equity, but it was similar structure to that. And then had about five companies in the portfolio.
And one of them was a business support firm that was supporting foreign companies with coming into Japanese market and setting up their businesses, getting the, and running up accounting payrolls, helping them with all sorts of things. So I thought that was a great opportunity and they offered me a job first as a business development manager. And so I thought, this is great. I will learn how to do business in Japan, and so one day I can just do my own business. And that's exactly what ended up happening. So it was around the time when Lehman Shop happened. So pre Lehman Shop, we were crazy busy. And so I took the company, I started a business development manager. We ended up being general manager and the head of the business within first seven or eight months because the primary owner's son unfortunately passed away from leukemia, suddenly three year old boy.
So he had to step out and focus on a charity that he started and just support sort of business development himself. And I basically was thrown into the river and had to start swimming with people and taking care of all the business. But we ended up growing from about 15 people, small shop to about 150 people. So that was great. But unfortunately, I didn't do a home, do my equity homework, which I didn't know existed back then. I trusted people coming from Mr. New York that when he called me to co-own and manage the business with him in the future, that would be still the agreement when he comes back one day. And so when he came back two years later and asked me, Merick, what are we going to do with you? I knew that that was the end for me because he decided to come back and it was too good to be true. We're doing really, really well as business. And that was the trigger when I decided to leave in 2007 and set up my own business, which I'm still running now, actively in Japan with cost about 60 people. And now as part of a global group, about 26,000 people around the world.
Leafbox:
What was the culture shock for you coming to the US after having studied in, I guess, Japan and I mean, when you first came to New York, what was that like? Was that, I'm curious what that feeling?
Marek:
That was crazy. That was, yeah, that was really cultural shock. First of all, we had the several different levels. First of all was the cultural shock and the racial aspect of the society. It was incredibly frustrating and surprising, and I just didn't know what to think of it, that we were all learning about New York being the melting pot. And he realized, no, this, it's just different bins. And there are people thrown into those bins and this different areas like Harlem and Brooklyn, and you have different ethnic or cultural groups living there, and they're basically separated and they do not really work well together, and they cannot say this, and they cannot say that. And that was such a block in my mind for quite a while to realize that, okay, now you've been thrown into a group of people and there's a set of rules or for how you have to behave, what language you can use.
And unfortunately, I was thrown into the white group of people, but coming from an underdog white part of a society, but getting all the negatives of what the white people did to the society is just how I perceived it was really weird. And then I have to take the blame for whatever happened in the United States by predecessors of my own race. So coming in terms that I have a race, realizing that I have a race, it was really, really weird because until then I was considering myself as they say, in Japanese Chik. So the globe in a way. So the person of the globe, and just because I was born in Slovakia doesn't mean that I have to live and die in Slovakia. I was born in on this planet, so I should be able to live anywhere on this planet where I want, and as long as I respect everything around me and the planet itself.
So that was one cultural shock. And the second was the speed of things and the lack of, and this is just a big city thing, when you have a boy coming from a country that people do not really care about people. And it was just like, come on, come on. That speed. And people had to talk and people had to argue, people had to make that point at any expense. That was a big shock for me and also a reason why I decided to go to school. When I mentioned that I needed to sync up, I needed to learn how to communicate, how to argue my point, even though I didn't feel sometimes arguing why, if people won't argue with them, argue, but I realized that you do not make progress unless you really go with the flow. So that was a trigger after nine 11, that it's not just that the lack of opportunity is basically that the city was shut down for quite a while, particularly for new people and people who needed visa, but also that I felt that I needed to sync up quite significantly.
Leafbox:
So then when you came to Hawaii, Hawaii is such a different kind of melting pot. How was that feeling?
Marek:
Yes, but if you go to school of business again, it's Asia, so it is, it's a little bit like it reflects Hawaii, so there's quite strong ratio of, or big ratio of Asian students as well. But even that was new to me, say the American Asian, so there's a new Asian. By then, I already knew the Asian, particularly the Japanese, but then meeting the local Japanese, the local Asian was another kind of good experience for me because I realized, no, no, no, they're not the same. They're kind of similar, but they're not the same. They're still American and they're still Asian, but they're not Asian and they're not American. But they were also people from all around the country and the software maybe you see, feel it more, you know, see the difference or feel the differences in being an American. But <inaudible> was intense enough already, and we had people, and people still would argue, and I was exactly, I was told in the class that if you do not argue, if you take participation in these debates and arguments in class, you will not get enough points to pass the class.
So I had to forcefully, I had to learn how to raise my hand or I had to just raise my own argument and just start. And it's difficult because we have language handicap in the first place, and if you have fast speaking, somebody opinionated sitting next to you, it's very hard to argue. And particularly if they do not have any sort of culture and then don't want let you finish your thoughts, and you finally have organized your thoughts in your head to say what you want to say. And then the conversation changes in the middle of your sentence because somebody jumped in and they change and they have introduced another argument. So it was very difficult in the beginning, but good enough. Now, outside of the school, I didn't really have much of the outside of the school because I really had no money to go out to restaurants or meet people or anything.
So what I was able to do is a friend of mine got me a kite for kite surfing, picked up some weight board for me, and I got a bicycle in a thrift shop, and I was able to put in on a bus and go to Kailua and kite surf for a little while, and then come back and go to school between work and school. So any evening study. So I really didn't have much of that sort of social life. My only social life was Friday evenings, again with students with what used to be Magus on University Avenue. But other than that, it was work, some play some lab work with my co students. Then the school was between six and 9:00 PM which is another interesting thing about the full-time MBA program in Hawaii and the reason why I picked it. And then I studied at night so I don't have to do things and do homeworks and projects on the next day. It was quite intense.
Leafbox:
What do you think the best aspects of American culture are?
Marek:
Never give up.
Leafbox:
Is that a different philosophy in Japan?
Marek:
Yes. There's a different, there's never, never give up. There's never give up in Japan, there's never give up in us. If you have projectory, you never give up on that projectory. That's the Japanese approach. If there's a roadblock, everything stops that kind of ends the narrative for them. Never give up because there's no more road. So there's nothing to not to give up on us is no matter how many roadblocks you put in a way, people will change direction. People go up, down, left, right, front, back, doesn't matter. People will find a way around it and it'll keep going. So that, that's phenomenal about us. And another thing is, which really I saw in New York, is how people in the US can come together when it really matters.
You don't see that much in other countries. We talk about now, when I said, I said outsiders, people or person who was not born in us talk about us, that us is very selfish, that people are selfish. That people say, yeah, come to my house, visit me. And they actually don't mean it, da da. But when it really comes to it, when things like nine 11 happened, I was one of the first people putting the American flag in my window, which I didn't know what that means, but I was so proud to be there and to be proud of that moment. And just to seeing that there was just too much from people coming, that everybody want to come together and help. And no matter what it is, what it takes, people would be out there. But they were throwing them out there, out there and then just throwing everything they had. And I'm like, wow. So this is America. And then there are many other things, but these two just stand out for me greatly.
Leafbox:
Marek. And then maybe winding down, I'm curious about why you chose to move back to Hawaii from Japan. You're married, you have kids. Why did you not choose to raise them in Japan or Slovakia, or why the us
Marek:
I'll try to keep it short. When my daughter was born it was exactly one month to the date when Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster happened. So there's one trigger right there. Another one is for me, I know the many people in Japan who basically tell me, oh, I came here for three to five years and tomorrow is my 25th anniversary. And they bow more than they should, and they bow more than Japanese and just become kind of awkward. So seeing those people, I always thought, I love Japan. I want to be connected to Japan for the rest of my life, but I do not want to become a clown, Japanese clown kind of thing. So I do want to keep my distance. And then also coming back to my roots, what they was just saying in the beginning that I belong to this planet. I do not belong to Japan or Slovakia, Hawaii.
So even when it came out to Hawaii, we called it Project Hawaii. And so I wanted my kids to come out of the very structured materialistic society and sort of concrete jungle environment in Tokyo, more to nature based environment so they can grow up around ocean trees, climb the trees. Lila knew about how materialistic Hawaii is as well, but putting that aside, at least it's much closer to connecting, to creating a connection with nature for my kids. So that was one of the big things. And for me, also keep moving. I knew that I needed to keep moving, and I knew by then I knew that Japan is well behind in many, many, many ways, and I needed to come to us for, and then Japan was losing its edge, not only just aging population, but with the Lehman shock, what happened after that? Basically the outlay of the Japan was no longer the headquarters of Asia for the world.
So knowing that Japan will have to go through transitions, and usually it takes thousands of years to transition into something, I felt that I want to go back to revisit us because us for its ability to rejuvenate, restart, reinvent itself will feed. And I also call it the greed in the us, the greed, the people want new stuff all the time. It doesn't matter. I go bankrupt today, I want to stand up tomorrow, shake it off and get twice as much as I had before I went bankrupt yesterday. And that that's the driver here as well. So I knew that there's sufficient energy in the society here. They will be work as a catalyst for future development in the country and things, putting society development levels and so on aside, I knew that that Hawaii potentially would be a good place to connect Asia, my Asian father and my western side, and also be connected to developments in the United States.
Leafbox:
I think it's interesting how I have a lot of what I would call third world or third culture, friends, people who are in between societies and cultures, people who speak multiple languages like yourself. And it's funny, they're often the most positive on the US because I think when you, I have an Argentine friend and she loves the US and obviously sees all the faults here, and she speaks Japanese as well. So she'd be interesting for you to meet. But she can see those downsides. And it's interesting that a lot of people, there's a pessimism with the US sometimes from a abroad, but it's just interesting that the third world kind of people like yourself really see the benefits of each society and kind of ignore some of the downsides. I think that's the strength.
Marek:
Oh, believe me, I don't ignore the downside. So that's why I call it Project Hawaii. But if you look at even Europe, what's happening in Europe at the moment, and putting the war aside, I think is just flashed out the issues that there are in Europe, that the immigration, the incoherence, and that just is basically dwelling on the old values that the whole world has to change. And it's driven by what's happening even in technology, because it just changes the way people live, think, interact, societies will interact, how they perceive where they're from and where they belong and where they want to go and how they want to be. I think that even Europe is too slow to adapt to these things. So I think it's more getting into that we are more in an open society, everything becomes more open. And I think we'll head to that and there'll be a lot of transitions.
So I do see all the negatives here as well when it comes to education, healthcare system. Cause those are the dearest to us, I think, right? There's no future without education and there's no good life without good healthcare system. And that's something that I just don't think exists in Hawaii, period. Unless you have contacts and people who will pull you in and so on, is just actually frustrating. So there's those things and many, many other things, but at the same time, you can really do anything you want in this country without being judged as much as you would be in other countries. So perhaps if you became the third country citizen in a way, and you go to the third countries from the same experience, you would probably see that as well. And you probably have a share of experience of that as well, that you see the negatives, but you live with them because they're everywhere of the negatives everywhere. Oh no, the
Leafbox:
Positives, yeah. I mean, I speak many languages and I'm also lost in the world. So I, I'm like you cosmopolitan. I think one should be able to elect identities and choose to live and adopt cultural practices as one wants. At the same time, I'm a little bit concerned about the globalization of maybe the western model. Sometimes it erases I don't have a problem with Japan keeping as Japan, Japanese as it wants. You know what I mean? That's what makes Japan special. So sometimes people really want to make it more Americanized, more europeanized, or if China does its own thing, or if I see both sides. So it can be important to be cosmopolitan, but at the same time don't like the whole world becoming the same place. That's kind of a loss of culture, but maybe that's not really a concern for others. Marek, what last question I have is how can people find you? How can people contact you if they have questions with your swimming, your business, your language, anything?
Marek:
Yeah. Well, one is, and actually don't remember, so I apologize for that. So we do have a YouTube channel for the swims where you could actually see more about the swimming part of things. But I think it's around, I need to research. I apologize for not being even prepared.
Connect with Marek and his Oahu Circumnavigation Swim