This presentation is intended for the admission to IE University in Madrid, specifically for the Master's programme in Real estate Development

1. IE University admission:
Personal essay
ADAM LABÁT

2. In this presentation, I
would like to showcase
my personality, values,
and interests by taking
you on a trip down
memory lane of some
significant parts of my
life and show you how
they have helped me
grow and become the
person I am today.
9. 1. 2022

3. Growing up, my amazing parents supported
me to try all sorts of sports, which played an
important role early on in my life. Between
the age of 6 to about 14, we would spend
the summer holidays travelling the country
to attend tennis and football tournaments.
In the top picture, you can see us (me on the
left) after winning our first team
tournament, and as you can see from my
expression in the photo, I was extremely
excited.
Below is a photo from a big tournament in
Prague, where we managed to finish
second, which was a great accomplishment
because our team was one of the youngest
teams there. And again, as you can see in
the picture on the right, I was thrilled about
this achievement. I have never been
particularly good at posing in pictures,
hence the evidence provided, and by this
day, this still has not changed at all.
Taking part in all of these tournaments from
such a young age developed a competitive
spirit inside me that wants to excel and do
the best I possibly can in anything I do,
which also transfers over to school, career,
business and more.
9. 1. 2022

4. Another significant part of my life has been travelling,
and so we would combine it with sports and bring our
equipment along to wherever we travelled. I have to
mention that I was terrible at losing. As things would
start going poorly, I would lose focus and, in most cases,
I was unable to calm down and regroup. Looking back, I
believe it would happen because I knew that if I played
to my usual standard, I would win. However, as soon as
some other aspect than skill, such as luck or wind or a
bad call by the referee, would influence even a single
point, I would get too hung up on that „unfairness“ and
lose the ability to continue performing.
To support that, I would like to point your attention to
the pictures on the right, where the first picture is me in
the middle of the match and the second one is me and
my father after I lost.
Having gone through all the competitions and losses, I
was exposed to a lot of stressful situations and even
though I was not great at handling them at first, I
realized that later on and worked hard on improving
myself. One of my favourite mottos is to only focus on
the things you can change or control and not let the
things you can‘t change bother you or stress you out.
This has helped me a lot across all the activities I take
part in, and I am now much better at handling adversity
by focusing on solving the problem and moving forward,
rather than being upset about the problem even
occurring in the first place.
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5. As I mentioned, I have been very
fortunate to have travelled a lot in my
life, and it is something I absolutely
love. It is a great way of spending
valuable time with the people closest to
me while constantly learning and
exploring the world around us. It also
allows me to experience the lives of
people in various cultures all around the
world, which is very humbling,
motivating and offers new perspectives
that help my creativity and problem-
solving. My goal is to travel as much as
possible in my life and to explore what
our world has to offer.
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As you can see here, I gave up
on trying to look good in the
photos and transitioned to trying
to make funny poses, which,
however, is not always received
well by the other people taking
the picture, such as my mom
(on the left) in this case. That is
why instead of taking group
pictures, we tried Hawaiian
checkers - Kōnane - instead.

6. A few years back my father hurt his leg in
a severe accident. During his recovery, he
can only walk with the support of
crutches. Which means that he gets left
behind whenever we are walking
somewhere. I am usually the one that
walks with him and keeps him company.
As business partners, it is a great chance
for us to discuss ideas and future
projects without distractions. Some of
our best strategies have come from these
moments.
The three photos on the right show us
catching up to the rest of the group while
stuck in our imagination and planning
our next moves and steps.
Both of my parents have decades of
experience running their businesses, and
they are supporting me every step of the
way in my activities and ventures. It is
clear to me that it is because of them,
that I have all the opportunities I have
today, and I am very grateful for that
every day.
9. 1. 2022

7. Image source: (Simmonds, n.d.)
In March 2020, I started my first
company, Alurus s.r.o. and as
everyone knows, it's right when the
pandemic spread in Europe for the
first time. In particular, Slovakia
went into lockdown just days after
starting our first cooperation.
I think the image on the right sums
up my entrepreneurial experience
perfectly, as that is exactly how I
pictured it (the top part) and how it
actually went (the bottom part).
However, almost two years later, I
would not change anything. I have
enjoyed every step of the way, both
solving problems and enjoying the
victories, such as reaching healthy
profits in both financial years, 2020
and 2021. This journey has been my
most valuable learning experience
by far, and I am looking forward to
continuing to build the company and
seeing it grow.
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8. At the end of 2021, me and my father
started making plans for our first real
estate project. The picture on this slide
shows a spontaneous set of notes we
made during one of our conversations
(which likely ended at around 3 am).
As there is a strong push and increased
support from the Slovak government to
build low-income housing, we decided to
take advantage of this opportunity and we
are currently in the process of finding
appropriate land or property to invest in,
build or remodel, and provide low-income
housing. I am very excited about this
project and hope that everything goes well
this year and we can move on to bigger and
bigger projects in the future!
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9. In the beginning, I promised to tell you a
bit more about my values, interest and
personality. I hope that these few slides
have helped you understand who I am as
a person a little bit more.
I am always looking to learn from the
people and the environment around me. I
am always trying to cheer people up and
bring positive energy wherever I go. Even
though I have struggled with handling
adversity in the past, I believe, that I have
learned and grown significantly from the
problems I have faced so far, and I am
now better equipped to handle any form of
adversity. I am very excited about the
future, and I can‘t wait to see what is next
in my journey.
Thank you very much for your attention,
and I would like to wish you all the best in
2022!
9. 1. 2022

10. References
Simmonds, R., n.d. 40 Signs You Have What It Takes To Be An Entrepreneur. [online] Ross
Simmonds. Available at: <https://rosssimmonds.com/40-signs-takes-entrepreneur/>
[Accessed 9 January 2022].
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