Work Consistently Through Prioritization

Eat My News, a global media platform that focuses on stories about people, interviewed me about my entrepreneurial journey. Thank you for the great questions Deshna Jain.

https://www.eatmy.news/2022/06/gira-szakmar-work-consistently-through.html

Financial difficulties are dangerous.  They can easily extinguish the world-redeeming flame in the souls of the few. Don’t let it!

1. Tell us more about your company and your journey.

I am and have been many things. Child and mother, teacher and student, video game designer and gamer, and many more. As a child, I suffered in the old-fashioned, pigeonholing education system, and as a mother and teacher, I see today’s children doing the same.  How much more fun and enjoyable the world of video games are! And how much we learn while playing! Wouldn’t it be great if learning was much more like a game?

For the last few years, I have been working on a platform that can turn any learning into a video game.

2. How did you come up with this idea and go about executing it?

A few years ago, I moved to a new country with my family. My daughters went to school, and they were taught a foreign language that I didn’t know, and I didn’t know how to help them. If you have a hammer, every problem is a nail. As a game developer, what can you do? I implemented the lesson in video games. The vocabulary, the math homework, and anything that needed to be memorized. And it worked like a charm!

Today, there are over a thousand lessons available on the site, covering 100+ topics, in 16 different languages, and they’re all playable in our seven multiplatform games, much to the delight of kids and parents globally

3. What has been your biggest challenge that you faced and how did you overcome that?

You’d think that the message of we need more fun, child-centered game-based learning would be one that everyone understands because we’ve experienced the difficulties ourselves and we see how it impacted our children. Yet, people tend to revert to their entrenched ways and choose the familiar over the unknown.

The biggest challenge is to get teachers and parents to understand – and children know – that learning can be digital, fun, and personalized, yet still be maximally effective. This is a recurring conversation, a challenge to solve every day.

4. What do you think are the most important qualities of a successful entrepreneur?

The most important value for an entrepreneur is to be able to see the goal in front of you, yet still, be able to focus on your steps on the way there. You can’t face all the rejection, disappointment, and problems if you don’t believe deeply that you can change the world, but to achieve your goal you must work consistently, through prioritization and work hard.

5. What are some of the most important factors for running a successful business?

What counts as a success? How do we measure success? Money? Recognition? Reputation? I think that for every problem solved as an entrepreneur, there are a hundred to be solved. The most important thing you can do is to stop for a moment sometimes and look back at the journey you’ve made. See, acknowledge and appreciate your progress, then put your head down and keep going.

6. What are your tips for first-time and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Always start with your customers. You may think you know who they are and what they need. You may be one of them however identifying your target customer and listening impartially to what they have to say is essential. The most important first step – and one you should repeat from time to time – is to understand what the real need is before you even start writing your first piece of code or start experimenting with your first product.

7. How can one overcome a hurdle of lack of funds when starting up?

The urgent need for money is not an early-stage problem. It stays with you all the way, only the scale changes. An entrepreneur spends a significant part of his time trying to find the next funds to keep the lights on.  The smartest advice I can give is to find someone who is interested and excited about the financial side and get them involved as soon as possible.