In connection with the 'Promised Land' project, it occurred to me: are we living our own reality, or one that others have shaped for us? Why do we try to reshape our reality, and why do we fail to notice that the life we are living is no longer real? Yet, the consequences are shockingly authentic. This created reality is everywhere—in advertising, in politics, and on social media. The decisions we make based on these perceptions turn fiction into reality. This is how the world has become a place where appearances are now stronger and more important than reality itself.

Over the past few months, I have recorded conversations with 47 entrepreneurs, analyzing a total of 202 hours of AI consultations and mentoring sessions—drawing from my personal interviews and the searchable database available at vendlerai.com. While the analysis in this article was performed by ChatGPT Deep Research and Gemini Deep Research, the conclusions remain profoundly human. It presents compelling data and a wealth of statistics on emotions, decision-making, and their intersection with business building in the SME sector.

The Promised Land project is a bold experiment—honestly, there are times when I think I shouldn't have started it at all—through which I attempt to raise awareness using satirical and absurd content. It is a 'project' that, at first glance, could easily be seen as a grotesque prank, or perhaps a sign that by the age of 50, I’ve 'lost my marbles,' but there is a very serious intention behind it.

Life is hard. That’s not a cliché; it’s an everyday reality. We struggle with a thousand problems day in and day out: the bills never seem to get smaller, workplace stress never fades, clients keep getting dumber, the baby won’t sleep, your back aches more and more, and the neighbor is drilling again at eight o’clock on Saturday morning...

When a “patient” sits across from a helper, telling their misery, while the helper is silently thinking how bored they are with hearing the same nonsense again and again—knowing full well that nothing will ever change—then really, who is helping whom?

The experiences from Vendler AI consultations so far show that an artificial mentor can truly support entrepreneurs—not only with advice, but also with presence and understanding. The users’ topics are diverse, yet what they all share is the need for support and guidance. By following their emotional ups and downs and creating a sense of trust, the AI has been able to function almost like a “human” partner.

This morning I was completely shaken by a conversation with a friend. I’ve had enough of the way public discourse is dominated—regardless of political affiliation—by a style of communication where if you disagree with someone, you’re immediately labeled a liberal fag, a Brussels lackey, a filthy Fidesz supporter, or a rotten NERist. Society is becoming dehumanized.

How common it has become to feel that urge — that buzzing need — to share the dilemmas stirring inside us, whether they’re about business or personal life. Be it a Facebook post, a video, or a private conversation. Most of these exchanges, however, quickly end up as judgement or unsolicited advice...

Throughout the development of VendlerAI, one question kept hovering in my mind: would I be able to create a noticeable difference between my system and the other, more popular AI platforms? Since VendlerAI runs on the OpenAI API, my first concern was: how will this be any different from ChatGPT?

In this blog post you can read an excerpt of a conversation I had with VendlerAI. I talk with it almost every day. Partly because I’m searching for answers to my own problems, and good questions are essential for that. And partly because this is how I test it. I watch how the answers affect me — when I get bored, when something feels forced — and I immediately fine-tune the instructions that guide the AI’s behavior.

When I launched Games for Business Ltd., about a month before the official start I attended a dinner with other entrepreneurs. The room was full of young, energetic, likeable business leaders. One guy — probably the managing director of the biggest company there — asked me about my new venture. When I explained that I wanted to sell game-like solutions to multinationals, he asked:

– Balázs, do you give kickbacks to the executives?

Entrepreneurs have always played a vital role in society. With our activity and risk-taking, we create opportunities for people, we provide jobs and – hopefully – a predictable future for those who join us.

And today, this is needed more than ever!

The marketing industry is on the brink of a revolutionary transformation. Or rather, it’s already in the middle of one. I can see it through my own projects, during the past year and a half of building my company. I don’t just read about it – I experience it, I do it, and I observe what’s happening around me. Like watching the stars, quietly observing a comet blazing across the sky – the fiery ball of artificial intelligence. And the more I watch, the more it feels like it’s about to crash down, with the dust cloud ushering in an ice age for certain industries.

I’ve been testing the Vendler AI system for two days now. I’ve been asking it questions for long hours, probing its limits. By the end of the three-month training process it’s starting to feel pretty good — it’s genuinely exciting to see how it breaks a topic down and how its questions help you look at things from different angles.

Today I asked it to summarize who “it” is, what it can help with and what it can’t. This is what it answered...

Is this the kind of person I wanted to become? What kind of person do I want to be?

In recent months, I’ve been hearing these questions more and more – from myself, and from others, too. Maybe because there are more of us now who’ve left something behind – or are right in the middle of it, or about to start: a career, a relationship, an old version of ourselves. And now we’re standing on the threshold of a “new beginning,” with a few ideas in our hands and a mess of questions in our heads.

I’ve been spending more and more time with AI. That is, with the question of how we can build a relationship between humans and AI. How we might begin to feel that AI is with us, not against us. As I started posting about AI, I received more and more questions, comments, and reactions laced with negativity... We’re afraid.

So many of you are using Vendler AI by now that the system is approaching its technical limits. There's already a wait time—it can’t serve everyone promptly anymore.

What kinds of questions do we explore with an AI? Do we trust it more easily, relying on our anonymity, than we would a real, flesh-and-blood professional? Is it easier to drop our inhibitions, our internal resistance, because of the facelessness, the convenience, or some other illusion?

The Vendler AI has been live for 5 days.

The other day, I had the idea to train an AI using the materials from my mentoring conversations. So I asked her – the Artificial Intelligence – how I could do that. I chose a method that allowed for a quick test to see if this even makes sense, and I created a custom ChatGPT-based mentoring AI system.

If you're curious, give it a try and see if there's anything unique about it.

I've always been curious about how much of my security I'm willing to risk for my freedom. Or the other way around. I experiment with my boundaries, trying things I have no prior experience with. One such experiment was my "pay what it's worth" business model. I think it's a great idea, but to this day, no one has tried it. (Be the first!)

So I made a change.

So many of you have expressed interest in talking with me about your business but can't or don’t want to pay under the 'pay what it’s worth' model. Many of you have also mentioned that traveling to Pécs is difficult alongside your work commitments. Our Wednesday dog-walking conversations are popular, but this opportunity is very limited. That’s why I’ve come up with a new offer.

Below is the text of the interview published in the December 2024 issue of Growth Magazine. Many thanks to Beatrix Gosztola and her team for the opportunity to be featured and for allowing us to republish the text.

Six months ago, I embarked on a business model where I don't set a price for those who approach me. Instead, I suggest that they pay what they think it's worth. I only ask them to explain why they value it at that amount...

The Second Volume… I've started planning, editing, and sketching ideas.

Maybe if I write about "what's next," it will reveal what's next. Maybe I'll find the direction of what I'm doing right now. Perhaps writing will coax the thoughts out of me. And maybe, just maybe, when I reread my own words, that elusive "aha" moment will finally arrive.

Vendler-Simon Katinka's writing offers insight into how joint pain has shaped her life and career. Her childhood knee pain and the struggles she endured over the years led her to develop her own dietary supplements. To relieve her own pain, she created natural, additive-free products with pure, herb-based ingredients. This journey gave rise to Lost Garden...

Lost Garden – I love this project for many reasons. I enjoyed watching Katinka over the past year and a half as she nurtured this idea within herself, planning, dreaming, doubting, and then diving in again. This cycle would repeat, but each time, month by month, it felt somehow different.

This morning, in just 3 hours, I launched an English-language podcast with 5 episodes already available on YouTube. I managed to do it all using freely accessible AI software. Currently, I’ve covered 5 topics in over 60 minutes.

Since my language skills aren’t quite up to the task of an English podcast, this is a huge help and step forward for me. I've outlined the entire process of how each recording is made

I started blogging in January, writing about corporate matters, mentoring, then about space, and 1-2 corporate projects... then from May, I started writing more frequently about self-awareness, perhaps more abstract topics. Then about my dilemmas... my doubts. My fears. My desires.
About things that define who I am. Things that shape how I live my life, how I build my business, how I am present in my relationships. This is what my blog is about.
This is what my book is about too.

Three months ago, I wrote about my anxiety. I received countless messages, mostly containing diagnoses, treatment suggestions, or the occasional kind and sympathetic thought. Perhaps my article resonated with the organizers, or maybe it was just a fortunate coincidence, but I was given the opportunity by the HR Fest team to discuss this topic on stage with András Bán.

4 products, 4 awards. Each one at the top...
ADAM - Supplements and Vitamins Category
EVE - Women's Health Category
BODY - Supplements and Vitamins Category
BEAUTY - Beauty Category

Can a business consultancy operate on the principle that the client pays only as much as they believe the service was worth? Can we trust each other to this extent? What does business rely on if not trust? If we don't trust each other, why do business at all? What else could be valuable in such a relationship if not money? Could it be easier to find value in a working relationship that isn't focused on money but on the original goal of business: creating value and efficient value conversion?

This is the first journal entry marking the start of my new company.

We are proud to announce that our EVE product has been awarded the bronze medal in the Best Women’s Supplement category at the 2024 Global Green Beauty Awards.

Out of nearly 400 products, the English jury has selected us for the finals of the international Nourish Awards, which will take place in London at the end of September. And not just with one product—all four of our products made it to the finals!

What about? Let’s talk about your business, your challenges, those nagging, sometimes incomprehensible, or seemingly unsolvable problems! What’s not working, and what you could do to make it work. And, most importantly, why you’re doing what you’re doing in the first place.

I believe my business career truly took off when I started going on long-distance hikes: first the Kinizsi100, then the GR20 in Corsica (I’ve written about this before, click here). These experiences taught me about planning, perseverance, adaptability, and humility. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with mountains and forests, and whenever I can, I go hiking. These days, I have plenty of time, and ever since Ottó came into my life, daily walks have become a routine.

As I was finishing my space policy consultancy course, I began thinking about the possibility of creating a communications agency specialized in the space industry. The agency would focus on analysis, strategy building, and executing industry-specific communication projects, allowing space companies to concentrate on what they do best—innovate.

Almost two years ago, Kata and I discussed a business idea: creating a retreat-like, cabin-based, nature-close community garden near Tamási, which could provide a refuge for those wanting to escape the stressful city life. This would all be on nearly 3 hectares, bordering a nature reserve. This would have been Lost Garden. Or rather, hopefully, it still will be... but more on that later.

Tadaaaam. The day has come. Over the past two months, things have really accelerated at Lost Garden. Lost Garden Biotechnological Ltd. has been established. We’ve received the necessary approvals from the relevant authorities, and our products are ready for sale. The packaging is done. And so much more...

It’s been nearly a year and a half since I began my structured and intentional journey into mentoring. I feel that it’s time to reflect on what I’ve been doing and what I’ve achieved during this period.

As we reach our forties, it becomes increasingly important to find inner peace and be more present in our own lives. This stage of life often brings new challenges, whether it's physical changes or balancing work and family life. Standing on the threshold of my 50th birthday, I can confidently say that this has been true for me.

In 2001, I began working on IT projects. Actually, it started in 2000 when I was too lazy to write a 40-50 page thesis for my biology teaching degree, so I created a multimedia educational material instead. :)

During a casual coffee with a friend, my recent certification as a space policy advisor came up. After a few light-hearted comments, the conversation shifted to what I plan to do with this qualification—how I might become part of the space industry. I listed various possibilities: geolocation-based services, specialized legal services, technological consulting, space-specific PR and marketing. To which my friend responded, "Those don’t sound like space industry things to me. Space industry technologies and services are fields that are unreachable for the average person..."

After two years of rest, learning, and recharging, by 2024, I felt ready to truly make my "retirement" years active. Of course, the past two years weren’t entirely idle, but my focus was entirely different—certainly not on building businesses. However, something has changed. For the past few months, the idea has been stirring in me: I want to create something beautiful, exciting, and, of course, profitable again. But somehow differently than before: in collaboration with others, pooling our resources, and inspiring each other on the path that leads to our goals.

As of yesterday, I am officially a space policy advisor.

Over the past year and a half, I’ve delved into international law, space law, gained a comprehensive understanding of the economic background, and explored the societal and philosophical issues as well as the psychological and physiological challenges associated with space travel.

Lassan másfél éve keresem aktívan, hogy mit is csinálhatnék, mi lenne az a terület, amit szívvel-lélekkel, szenvedéllyel tudnék újra nyomni egy új vállalkozásban. Miközben ezt keresgéltem, egyre több barát, közeli, távoli ismerős talált meg azzal, hogy segítsek nekik a céges ügyeikben. Mára közel 20 vezetővel dolgoztam és rájöttem, ez az, amit szeretek csinálni...