From a Czech village to Wall Street. The incredible story of investor Andrejka Bernátová.

Forbes published her story, it’s worth reading.

See original article here:

Below is an English translation of the Czech article about Andrejka.

Andrejka Bernatová (41), who made it to the highest levels of business in the USA, worked on Wall Street, and became a successful investor. She graduated from Harvard, lived on five continents, runs marathons in her free time, and is raising three children.

Andrejka Bernatová has an unbelievable story behind her. The list of her activities and everything this investor and entrepreneur has accomplished is fascinating. Andrejka Bernatová comes from the small village of Hradec nad Svitavou. As a child she liked working in the fields, and even as a young girl she had a big dream - she wanted to go study in the USA and raised the money for this “trip” herself.

Later, she fulfilled other dreams, like studying at prestigious schools and having a career on Wall Street, where she worked for the famous company The Blackstone Group for two years. As an analyst in their alternative investment fund (Blackstone Alternative Asset Management), she was responsible for investments in the energy sector. By the time she was barely 30, she was managing $80 billion, the amount the fund had at its disposal.

Gradually she moved from finance to energy and building her own companies. Two years ago she jumped into the field of sustainable energy and decarbonization - she sees it as a big business opportunity and the future for our planet. Her company ESGEN is listed on the stock exchange, with a current market value of $108 million.

Andrejka does not waste time even in her free time and is extremely diligent and purposeful, which she says sometimes borders on insanity. For example, when she was in high school and her classmates were celebrating New Year's Eve, she was supposedly studying English vocabulary words. She maintains this approach even now as an adult. When she's on vacation, she fulfills running goals (10 km daily). Andrejka simply always has some goals she is fulfilling, and hates averageness in life.

Average - that's exactly what she really isn't.

Let's go through your story step-by-step, starting with your first stay in the USA. Can you explain to me how a 14-year-old girl chose to get money for a year of study in America?

"I would just ride my bike around to local businessmen. Some sent me away immediately, but some gave me money and I gradually raised the necessary amount that way."

How did you choose who to ask?

"I made a list of businessmen in the area, which I then went around asking, crossing them off the list as I went to show who I had already asked and who I hadn't. Then I did a second round, asking them again. Most of them eventually gave me maybe $50, but some gave more."

What made you want to go study in the USA in the 1990s?

"It occurred to me randomly when I saw a flyer somewhere advertising study in the USA. It was for a year in high school in the USA. I ended up in New Hampshire with a host family. I thought it was a great idea, but my parents didn't want to give me money for it and said I had to arrange it myself. In addition to going around asking local businessmen, I also wrote letters to many world leaders saying I wanted to study abroad and asking for a sponsorship gift. I wrote to people like Madeleine Albright. She didn't write back then, but I later met her in person at Harvard. Studying in America allowed me to fulfill one of my big dreams!"

What else did you dream of as a child?

"Honestly? I always wanted to be the president. From about age 8. As a child I spent a lot of time among adults, listening to discussions about politics. I liked to sit outside with retirees and listen to their debates. And so it occurred to me that it would be cool to become president..."

You didn't aim small. How did people around you react to that?

"That's where there's an interesting difference between the USA and the Czech Republic, which reflects the different mentalities well. When I said in the Czech Republic that I wanted to be president, people would say "Wouldn't you rather be a teacher or something?" Whereas in the USA, already during my high school exchange, everyone supported me in it. They even told me I could be whatever I want, that I could change the constitution and become the American president! It's of course partially laughable and na?ve. But that's what's great about America - everything is possible there. There is no other country in the world where someone can work their way up from nothing and accomplish the impossible. And I like this life approach - aim high."

You aimed high often. After your time in the USA, you were determined to study at the prestigious Swiss boarding school Aiglon College, where high tuition is charged. As the only student in history, you arranged a full scholarship - how did you accomplish that?

"I wrote directly to the school's director, writing him letters every two weeks for about 8 months. And then I called him and said I was coming to the school and he had the choice of either letting me sleep in the dorms or I would have to camp outside the school, but that I was coming either way. And you know what? He actually called me himself in the end and said he was making an exception for me, giving me a full scholarship. And so I went to study at the school. It's a prestigious Swiss school where I found myself among the children of billionaires, people from completely different backgrounds than me. And it was a great experience. The school director and I later became friends." (Author's note: Because this seems like an unbelievable story, Forbes contacted the former director of the school, Richard McDonald, who confirmed the information. Andrejka is considered an esteemed alumnus of the school and this year gave a big introductory speech to students at graduation, where she told her story.)

Why do you think he gave you, the only student, a scholarship? Were you sufficiently unrelenting?

"I guess so. It's one of my greatest abilities, both positive and negative - I just never give up. My husband jokes that I have some disorder where I just don't take "no" as "no." When someone rejects me, I just don't accept it, and when I set my mind on something, I always get it in the end."

Your path then continued through studying at Harvard and on to Wall Street, where you were involved in investment banking at one of the most prestigious companies, The Blackstone Group. After that you moved into the oil business. How was it working in the oil world?

"That world is very specific. If you remember the TV show Dallas, that's still kind of how it works today. It's really not easy to stand out and penetrate that community, which is very traditional and where men function mainly. But I never worked much with women in investment banking either. I was always an outlier as a woman in the group. So this didn't bother me, I'm used to functioning with men.

Good. My advantage is that I've never pretended to be anything, even since childhood. And I don't do that in the USA either. I am who I am, I have an accent - so what? I don't pretend anything and people respond to that. In the oil world I already stood out just by being a woman, and not a 50-year-old white man from Texas. (For example, at the company Core Midstream she worked as CFO, and at Penntex Midstream she was Vice President in charge of finance and investments.) I was different, and therefore very memorable, which was my advantage."

Did you ever feel inferior?

"Not at all. When someone is different, I think they of course have to try to be part of the given community, but not have a complex about being different. That's just how it is, we're all different. I already stood out at the boarding school in Switzerland - the school was attended by the wealthiest people in the world. Their parents paid $150,000 a year in tuition! Most people there also had three or four children. Those are completely different dimensions that those people lived in. And I didn't feel poor there at all. I never let myself worry about that, never in my life. I think it's about a way of thinking. But at the same time, I always tried to integrate as much as possible into the country where I was living, to be with the locals as much as possible. For example during my studies in Egypt I lived with an Arab woman, not in the dorms with international students, and in Chile I lived with a local family."

You speak five languages and have lived on five continents total. How did your half-year study stay in Egypt, for example, influence you?

"In Egypt I realized how lucky I am for the living conditions I have. There was terrible poverty there. I volunteered at a little school there, where we taught very poor children basic things. The poverty was awful, the same in Chile where I also worked on a project to help poor children, the same in Nepal and Kenya..."

Why did you dedicate so much time to volunteering?

"Among other reasons, I did it for myself, because I wanted to see how colorful the world is. It's important. I do the same with my kids now, who go to the Czech Republic every summer and are in a village there, which is a completely different world from their normal American reality. I think it's really important to see other worlds. It's important for what I do now too. I can speak with elites but also with laborers. Because in the end those are the people who really drive the world. And it's important to help - not by just giving someone money, but by teaching people to fish. One day I would like to dedicate more time to this, like Bill Gates."

What other work dreams do you have?

"I want to build a big fund that will focus precisely on decarbonization and invest in it. It's important to me personally but also for the whole world. Decarbonization and transitioning to sustainable energy is a trend and will be for at least the next 20 years. And I'm passionate and want to invest in growth in this sector, to move it forward somehow."

In addition to work, you gave birth to three children, and your hobby is running. In this regard too you aim high. You run ultramarathons, completing one of the hardest ultramarathons in the world, running across the Sahara desert. Where do you get the energy for all of this?

"I have too much energy. I think from birth I've had a higher energy charge. And I love running and really run a lot. I set monthly goals that I fulfill. In America I run a lot, but here in the Czech Republic I still run about 200 kilometers per month. I do about 10 kilometers every day. It's very demanding, but I enjoy it. I have a lot of energy and poor my husband just has to somehow live with me. And honestly I know it's not easy living with someone like me. Because I have huge goals in everything, I want to fulfill them, and that certainly leads to stress."

Can you relax?

"Probably not. I actually probably don't even know how to relax. But sometimes I'll turn on the TV and watch some Czech movie. I like ones like Mare?ku, Give Me the Pen for example. And I can relax with that. I like old Czech movies."

You come back to your homeland regularly for vacations. Have you ever wanted to move back here or start a business here?

"I would like to start a business here. For example I could invest in companies from the Czech Republic and Slovakia that focus on green energy and want to expand to the USA. But coming back to live in the Czech Republic permanently, I'm not sure about that. But maybe my life will develop so that through local investments I can spend more time in Europe and the Czech Republic as well."

How do your parents view your work anyway?

"They'd rather have me at home, for sure. My parents don't really understand what I do, it's rather complicated for any layperson. I explain to them that I basically do the same thing Richard Gere does in Pretty Woman. I invest in companies, improve them, and then sell them. Otherwise my parents are happy that I've started my own family and have kids. My mom probably never imagined I would have kids and a husband. And three kids - that especially! So she's satisfied."

Did your parents see you as a careerist?

"Terribly! I really was a careerist, work always came first for me. When I was around 20 I was totally crazy, I had huge energy and probably an unhealthy determination."

What makes you so extremely goal-oriented?

"I don't know if I trained it in myself or if I was born with it? When I have a goal, I go for it, I'm completely obsessed with it. I remember when I was learning English in high school. For example on New Year's Eve all my friends were out celebrating and I was writing English vocabulary words. On New Year's Eve! Like a total maniac."

What are your current personal life goals, has it shifted somewhere else beyond work?

"Work is still important, but I also want to raise my three children well. That's probably my biggest personal goal that isn't work-related, and it's not easy. I want them to become good people who have passions in life and goals of their own. I want my children to respect others, do something they enjoy, and maybe leave some kind of legacy behind. It doesn't matter if they fail at some things along the way, but they should have a spark for something. I always say the worst thing is being average."

So the main thing is not to be average in life?

"Yes. That's the worst, averageness is boring..."