Before We Begin: Why Make It Count

At 18, Elena Šandera had just started medical school when she discovered foil windsurfing.After her very first session, she came back to shore with a surprising thought:"I want to go to the Olympics."Four years later, she qualified a spot for Switzerland for the Paris Olympics, but didn't get selected to compete.In this episode, we talk about foil windsurfing, leaving the safe path behind, dealing with setbacks, and what it takes to stay committed to a dream that is still years away.A conversation about sport, resilience, identity, and the road to Los Angeles 2028.

What does it really take to make artificial intelligence work, not in theory, but inside large and complex organizations?In this episode of Make it Count, I speak with Pranay Jain, co-founder and CEO of Enterprise Bot, a company helping global enterprises transform how they communicate with customers.It is easy to talk about AI. It is much harder to integrate it into legacy systems, disconnected data, and real-world constraints. As Pranay explains, the real challenge is not whether AI is intelligent enough. It is whether the infrastructure behind it is ready.But this conversation goes beyond technology.We talk about starting without being an engineer, moving from India to the UK to Switzerland, nearly shutting the company down after Brexit, and why founders sometimes need to lie to themselves just enough to keep going.This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, adaptability, risk, and the mindset required to start, even when you do not fully know what could go wrong.Because sometimes, making something work begins with simply deciding to begin.More about Pranay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbpranay/

When I met Bernhard, I quickly realized he is a man of precision and passion, two traits that define both his love for coffee and his career in logistics. In this conversation, we move from coffee beans to blockchain, from childhood memories of trucks to his startup Logbook, a company using data and AI to make global logistics more efficient and transparent.For more information about Bernhard and what he does, check out his LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernhard-elkuch/

What does it really take to step away from a successful career, take your family, and travel the world, not once but twice?In this first episode of Make It Count, I sit down with my longtime friend Dominique Di Grande to explore how he created space for what truly matters. We talk about how he convinced his employer, his wife, and his kids to say yes, how he planned a year away from work and school, and what those journeys taught him about balance, purpose, and priorities.It’s not just about travel. It’s about learning to pause, to reset, and to realize that the “perfect moment” rarely comes, unless you create it.If you have ever wondered what it might look like to step back, reset, and make time for what matters most, then this episode is for you.

Every show starts with a reason. In this pilot episode, Patrick Slama shares his motivation for creating Make It Count — a podcast about the things we love to do outside of work, and how they shape who we are.It’s short, simple, and sets the stage for real stories about what makes life count.