If you had asked me not long ago who I was, I would have answered without hesitation: a professional handball goalkeeper. I still am. Handball remains my greatest passion, my profession and something I have dedicated a large part of my life to. But today, I am also building something else. My own company in AI video production. When people find out about it, very few ask how much time I invest in the company, what challenges we face or how many projects we have completed. Almost everyone asks the same question: how much do you make? Far fewer people ask why I dedicate so much time to building a company after training sessions, matches and all the other responsibilities that come with professional sport. There is more than one answer, but one of the biggest reasons is freedom. When I have more time, I can work on my computer for a few hours in the morning, train afterwards, go cycling, stop for a coffee and handle part of my work directly from my phone. I am not tied to an office or a single location. Some people might say that means I am always working. I feel exactly the opposite. I feel free. And honestly, that is exactly how I imagine my life after my professional sports career. I want to be able to decide what my working day looks like.
If I said money does not motivate me, I would be lying. Of course it does. But I am not building the company because I currently need it to survive. Professional handball is still my main source of income, and I am aware of the privilege of having financial security through sport. Professional sport, however, has another side. Since 2020, my wife and I have moved seven times and lived in three different countries: France, Switzerland and Hungary. Contracts in professional sport are often signed for only one or two years, and that naturally creates uncertainty. Where will you play next season? Where will you move? What will your next contract look like? This is one of the reasons I started thinking long term. I first seriously thought about life after sport in 2018 when I started working with the Proelium agency. They opened my eyes to something very important: an athlete should think about what comes after their career, and you can start building that future while you are still competing professionally.
My goal is not to build Elura overnight. I want to build a strong team, a network of collaborators, partners and clients that we can work with for years to come. AI video production is an incredibly new field, and that is exactly what excites me about it. The technology changes almost every week, the possibilities keep expanding and every project brings something new. Today, our team creates AI videos for companies, develops new approaches to production and constantly explores what can be achieved with artificial intelligence. But my biggest motivation is still the future. I do not want my sports career to end one day and suddenly have to start from zero. I know many athletes who only begin thinking about what comes next when their career is almost over. That is not criticism. Professional sport requires an enormous amount of time, energy and focus. I simply want to be prepared. When I step onto a handball court for the final time, I want something to already be standing behind me that I have spent years building.
Entrepreneurship has also taught me that a company is not just about numbers. It is primarily about people. Over the past months, I have met many interesting people, attended meetings and lunches, listened to their stories and thought about how we could help them through AI video production. I have learned a lot from people who were once in exactly the position I am in today. I am still at the beginning, and almost every conversation gives me a new perspective. What motivates me most is seeing a client happy with our work. Even better is when that same client comes back a few weeks later with another project and wants to work together again. That is when you realize you did not simply sell an AI video. You built trust. Every day I learn something new. How to price a project, how to communicate with clients, how to manage a production and how to admit when I have made a mistake. I still make plenty of mistakes, but every one of them teaches me something.
I did not immediately find what I am doing today. I tried many different things. I worked in telephone fortune telling. Yes, you read that correctly. I tried insurance and moderated online chat rooms. None of those things truly excited me, but I learned something valuable from each experience. Sometimes you first need to discover what you do not want to do before you find what you genuinely enjoy. Today, I feel like I have found that in AI video production. Every video is a new story. Every project brings a new challenge. Every week I meet new people. The technology develops so quickly that there is always something new to learn. And that is exactly what keeps me moving forward.
Balancing professional sport and building a company is not always easy. I have to make sure that one never negatively affects the other. At the end of the day, I am still a professional athlete and handball has to remain a priority. When I train, I think only about handball. When I work, I am completely focused on the company. The more I think about it, the more similarities I see between professional sport and entrepreneurship. Both require discipline, persistence and a constant search for better solutions. And in neither can you succeed alone. Just as a goalkeeper needs a team in front of him, AI video production requires the right people around you. In handball, communication between the goalkeeper and the defence has to be clear. If the defence closes one side, I need to know which space is mine to cover. Video production is no different. Without communication, trust and clearly de ned roles within the team, the final result will never be as good as it could be. Good communication matters just as much in the locker room as it does in a business meeting.
There are new sporting and business challenges ahead of me. I have high goals in handball, and the same is true for Elura. I do not know where this journey will take me in five or ten years. What I do know is that I am glad I started building today. You do not build a company overnight. Just as you do not become a professional athlete overnight. Both require years of work, learning, mistakes and persistence. Both are a marathon. And that is exactly why I am excited to see where this journey takes us.