Mario | Beach Bungalow Surf Hostel
What are you doing at this hostel?
I’m having an escape from my wife. After Covid hit, we have been living together 24/7 for two years. I’m from Prague. Last week I was working here in San Diego and I added another vacation to it. Now I stay at this hostel and start drinking at seven in the morning.
Why did you choose to stay at a hostel?
It was more expensive to stay somewhere else and I like people. I like to interact with people on different matters.
Do you stay in a dormitory?
Yes. But I haven’t slept that much. I’m staying with three German girls, and the first night I told them: „I know that I’m very loud at night. I can snore a lot“. And they said: „No problem, we are used to it“. So, the next day I woke up I asked them: „What about last night“ and they said: „It was terrible“. Then I was trying to be kind to them and went to bed late at night the following days.
Tell me more about your vacation
This vacation is a bit different. Usually, I have a wife. Now I like to hang out and talk to girls. But I’m also convincing myself: „Mario, just chill out, sit down, grab a beer, look at the ocean, and have a good time“.
What means the ocean to you?
For me, it means silence. All the waves coming back and forth. Nobody talks to you. Nobody asks for opinions. And because of my job, that’s a really important thing. I need silence.
The waves don’t talk to you, do they answer you?
They don’t talk to me. They’re just the way they are. They just do their job and go back and forth.
Do you also like people doing their job?
No, but I like people to perform the best they can. If I find someone with the right skill set, I tell them: „come here, I will grab your hand and take you to the top“. And I’m very good at that.
How do you deal with your responsibility at work?
That’s probably the most stressful thing about what I do. Because you want to make sure they’re doing good at work and still having a good time with their families.
What’s your job?
I’ve been an operation manager for different companies. Now I’m supposed to be an operation director. I know how to make things go smoothly. For example, if you have a big crowd of people and you need them to do A, B, or C, I can go and make them do those things without feeling that they’re working so hard.
Is your job haunting you over here?
I have very good friends at work and right now I have to decide to fire some of them. That’s hard. But telling them „that’s your job, please stop doing that, start doing this“, and so on, has become more and more difficult. In the end, they don’t work for me but for the company.
What is your favorite book?
Don Quijote. For me it is about life: friendship, life, love, losing and winning. Those things you give for granted. For me, it is the essence of life; the journey you’re in. A lot of times I found myself in „Don Quijote situations“, like fighting something that isn’t real. What I tell you now is very personal. I have dreams that I’m fighting. They come back and forth since my childhood. In that dreams, I believe I’m not a real person. There are a few characters in that dreams who ask me to wake up – a Matrix kinda thing. After I wake up it hurts and I’m always wondering – is all that I’m seeing real or not?
I’m a crazy person. „You see those patterns on the wall ? If I want I can make them dance“. That’s why I drink all day long. I need to make my brain stop working.
My current boss inspired me to write more. When I finished high school and went to university, there were many mean people. When I said: „I’d like to read that book“, they’d say: „Really? That book sucks“. In the end, somehow, my social environment stopped my interest in reading and writing. But my current boss – I love her so much as a person – said: „whatever you do is fine“. Now I like to write – especially about girls. I have to be very open with myself. An open conversation.
Let me turn the conversation around. What question would you ask at an interview?
“A penguin walks through that door right now. What does he say?“ It’s a question I love to ask people in a job interview to find strong characters.
All right: A penguin walks through that door right now wearing a sombrero. What does he say?
Oh, the penguin came by just to say: „You’re doing a really good interview, you‘ve got the job!“
