As an entrepreneur, he managed 130 employees, today he takes care of 100 animals on the farm

As an entrepreneur, he managed 130 employees, today he takes care of 100 animals on the farm – Lifee.cz

Moderator and now for three years farmer Tomáš Krejčíř (52) today he lives a peaceful life on a farm, where he and his wife, doctor Petra, raise two school-age children, Sebastian and Mia. The three older children he has from a previous relationship are now adults.

Three years ago, Krejčíř successfully sold a large family ophthalmology company and let it be known that thanks to the millions he got from the sale, he doesn’t have to work until he dies. Still, he gets up before six o’clock every day to feed a good hundred animals on his farm. For now, she is fully subsidizing this, because she does not earn money herself. “What I consider to be my biggest success – that we were really able to sell it well. The sale lasted two years. It was much harder for me to sell the company for two years than to build it. And you can’t say anything in front of those people. You feel a bit like an unfaithful husband in front of those 130 employees” he explains to his colleague Miluška Bittnerová in his confession on the talk show Na kafeečko.

Tomáš, flute from Family bonds ended up on a farm. That’s quite a change, isn’t it?
It is, but I think that many of us go through quite fundamental changes in our lives, whether we want to or not. This is kind of our dream that we have materialized. And as it happens with dreams, when God wants to punish you, he will fulfill your prayers. This is not to say that we resent having a farm. First of all, I know nothing about farming. I’m such a scarecrow farmer. We have a farm, yes.

Animals live here, we saw them.
They are satisfied. We had a little sheep yesterday, she doesn’t have a name yet – you can give her one.

Congratulations!
She suckled and immediately drank, which is not completely obvious for our sheep. You never know if you will have to help her. I often lie under the sheep, with the udder above me, and try to stuff the teat into the little one’s mouth. Sometimes it really takes those two hours, you’re nagging yourself, but it’s nice when you hear him suck and see his tail wagging. These are my orgasmic moments.

You became a lactation consultant.
Yes. I milk, I know how to milk, I know how to milk, I can do a lot of things. But it is not a classic production farm that would support itself. This is the negative side of our dream. You have a dream, it’s great, but you keep pouring money into it. “When will it end and be at zero?” Well, not yet.

And can it end like this? Do you expect the farm to pay for itself?
Yes, it can end that way.

You graduated from DAMU and were in the same year with Míša Kuklova.
Yes, everyone loved her. Unfortunately, she didn’t admit all of us to her body. I was one of the unlucky ones who couldn’t do it.

Do you ever remember those student days?
But yes, not very often. Some of them were terribly nice things and some of them were also sad. Two of those people left. One of our friends died tragically and I think about her quite often. It was on horses when we had riding lessons. And one boy overdosed. These are the ugly things that are going through my head. Of course, I remember the nice things more often. Not as often as I might like. Now we had a reunion after thirty years and it was great. Martin Stránský, Dana Morávková, Radek Holub… it’s nice to see those people. Since I’m not in the theater, I don’t see them that often. The valve of memories opened.

You are a very successful class. If you had to decide again whether or not to go to DAMU, would you go?
Actually, probably not. We were sixteen years old then, we dreamed about it and it was a camera. It was an escape from gray totalism for us. We were also naive and somehow imagined the acting life. Now that I see the possibilities you can do, I would go to school somewhere. I would also try to leave, even though I traveled around the entire planet several times, mostly as a tourist, even though I was there for two months. I would really like to live somewhere outside of civilization, perhaps on the Indonesian islands or in South America. And that doesn’t go well with acting. If I had an extra life, I would escape on an adventurous trip of several years.

But isn’t it like you’re giving up acting?
Not at all. It’s for fun. A pretty face is fine, but there has to be something more behind it, because when it blossoms, it will be a terrible conflict. This is very true and it applies to boys too. You know it, even though you are constantly in action. It’s a terribly thankless profession. A director once said that an actor is like a brick that the director uses in the wall. Sometimes you fit and sometimes you don’t, you lie on the pile for five years. Most Czech actors have a card in Bohnice – not for nothing. Of course it’s fun, but there’s something to it. It’s a hard life, and especially for a guy. At my age, when you’re transitioning to manhood, a lot of actors are dealing with major issues. I’ve been a hairstylist all my life, and it’s an undignified profession. Once you’ve gained experience, many actors would tell you that they probably wouldn’t do it again.

A lot of actors are oversensitive, and so are you as an actor, but on the other hand, you’ve done wonderfully in business. You are one of the few actors who didn’t go bankrupt, managed to keep the business going and sold it at a profit. What is it in?
I think acting has helped me a lot in the business. I was able to work empathetically with people, I was not a typical manager. Of course – we had Excels, meetings, outputs and hard data to keep an eye on. There were a lot of things that you have to follow in business, otherwise you can’t do it. It must have structure, drill, austerity, protocol and order. You can’t avoid that. The first problem for an artist – the discipline has to be there, without it you can’t do it. But I had the added value of seeing people as people. Unlike other managers who have Excel in their heads. They need to fill the tables and maintain ebitda, ideally keep raising it. They need good marketing and solve everything in such a way that it keeps growing by the principle of capitalism. I don’t really need that one, it’s not close to me because it doesn’t lead to good endings.

So how to achieve such success?
It was largely luck and largely my wife. My wife is a doctor, we had a healthcare company. Even though she didn’t run the company, people knew I had a doctor next to me. And that the doctor can throw a lot of things back at me. Then I had to tell people about it and keep it, because I ran the company, and somehow it was successful and it worked for those fifteen years. What I consider to be my biggest success – that we were really able to sell it well. The sale lasted two years. It was much harder for me to sell the company for two years than to build it. And you can’t say anything in front of those people. You feel a bit like an unfaithful husband in front of those 130 employees.

Sometimes it happens to all of us that something ends, but no one tells you.
I understand that, because if you sell a company and you tell those people, you’re going to destroy the company. It is not possible. In show business it’s a bit more unfair, but with a company you have to make sure it’s in good shape. Ideally not to sell the shocks to people. For example, when there was a covid pandemic, it was terrible for me. Every day you have to have half a million turnover from those X operations in your account – and you have zero. First day, second, third. Everyone who runs a business knows this. You’re looking at subsidies, biting your nails, and wondering how you’re going to pay 4 million in salaries, what you’re going to pay rent with. Your head is buzzing. It was a very stupid period.

Golden theater!
I know that the actors also had a hard time, but the businessmen – hats off to everyone who endured it. The responsibility is the worst. I experienced it terribly hard. Running a company, having X people on your back and having to give it.

I can’t imagine having a business, running a business and living with the person with whom I have the business.
It helped me. You have a lot to talk about at home.

And can you turn it off?
Of course. When someone strategically left me and I had to find someone, I kept telling Petra. On vacation, we can go days without talking about the company. Fortunately, this chapter is now behind us. But we did it.

Tnow that you have a farm, you also have a lot to worry about.
I think the future is important in a relationship. You have plans, dreams, you experience your stumbles and successes with him. We’re building something here, and that’s the best part. Although there is a lot of work here. But the nice thing is that you can see your thoughts becoming reality. When you look around, every tree and every hill, every flower is your heart and your brain. That’s what’s so exciting about it—the most for me. You do something that comes out of your head and it’s all around you. That’s really cool.

And you have two kids on top of that. how old are they
Nine and seven.

This means that they already perceive very well and maybe help on the farm.
Now they have such a period that not at all. Yes, a little, but not yet that they would feed. It has to come, we lead them to it. When the boys were three or four years old, paradoxically, they did more but helped less. If I tell them now, but they made rabbits or guinea pigs, they are able to do it. They give them water, pellets, but they are not yet old enough to let them join the donkeys. Mia goes to the horses, but not the donkeys, they are still wild animals. It’s good that they are not afraid of those animals. Seven-year-old Mia, in particular, calmly walks up to the huge horse. He won’t do anything to her, but I’m in trouble.

You already have three grown children, now you have these school children. Are you different than you were at twenty-five?
Certainly. For me, the biggest bonus is that I can be with them. When I was young, I was always flying somewhere, I had a thousand shows, TV, radio, so I wasn’t home much. It makes me sad, and it’s the same with many of us, that they can’t take care of the children. I was more hysterical, or rather neurotic. Today I’m calmed down, although sometimes… but you take it differently. I have three children who are doing well so far. They all have universities, everyone has got a degree and they have a good start. I have a good feeling that something has been done. I go through it again with the younger ones, but because you already have the experience, you don’t stress it so much. It will work out somehow.

You were a spiritualist, you were with the Mormons. Where are you now?
Before Christianity came to these latitudes, there was shamanism. They worshiped trees, springs. God was nature. That’s where I am now. I am in nature, every day I see the sunrise, mostly the sunset. And that’s so cool, to feel the rhythms. You feel the rhythm of the day and I have never seen so many sunrises and sunsets in my entire life as I have in the last three years. You look at the earth and the planet and feel that you live with it. That’s where I am now. I believe what the Indians in South America believe. Mother Earth is really our mother and I try to be responsible towards the Earth, towards the environment and towards people.

It’s a good thing the dude from Family Bonds talks like that.
It was such a strange time and a strange story. It was the first telenovela, everyone laughed at us. Today I see friends, Hamlet actors, doing the same thing. It is such a satisfaction for me. I’ve said somewhere that Family Ties doesn’t scream quality, but what I meant was that it’s not Shakespeare. It’s kind of a factory, not in a pejorative way, but that we try to do those things as best we can. I don’t take it that he was a dude. We tried to do it honestly and fully.

Life after fifty has taught me discipline

Do you feel your age?
Yeah, after fifty I feel it. I do things slower, more things hurt and I don’t want to do things. But then again, I have terrible discipline in me. I used to be more lazy, today I am more hardworking.

What else did Tomáš Krejčíř talk about: