She created the largest company in Poland providing long-term patient care services, in the USA she is recognized as an entrepreneur, but also a Visionary – Beata Drzazga – an outstanding woman, talks about how she came to success and how she motivates others to entrepreneurship.

The health market is a difficult industry, but also hard work, because close to human suffering, how did it happen that you decided to follow this path and change the face of patient care?

From an early age, I dreamed of working in a hospital. I studied and strived to get there. Unfortunately, this job did not meet my expectations in many respects. First of all, I couldn’t stand how patients are treated by the health service. Of course, as everywhere, there will be wonderful people, doctors, nurses, full of understanding, empathy and willing to help, and at the same time there are too many people who are completely unsuitable for this profession, people who do not want any changes. What’s more, even if there is a group of the nicer ones, they are perceived negatively by the others. Besides, my salary in the hospital was so low that I couldn’t provide my children with a decent life. It even got to the point where I had to decide whether I would serve them dinner or if they could go out for ice cream. I decided to change that. I decided that since I give my whole heart to my work, why should I live like this? I left my current job, rented one room and founded the BetaMed Centre.

I understand that this name comes from your first name, and did you want to provide full long-term care right away, or did you develop it?

This is how the name of the company refers to my name and initially I dealt only with ozone therapy, used by Dr. Gierek, then I entered the National Health Fund competition to start my activity in the field of long-term care. Soon, I hired the first person who is with me to this day, and then another person and suddenly I realized that there are 200, 300, 1000, 2000, 3000… Currently, I have 91 branches in 11 provinces and we are the largest company in terms of long-term care in Poland. 8 years ago I built my own clinic, for which I took a private loan of 60 million.

60 million loan sounds very risky, what do your surroundings think?

With this decision, I impressed many friends who said that I had courage, and I have it because I know what I want. When I was in Silicon Valley, Polish scientist Janusz Bryzek said that I am a Visionary because I am not only building something new, but I am creating something that has never existed before. And I really agree with him, I am a Visionary, I see it now, although before I thought of myself mainly as an entrepreneur. I believe that entrepreneurship is a profession. If someone can manage, organize, be a creator, then the industry is irrelevant. I have several companies myself. Including a real estate office in Miami or BetaMed International in Las Vegas. At some point, out of the need of the moment, an idea for a fashion salon also appeared. I started traveling a lot as part of my job and didn’t have time to buy clothes. So I decided to open a clothing store and become my own best customer. I remember wanting to come up with a catchy name. I opened a Polish-Italian dictionary and saw that in Italian Drzazga is “scheggia”, which is why the DONO DA SCHEGGIA brand was created – which means “A gift from Drzazga”. I started to bring original creations to Poland, which aroused great interest, I regularly integrated clients at Thursday meetings. As a result of these activities, I started organizing fashion shows in Dubai, Paris and Milan.

Have you exhausted your creativity for new businesses, or are new ideas still emerging?

More ideas keep popping up in my head. I became very interested in new technologies. I took part in many international conferences related to this field. I would like to go in this direction soon. I have a vision of what could be created thanks to new technologies to make life easier, especially for sick people. Whenever I think about these visions of mine, I smile because I never thought, neither when I was at school nor when I was working in the hospital, that I would one day create a great company, BetaMed SA, that I would dare to fly to the United States on my own and fight for my dreams. And now I live there, work, make a career. I also consider that my success is that despite many achievements I have still remained myself, a normal person. To this day, I have a friend from elementary school and many friends. I teach my children that you are great when you are humble. Respect for others is fundamental. Fortunately, I know many people in leadership positions who, apart from being visionaries, businessmen, are also good people. I would also like to emphasize that I am very proud of my three wonderful children and that I was able to instill my principles in them.

What motivates you, your loved ones or other entrepreneurs?

I tell my loved ones that the best motivation is the one that comes from within and is supported by self-discipline and commitment to achieving goals. Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, must be independent and courageously, but responsibly, make decisions, because they will not receive tasks from the boss, after all, they are bosses themselves. Motivation can also come from outside, which is why many people turn to business mentors to find inspiration and get out of difficult situations. Young entrepreneurs should remember, however, that mentor’s advice should not be accepted uncritically, because every company and human personality is different. In order to successfully achieve goals, we need several factors, such as self-confidence, perseverance and the commitment of our resources – time, financial resources and know-how. It is also important that our work is our passion, which makes it easier to stay engaged. Organizing our projects and tasks can help us increase our engagement, and the available workflow apps can make it even easier. It is also worth rewarding yourself and maintaining a work-life balance, which will bring us more satisfaction and enable us to work more efficiently. Sometimes it’s good to look at our company from a different perspective, for example by going to a different place, which can give us new ideas and stay ahead of the competition without falling into workaholism.

You are sometimes indicated as a business mentor, what do you like to convey to entrepreneurs the most?

As a business mentor, I am often asked about the biggest obstacles to achieving goals. Paradoxically, it is the need for consistency and duty that can cause our frustration and unpleasant experiences related to failures. Therefore, it is important to set goals that are achievable to avoid demotivation and the habit of accepting failures that discourage us from believing in ourselves. On the other hand, the implementation of most projects is always associated with risk and the need for courage. Therefore, it is important to be resourceful, dutiful and courageous, but at the same time not to expose yourself to unreasonable risks. The need to cooperate and take care of our employees and contractors cannot be overestimated. In business, virtually every goal is achievable through cooperation with others. That’s why let’s share the success with those who have contributed to it, so that everyone can feel satisfaction, because this satisfaction is the cumulative positive energy that drives us to act