„The only one who can stop you is yourself,” says the creator of the Mindfall Protocol about careers in the AI era.

He started at fifteen with a camera in his hand and a vision that the world has no limits. Today, he has collaborated with giants such as Microsoft and Allwyn and is behind the ambitious project Mindfall Protocol – the first Czech mid-length AI film. In this interview, NEWTON University graduate Gedeon Drapák shares his journey from the streets of Prague through London startups to the technologies reshaping the rules of the game. Why does he believe the future belongs to “vibe marketing,” and how did his studies help him realize that success is not only about skills, but also about connections and the courage to fail?

Let’s go back to the very beginning – what led you to study at NEWTON University, and what expectations did you have when you started?

I joined NEWTON with the goal of meeting top people in the industry. When I started working, filming, and taking photos at fifteen, I realized that business is not so much about how capable you are, but more about who you know and how well you can present yourself. In that sense, NEWTON University felt like the obvious choice. For me, it was the perfect combination of professional relationships and connections in the field I was interested in – marketing.

Did you already know back then that you wanted to pursue marketing on an international level, or did that develop over time?

I actually have a pretty funny life story. Even though I’m Czech and was born in Prague, I grew up in the United States from the age of one to seven. I was surrounded by aircraft carriers, skyscrapers, big cars, and huge dreams. I think that mindset stayed with me even after we moved back to the Czech Republic. Most of the people I knew here as a kid thought on a much smaller scale. That never appealed to me. I wanted to do big things and dream big, which is simply harder to do in the Czech Republic.

During my studies at NEWTON University, I got an internship at a London startup and lived in the UK for a few years. That company started sending me around the world, and I discovered entirely new limits.

What was the hardest part of studying for you, and what was the most valuable?

Studying was never particularly difficult for me. Since I was studying something I genuinely enjoyed and already knew a lot about because I’m largely self-taught, everything came naturally and easily. It was a really enjoyable ride.

The only thing that kept bothering me a little was accounting because, at the time, I didn’t really understand why I would ever need it. I wish I had known then how important it actually is. (laughs)

“I realized that the world is basically limitless and that the only limits you have are in your own mind. The only person stopping you is your perception of the world.”

Do you remember a specific moment, course, or person that changed the way you think about marketing or careers in general?

While working from a coworking space in England, I randomly met a Slovak guy named Kristián Toth. He was two years older than me and operated in a very similar way. He loved side hustles, traveled constantly, and was always learning about new technologies and trends.

He helped me break through several misconceptions I had about sales, marketing, and the way I viewed myself. I realized that the world is essentially limitless and that the only limits exist in your head. The only thing stopping you is your perception of reality and the fact that you’re not really selling your time – you’re selling value and solutions.

How well did your studies prepare you for real-life work, and what surprised you most after graduation?

I had a huge advantage because I started working extremely early, so transitioning into the business world felt very natural. School inspired me to become a lifelong learner, to network, and to stay human. That’s probably what I appreciated most about NEWTON University – every teacher knew my name, recognized my face, and I could always come to them for advice. That meant a lot to me. I wasn’t just a number, and the professors genuinely tried to help.

What surprised me a bit after graduation was realizing that you don’t actually use a lot of what you learn in school. In reality, people care about what you can do and whether you’re reliable. That said, don’t underestimate the more boring or “less sexy” subjects like accounting and law. They’ll give you far more in life than you can imagine.

What was your transition from studying to working life like? Smooth or more of a cold plunge?

Definitely smooth. I didn’t even make it to my graduation ceremony because I was already flying somewhere for work, handling a project or contract.

What was the first “hard lesson” marketing taught you?

I honestly feel incredibly blessed. I haven’t had many truly unpleasant experiences. The biggest lesson was probably misjudging projects and expectations. Expectations are the thief of joy. If you manage them correctly, you’ve already won.

Looking back, would you do anything fundamentally differently after graduating?

I’d definitely push myself further and take more risks. I’m extremely grateful for where I am and what I’ve achieved thanks to the people around me. But I think I would have progressed even faster if I had set goals twice as ambitious, failed more often, and discovered my limits earlier.

How did you get into working abroad and collaborating with international clients?

I actually owe my work abroad to NEWTON. During university, I got a work Erasmus opportunity in London. That experience made me realize how easy it is to travel and work with people globally. From there, everything turned into one big rollercoaster ride.

In your opinion, what’s the biggest difference between working for global companies and working on a local market?

For me, the biggest difference is mindset. In the Czech Republic, companies often focus on the best price-performance ratio, ask for “friendly discounts,” and hesitate to invest in cool ideas. One of my biggest strengths is that I genuinely try to create cool things, and companies abroad appreciate that. They value ideas, execution, and the passion people put into projects.

Very often, they’re not looking for the cheapest option, but for the most capable or the most cutting-edge approach – and they’re willing to pay well for it.

“Companies abroad often appreciate the fact that you know more and bring ideas on how to improve things and help.”

What skills are essential today for succeeding in a global environment?

For me, it’s language, culture, and having a broader perspective in your field. I was lucky enough to grow up in the US, so my English is very strong, and people often can’t tell where I’m from.

Culture is something we rarely think about, but it’s incredibly important and difficult to adapt to. Whenever I travel somewhere, I spend at least ten minutes learning what that culture values and what matters to people there. People in Singapore behave differently and value different things than people in the United States.

And then there’s overlap – being genuinely passionate about what you do. Nobody wants to work with a boring Czech guy complaining about waking up early or beer costing nine pounds. Have energy and depth. If you work in fitness marketing, be interested in nutrition, training, and the latest trends. Companies abroad appreciate people who know more and bring ideas on how to improve things.

What has working abroad taught you about yourself – professionally and personally?

I constantly surprise myself and keep learning about who I am. My perspective keeps evolving too. When I started traveling more, I was twenty-one. Today I’m twenty-six, and my priorities have changed a lot.

Most importantly, I discovered where my fears are – or where I have none. I realized I’m good at meeting new people and building connections. I also learned that there’s really nothing to be afraid of and that the world is actually small. I’m always just a few hours away from friends.

Over the past year, you’ve moved heavily into the world of AI and AI video. When did you first realize this wasn’t just a trend, but a major shift?

Yes, I remember it like it was yesterday. In London, I worked a lot with VC firms and produced podcasts. One young investor – he was twenty-four at the time – came up to me and showed me ChatGPT-3, saying, “This launched this morning, and it’s going to change the world.”

It took me a few days to fully understand that it wasn’t just a text generator but something capable of doing truly incredible things. My friends and I jumped on the trend very quickly and created Všechno AI, which at the time became the largest AI-focused website in the Czech Republic. We started building automations and running workshops for companies. We were extremely early and fast. Later, we had to slow things down because the market wasn’t ready yet and the tools didn’t have the same use cases they have today.

I never stopped working with AI. One day, a friend asked me how much AI I actually use throughout my day. That’s when I realized just how deeply AI had already reshaped my world. The longer I work with it, the more I understand how massive this will become. It’s a revolutionary technology like electricity, the steam engine, or the wheel.

What does working with AI on large-scale projects actually look like today? What do people often misunderstand?

People often think you type one prompt into a text chat and instantly get a finished five-minute video. That’s not how it works.

Yes, AI automates and improves many things, but it’s still heavily about systems, processes, and thinking partly like a programmer and partly like a creative. We often have to define the final product first and then work backwards to figure out how to get there.

Another thing people underestimate is how much time it takes to stay up to date with new tools. I’m fortunate enough to spend one or two hours every day following updates on X. In the AI era, speed matters twice as much because integrating new tools becomes easier and easier. You need to find your competitive edge – in our case, that’s know-how and speed.

You work with brands like Allwyn and Microsoft. What’s the biggest challenge when creating AI projects for companies of that scale?

People would probably be surprised, but working for big corporations is often easier than working for smaller companies. The biggest challenge is usually time. They come in saying they have an urgent project or meeting and need us to process something as quickly as possible.

What’s crucial is understanding the client and figuring out who the project is ultimately being presented to. Over the past year, I’ve learned that you often need to create work that appeals more to the managers approving the project than to the actual target audience. That creates an interesting internal conflict.

How has the role of marketers changed with the rise of AI? What’s no longer enough?

Today, marketers are becoming more like strategists and painters of campaigns rather than workers manually building PPC campaigns. The future belongs to what I call “vibe marketing.”

Just like vibe coding in programming – where you describe what you want and AI writes the code – marketing is heading in the same direction. You’ll use AI tools to plan, shape, and build your ideas.

“AI won’t replace you. But someone using AI will.”

What would you say to students who feel more afraid of AI than excited by it?

Why walk ten kilometers when you could take a car or ride a bike? I see AI as a tool. Nobody today says electricity is stealing jobs. Yes, it can be misused, but we also can’t imagine modern life without it.

People say AI won’t replace you – but someone using AI will.

At the beginning of 2026, you premiered the largest AI film ever created in the Czech Republic – Mindfall Protocol. How did the project begin?

In the middle of last year, we decided to push AI video to its limits and try making a film. It sounds crazy, but today you can create a visually impressive 35-minute story with a relatively small budget – around 70,000 CZK in AI costs.

That’s what excited us. We wanted to test it and find the limits. Another reason was that it’s fantastic marketing. A group of young Czechs attempting something the traditional film industry doesn’t really want to accept.

Once we made the decision, we started planning and doing pre-production. We designed characters, environments, and visuals. Most of the production began in November 2025 when we started generating scenes and animations. We finished the film one week before the screening, polishing sound effects, AI-generated music, and color grading.

Watch the trailer for the film: Mindfall Protocol – trailer – the biggest Czech AI film coming soon to cinemas

What do people misunderstand most about the term “AI film”?

People often assume AI video has no emotions, isn’t realistic, and doesn’t belong in cinema. During the screening, it was amazing to watch people laugh or get scared. I was happy to see them immersed in the story and enjoying it like a normal film.

Yes, it’s not perfect, and AI video still has a long way to go. It needs to become more naturalistic and detailed. But the trend is obvious. It will continue improving and make visual effects and expensive scenes much easier to produce. That said, I don’t think human acting is going anywhere.

How was this project different from anything you had done before?

Compared to the other AI videos we create – usually one or two minutes long – this was on an entirely different scale. Most projects, like Christmas ads or presentations, can be completed by one person in two working days.

Mindfall Protocol is 33 minutes long, and we worked on it for about two and a half months. It’s what you’d call a SOTA project – state of the art. Nobody in Central Europe has done anything like this yet.

What impact do you think this film has on marketing, the creative industry, and the next generation of creators?

I believe what we achieved shows where the market is heading. People and companies will become much more agile.

Have an idea? Within five minutes, you can generate a preview of what it might look like. Want to convince your boss that a sponsorship investment is worth it? Create a visualization in ten minutes. Have an app idea? Build a prototype in an hour and ask your friends if they’d use it.

Everything is accelerating. Ideas and creativity are no longer limited by resources – only by you and your imagination.

How do you think marketing will look five years from now?

More dynamic. More crazy. More everything. Quality will improve, and people will communicate their ideas much better.

Marketers will become the people steering the ship and setting the direction, while AI will act as the worker handling the execution – like a builder laying the bricks.

Which roles or specializations do you think will disappear, and which new ones will emerge?

I’m not sure specific roles will disappear entirely. I think they’ll transform. People will spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time directing AI systems working for them. We’ll become directors and managers of AI.

I see it similarly to the arrival of electricity – electricians emerged, while jobs related to steam engines disappeared. Today, when I use a computer, I don’t think about how the battery works or that it replaced someone who once had to calculate things manually.

What separates an average marketer from a world-class one today?

Top marketers have depth and understand what customers actually want. They know how to position a brand and shape it in a way that truly resonates with the right audience.

Another major difference is courage – what people are afraid of, how bold they are, and how well they can sell their ideas. Many people have brilliant ideas but fail to convince management. And finally, there’s network and know-how. When you know the right people in the right places, you can achieve incredible things.

If you were a student again today, what would you focus on the most?

Networking and trying to fail as quickly as possible. Those are the two things that move you forward the fastest at that age.

Start projects, try things, fail – again and again. And build connections. The more, the better. People need to know who to call five years from now when they need something.

What helped you the most on your journey – talent, discipline, the people around you, or the ability to take risks?

YouTube, one hundred percent. Seriously. I learned most things from YouTube and from being around the right people.

Curiosity and saying “YES” to everything pushed me forward massively. I said yes even to things I wasn’t sure I could handle. Persistence matters too. If you want to achieve something, you need to stay focused and keep moving forward nonstop.

How do you deal with doubt and failure today?

When I feel doubt, I ask myself whether it’s justified. There are plenty of things I’m not talented at, and those are things you should outsource – and that’s completely okay.

As for failure, part of me likes it and part of me hates it. I enjoy learning something new and understanding why something didn’t work – whether it was pride, poor expectations, or bad management. The difficult part is simply going through the fact that something failed.

What would you like students to take away from your story?

The only person stopping you from doing crazy things and achieving your dreams is yourself. The world is open to those who aren’t afraid and who actively go after opportunities.

And finally – what one skill or mindset will be absolutely essential for NEWTON University students in the years ahead?

You need to learn how to sell yourself. Technology will change, the world around you will change, and you must evolve with it while highlighting what makes you unique.

Be passionate about what you do and show the world that you have something valuable to offer.