Attila Knott, Managing Director, Kreativ Dental Clinic
- 12 Jul 2018 5:29 PM
1. Where did you grow up?
In Budapest’s 14th district, a green oasis in Pest. I lived there from when I was 2 years old. I left Hungary when I was 22 and went to France, spent 1 year there, and then for 16 years I lived in the United States. I returned to Hungary in 1998 with my German wife who I met in Budapest
2. If you could be an expat anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
It has to be in Europe, and because my wife is German it has to be a German speaking country, Austria or Switzerland, if not Germany itself.
3. What would you miss most if you moved away from Hungary?
My roots. For me, even walking in the ugliest street in downtown Budapest means more to me than walking anywhere abroad, because of my family ties here. Just like a bushman likes living in the jungle, I feel best in any part of Budapest and Hungary.
4. Friends are in Budapest for a weekend - what must they absolutely see and do?
To enjoy the Danube its scenery on a boat, looking onto both Buda and Pest, the bridges, great buildings like Fisherman’s Bastion. Then for a meal I could suggest Menza with good conscious.
5. What is your favourite food?
Lecso, cooked up outdoors in a cauldron. Mildly spicy.
6. What is your favourite sport / form of exercise?
Because my son plays tennis, I like watching tennis a lot even though I don’t play it. I regularly ride my bike, in the mountains but not on the open roads since I used to be a bicycle road racer.
7. What is your favourite place in Hungary?
Maybe our weekend house in Horány, the lovely little island across from Szentendre.
8. What career other than yours would you love to pursue?
An art dealer, because I once was an art dealer for a short time, dealing with paintings and fine arts via Christie’s and Sotheby's.
9. What’s a job you would definitely never want?
Coal miner.
10. Where did you spend your last holiday?
Last year I took my wife and son to Mallorca for four weeks, because my son attended at Rafael Nadal’s Tennis Academy. Every day after breakfast I went cycling while my son was training.
11. Where do you hope to spend your next one?
In July for three weeks in Barcelona, because I will take my son Felix to train at Sanchez Cazal’s Tennis Academy there. This time we will stay at a hotel instead of the Academy’s accommodation to make it a special holiday for us all.
12. What was your favorite band, film, or hobby as a teen?
I loved English music, from the Bee Gees to the Beatles, also the Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Mungo Jerry, Suze Quattro.
Film: Battle of the Bulge and the Goodfather
Hobby: Bike road racing.
13. Apart of temptation what can’t you resist?
Driving my Tesla.
14. Red wine or white?
Only red, and only high quality dry reds. If I drink it has to be good, otherwise I’d rather not drink.
15. Book or movie?
Because of my clinic I do not have time to read these days, however when I was younger I read a lot of books.
16. Morning person or night person?
I can wake up early any morning, however my body often does not wake up before 10 a.m.
17. Which social issue do you feel most strongly about?
Saving the polar bears, due to the melting ice caps and the related reduction in their hunting and survival options.
18. Buda or Pest side?
Pest.
19. Which achievement in your life are you most pleased about?
What I have now. That in Hungary I founded dental tourism, since then it’s become an organized multi-million Euro business around the world, and that my clinic was just officially named as World International Dental Clinic of the Year 2018.
20. What would you say is your personal motto?
Find the right people to work with you, give them what they want, and then you can expect maximum input from them each and every day. This is what I am doing, and this is the reason we do not have much staff fluctuation, since everybody who works here wants to retire from here.
Related article:
Free Check-Up At Kreativ Dental: Named Best Dental Clinic In The World 2018