Price Márton Péter nevét akkor ismerhette meg az ország, amikor néhány hónappal ezelőtt feljutott a Mount Everest csúcsára. Erről a rendkívüli teljesítményről már több interjúban is beszámolt. Ebben a beszélgetésben többet is szerettünk volna megtudni róla, és a hegymászás mellett az angol és a magyar nyelvvel való kapcsolatáról is kérdeztük.
With an English father and a Hungarian mother, can we say that your mother tongue is Hungarian and your “father tongue” is English? If, yes, how does it work? How do you normally think and talk to yourself? Do you switch between the two languages? Do you have a default language?
Yes, correct – I had the great advantage of growing up in a bilingual household, and consider my mother tongue Hungarian, and my “father tongue” English, without a clear default language.
I have lived primarily in the United Kingdom for the past 10 years, and my academic and professional career has been in Cambridge and London, so I naturally think in English when it comes to my finance-related work. On the other hand, I have a Hungarian-speaking psychologist whom I see every week. Mental health is as important as physical training, and I really prefer to speak about my emotions in Hungarian, and also carried a Hungarian flag to the summit of Everest.
Now that I have spent more time in Hungary, given my newly launched investment fund, MPP&E Capital has many Hungarian investors, I’ve started to re-engage with the language more, and love switching freely between the two languages.
What was it like to grow up in a bilingual family? One would think it’s a great plus but were there any drawbacks as well?
I truly believe that it’s one of the biggest advantages I’ve had in life – when you grow up in a bilingual family, you understand at a very early age that different languages have different expressions, idioms, and colloquial terms, and it helps you develop an incredibly open-minded view of the world.
When you grow up speaking two languages, there is no “right way” to say certain things. On Facebook for example, you add someone as a “friend” when including them in your network, but on the Hungarian version of the platform you add them as an ”ismerős”. For those who speak both Hungarian and English fluently, it is quickly apparent that these do not cover the same thing. Which one is right? Both have an element of truth behind them – and it’s exactly when you start to realise these differences that you begin to question the meaning behind sentences and develop a more open-minded, curious view of the world.
The only slight drawback I would say growing up bilingual results in is that you do not develop a true native fluency in either language, which makes you feel like a slight outsider in both cultures. In Hungary, I sound incredibly British, with a clear British accent, but those who grew up in the UK their entire lives notice a slight ‘twang’ in the way I pronounce certain words. Similarly, in Hungary, I speak fluently, but native Hungarian speakers notice a slight ‘foreignness’ in the way I construct sentences. I don’t mind this at all, however – it makes me a little different, which is great.
After growing up in Hungary you went to study in the UK. Did you enjoy your studies? Did you find them useful?
The privilege to study at the University of Cambridge was a life-changing experience. I was the first ever student to be admitted from my school, Gödöllői Waldorf Gimnázium to Cambridge, and it was eye-opening in so many ways. Not many people know this, but even though I went to study Land Economy, which relates primarily to environmental economics, I chose to sit the advanced level of Hungarian Literature érettségi (A-Levels) – I have always found Hungarian literature fascinating, even though it did not strictly relate to my economics-focused academic studies.
At Cambridge, education is done in a very personalised format, with 2-4 person supervisions, a tutor who monitors your academic performance and also mental wellbeing, and generally small classes for lectures. We also had to submit each week compulsory academic thesis style ‘essays’ on certain topics, which at the beginning was challenging, given my entire studies up to that point were in Hungarian.
I also tried to remain active in the Hungarian life at Cambridge, and was fortunate enough to be elected President of the Cambridge University Hungarian Society in my 3rd year, and founded the “Future: Hungary” initiative in 2016, connecting talented Hungarians studying at leading UK universities with multinational companies who have a presence in Hungary – an issue that remains close to my heart to this day. Overall, studying at Cambridge was amongst the best years of my life.
Do you feel at home in London and the UK? And in Hungary? Is it good to have more than one place where you can feel at home?
I feel at home in both places. London has a tremendous vibrancy of life, endless opportunities and fascinating people who have travelled from all across the world to make London their home, whilst Budapest has a classical beauty, a familiar sense of belonging, and incredibly intelligent people, and it is also where my parents live.
As an anecdote on where I feel at home when I originally booked my flight tickets to Nepal and the Himalayas for my Everest summit attempt, I booked a return London-Kathmandu flight – however as the expedition date was approaching, I felt a strong inner sense that I wanted to safely “return home” after my climb and modified my return flight to land in Budapest.
The feeling of landing at Budapest airport, with my parents, family and close friends waiting there for me after I’d been to the death zone of the Himalayas and safely back, is indescribable. It is the closest I’ve come to choosing a “home”.
When climbing mountain peaks in the Himalayas, language is obviously not the main issue or problem. Still, did you have any difficulties and problems with communication during your expeditions?
Although language is not the main concern in the thin air of the High Himalayas above 8000m, it is nevertheless very important. Padawa Sherpa, who I climbed with, speaks decent English, and our communication was key. We have climbed three times together now – in December 2021 on Mt. Lobuche 6,119m, in September 2022 on Mt. Manaslu 8,163m, and on Mt. Everest 8,848m in May 2023. Our communication throughout this time only got better, and for me was a very important reason why I only wanted to climb with Padawa Sherpa (apart from the fact that he has summited Everest 27x times, the 2nd most summits ever, which also looks good on his “CV”).
When you trust your life to a climbing partner, it is essential that you understand each other clearly. We never had big communication problems, and in fact developed a few phrases in Nepali which really encouraged me. In the Himalayas, I am colloquially referred to as “Yak Rokpu”, or the “Black Yak”, the black colour being quite rare amongst yaks (I guess the Sherpa equivalent of “Black Sheep”). This developed because even though I don’t have Sherpa levels of energy, I was still amongst the stronger climbers, and the Sherpas gave me this nickname. When you are 16 hrs into a summit push, completely exhausted, and Padawa Sherpa shouts “Come on Yak Rokpuuu” it makes you smile and gives you a little extra energy.
We only had a communication problem once – on Mt. Manaslu 8,163m, where the “true summit” is only accessible via a narrow, corniced ridge some 40-60m long, which took me over 1 hour to traverse. On the way back, on this scary ridge with a 2,000m drop into the abyss, Padawa Sherpa wanted to make sure I was extra safe, so he told me to attach both of my carabiners to the fixed ropes, as opposed to only one which is more customary. In the 60-80km/h howling winds at 8,100m, Padawa Sherpa shouting “DOUBLE SAFETY!!” repeatedly at me whilst I stood there shivering was not immediately clear, and he had to shout several times until I attached both carabiners – the only real time I’ve seen him properly shout.
You have talked about your experiences during these expeditions in several interviews. Now we would like to ask you about the language: what were the words or sentences that somehow had a crucial impact on you, that were with you through the difficulties and challenges and somehow defined your attitude and decisions as you prepared for this mission and as you carried it out?
What a great question! Language-wise, the most significant words and sentences were the ones I texted my family on my GPS satellite phone during the expedition. I just checked my last message to my parents when I got back down safely to the Basecamp of Everest on the 17th of May, 3 days after summiting: “Nobattery im safe”. I guess there is no better word one can say, or hear as a parent, than “I’m safe”. I can still picture the exact spot I was at in Everest Basecamp when I wrote those words.
I was also very conscious of the fact that 80-85% of climbing fatalities occur on the way down, descending from the summit, and during the long months of preparing for my climb, I found a song which really resonated with me, “Go Solo” by Tom Rosenthal and Zwette. To prepare for this descent, I visualized listening to this song on the way down. On an 18hr summit push, you don’t have headphones in to listen to music, but when I started my descent, I briefly dug out my airpods, and listened to the song once, to give me mental strength and clarity for the way down. The lyrics goes as follows:
“And I’m happy, nothing’s going to stop me, I’m making my way home, I’m making my way”.
“I go solo, oh I go solo, I’m making my way home, I’m making my way”.
To me, these words really signified the importance of getting back home safely, and also the solitude and monumental individual effort required to achieve such a safe ascent and descent.
How can your mountain climbing experiences and the lessons they taught you be carried over into other areas of life? Your career in the financial field also has to do with managing risks and making safe but profitable decisions….
This sounds trivial, but once you achieve a lifelong dream like summiting Everest, you really develop an unshakeable inner sense of calm and confidence. Compared to the fragility of life on the Hillary Step of Everest at 8,790m, those important work deadlines seem suddenly much less demanding!
Similar to my climbing ambitions, I had always dreamt of running my own investment fund one day, but never dared to take the ‘leap of faith’ required to quit my investment role at a globally successful, $600bn+ assets under management fund in London. However, after returning from my expedition in the Himalayas, the daunting task of convincing investors to trust my investment expertise and invest in MPP&E Capital seemed much less scary, and we launched our own fund with my co-founders in 2024.
I believe there are similarities in safely climbing the highest mountains of the world in the Himalayas with taking prudent investment decisions. We want to maximise our chances of success, whilst also minimising the risks we face. This is exactly why I chose to climb with supplemental oxygen and with the help of Padawa Sherpa – it made it significantly less risky and increased my chances of success. Without Padawa, there is no chance I could’ve returned safely, and I do not feel ashamed to say that I summited Everest with his help.
Similarly, when people hear the word “hedge fund”, they immediately think it is a risky endeavour – however quite to the contrary, the quantitative investment philosophy we take at MPP&E Capital is focused on minimising downside risk, and ensuring we preserve both our own savings, and our investors’ capital.
You work with financial markets, investments and figures. Do you ever focus on the language you use in your work and find it interesting?
Yes, absolutely. The ability to communicate with investors clearly is one of the most important aspects of running an investment fund. You want to convey your strong belief in your own investment success and reference your track record, but also need to remain factual, and cautious with regards to ‘forward-looking statements’. Wording is such a crucial part of investor communication in the financial markets, that there are even market regulations (eg. by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK) on what investment managers can, and cannot say.
Another fascinating aspect to me about running a quantitative investment fund is that all our investment processes are fully systematic, and automatized with the help of computing languages, primarily ‘Python’ and ‘C#.Net’ – these are effectively their own ‘languages’, and require significant time and effort to learn. My co-founder Dávid Parázs, who grew up in Hungary but attained a Japanese government scholarship to be a research chemist in high-altitude chemistry at the Tokyo University of Technology, had to first learn Japanese, and then study chemistry! I truly think this early requirement to learn Japanese contributed significantly to his exceptional ability to write sophisticated computer language code, and ultimately devise successful quantitative investment strategies.
What plans do you have for your future? Do you like to set up plans for the long term or do you prefer to plan on foot or improvise?
I know this sounds like a cliché, but I have always tried to ‘set the bar high’ and pursue difficult tasks that require long-term perseverance and commitment – getting accepted to the University of Cambridge from Gödöllő, applying to Goldman Sachs 4 times, with 3 rejections and only succeeding on the 4th try, climbing in the High Himalayas, or setting up your own investment fund I believe are all examples of the same underlying principle and long term motivation to succeed.
Nevertheless, I think it is also important to take things ‘step by step’, and break down long-term plans into smaller, attainable goals. I still find it difficult sometimes to have the motivation to go for a 10km run or write to another prospective investor after a few rejections. This is less about improvising, but rather just not giving up, and always trying to aspire onwards and upwards.
