Erno Rubik's speaks about his personal life

My messages

• You need to have the courage to get off the beaten track, and you shouldn’t give up to find your own path.
• My favourite cocktail is what is mixed of Beauty and Truth – I name it Harmony.

What is most precious for me – the importance of creativity.

• There’s a necessity to find out and to formulate the original questions for finding the real answers: the new truth.
• Never forget to ask yourself: Am I right?
• Never forget to forget, throw out the ballast, fly high!

Memorable events:

• The birth of the Cube (1974)
• American Toy Fair in NY  (1980) – first occasion to travel behind the Iron Curtain
• The first World Championship of the Cube (Budapest, 1982)
• Cooperation with programmers on Visual Geometric Description Language (GDL) (1995–97) Graphisoft Co., on computer games (1996) Androsoft Co.
• I retired in 2004 (in legal terms) but I continue doing the same things as before.
• World Championship of the Cube (Budapest, 2007)

What I like to do – role of cultural and leisure activities

I indulged myself in books from the moment I learnt to read and I became a passionate reader.  Books offered me the possibility of gaining knowledge of the World, Nature and People. I have a special interest in science fiction and as a result I have a 'small‘ collection of books and magazines in this topic.

In the elementary school my favorite subject was mathematics, especially geometry, because for me it was not necessary to learn, it was enough to understand and use. I remember that I was spending many hours solving mathematics problems not as homework but for fun.

I have always loved outdoor activities:                                                                                      discovering nature, doing sports, playing table tennis, sailing on the Lake Balaton, skiing.
At present gardening, collecting succulents are my favorite pastime.

My relationship to other people – entrepreneurship, leadership
György Szrogh (architect, 1915-1999) was my mentor – first as a professor, later as a colleague – at the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts (today Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design) from whom I learnt the most about the humane content of architecture.

With Tom Kremer, founder and director of Seven Towns Ltd., London, we have become friends during the past 30 years. He was the person who introduced me to the (at that time) alien and strange world of toy business, whose excellence in the toy field was crucial for me back in the 1980s.

In 1982 I have founded the Rubik Scholarship Foundation, which gives financial assistance to young Hungarian designers for their studies abroad.
I am also founder of the Rubik Innovation Foundation (1982), which financially helps Hungarian citizens to accomplish their ideas, realise their inventions.
Later, in 1983, I have founded my company the Rubik Studio Ltd., and since then I am its managing director. 
In 1987 I became Professor of Honor at the Hungarian Academy of Applied Arts.
In 1990 I took part in founding  the Hungarian Academy of Engineering, of which I am the Honorary President.
I am co-founder and managing director of A&D Studio Ltd. (1990-)
I am also co-founder of the Palace of Miracles (scientific playhouse), Budapest (1994)
Doctor honoris causa (1996) University of Technology, Budapest
Doctor honoris causa, Honorary Master (1997) of Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design

My major achievements

I have received prizes and awards that I am proud of. I regard them as evidences of people receiving, understanding and evaluating my messages. However, when I consider my fundamental achievement, it is as simple as this: I am close to know who I am.

• Budapest International Trade Fair, Prize for the Cube (1978)
• Toy of the Year (1980)
• Federal Republic of Germany,
• United Kingdom,
• France,
• USA
• Toy of the Year (1981)
• Finland,
• Sweden,
• Italy
• Toy of the Year (1982) in the United Kingdom (second time)
• The Museum of Modern Art, New York selected my Cube into its permanent collection (1982)
• State Prize (1983) for demonstrating and teaching 3D structures and for the various solutions that inspired scientific researches in several ways
• Juvenile Prize (1988) from the State Office of Youth and Sport
• Dénes Gabor Prize (1995) from the Novofer Foundation as an acknowledgement of achievements in the field of innovation
• Ányos Jedlik Prize (1996) from the Hungarian Patent Office
• Prize for the Reputation of Hungary (1997)
• Kossuth Prize (2007) – the most prestigious cultural award in Hungary

Moholy-Nagy Prize (2008) – from the Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design

My publications

Editor and co-author of ‘A bűvös kocka’ (The Magic Cube), Műszaki Kiadó, Budapest,1981
Co-author of The Rubik’s Cube Compendium (written by David Singmaster, Ernő Rubik, Gerzson Kéri, György Marx, Tamás Varga and Tamás Vekerdy), Oxford University Press, 1987