How it All Began

👋 Hi, I’m Roman Golovach

Founder of Portals Academy — or rather… its first explorer.

I didn’t invent the Portals Academy.
I discovered it.

Through years of practice, learning, failure, and insight…
Through asking questions no one around me could answer…
And through living my way into the answers.

In this story — I’ll share how it happened.
How an invisible school revealed itself to me.
And how I became its first student.

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🌀 What is the Portals Academy?

Portals Academy is not a traditional school.
There are no teachers. No grades. No walls.
And yet… it might be the most legendary academy ever created.

Because here, you learn to:

• 🎯 Set goals and actually reach them
• 💡 Discover your real talents — the ones hiding in plain sight
• 🧠 Develop the mind of a genius, not through magic, but through repetition, play, and deep structure
• 🎮 Turn your life into a game of self-evolution
• 💫 Track your invisible growth, moment by moment, step by step

This isn’t a motivational promise.
It’s a training system for transformation — made simple.

Every Portal is a small commitment.
100 steps.
One challenge.
One level deeper into your own potential.

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How It All Began: Expanding Reality

After my first steps into gamification, I started to perceive the world around me differently. I began walking through my neighborhood — not just passing by, but exploring it like a map of unexplored territory. I saw streets, buildings, and parks with new eyes, as if each moment unlocked a new level in a game.

Public spaces no longer felt foreign. I started mentally claiming them — not in terms of ownership, but as elements of my personal map of reality. The pool became my pool, the gym — my gym.

I was no longer a guest in these places; I became their host.

‍Gamification expanded my mental territory and changed my sense of presence in everyday life.

One day, during one of those walks, I stumbled upon a place that felt… special. A park with a lake and a building on a hill that looked like a castle — something between a university and a magical school from childhood fantasies.

I could sit by the water for hours, gazing at its silhouette, as if it were part of a movie set. Each time I passed by, one thought echoed in my mind:

“I wish I could study in a place like that. Why don’t real schools look like Hogwarts?”

That building became a symbol for me — a metaphor of the ideal learning space, not just architecture, but a portal into an imagined reality where learning is magic.

For several years, I visited that park regularly, admiring the view, while studying gamification and developing an app called Portals — a digital tool to track your goals and progress: you create a challenge you want to complete 100 times, open a Portal on that topic, and mark each step.

At some point we asked: should users be able to choose the number of steps themselves? After many discussions, we allowed custom portals in the editor, but the foundation of the system remained: 100 Portals on the home screen.

This was unusual in the app industry — where most products try to hook users forever. I proposed something else: complete 100 Portals, and then, leave the game.

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The Moment of Realization: COVID and Empty Campuses

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, I often walked through the empty campuses of Harvard and MIT in Boston. These magnificent buildings, usually full of students, now stood still and silent.

And that’s when a powerful insight struck me:

Even when the buildings are empty, students still consider themselves students of these universities.

That’s when I realized: the buildings are just symbols — not the essence of the institution. True education happens in the minds of learners, in their interaction with ideas, with others, and with the transformation of their thinking.

One evening I returned to the park with the castle-like building. Staring at it, I had one of the most powerful revelations of my life:

“To be a student, you don’t need a degree. You don’t need permission. You don’t need a building. All you need is the internal game that creates the learning reality.”

And I said it out loud:

“I am a student of the Legendary Portals Academy. That building on the hill is my school.”

I didn’t need to enter it. I just began playing the game. My room became a dorm room in this legendary academy. The park — my campus. Any café or space — a lecture hall in my university of the mind.

From that moment, I chose to live as a student of this imagined Academy, using the Portals app to structure my learning.

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Systemic Insight: The Evolution of Education

This revelation made me dive deeper into understanding how and why the Portals concept works.

I began to see education itself as a game. Schools, universities — they are all gamified systems: with levels, bosses, achievements, identities.

The Portals app evolved into the Portals Academy — an educational system where:

• You choose what to study
• You create your own challenges
• You define your own curriculum

It's a system of the future. Legendary — because it offers unprecedented freedom and effectiveness.

Each mechanic enhances the others:

1. Portals — provide structure and visible progress
2. 100 Portals — activate ambition and a sense of mastery
3. The Role of a Student — unlocks optimal states of learning
4. Legendary Status — builds pride and significance
5. Points & Levels — deliver instant feedback and motivation

Over time, this system didn’t just gamify my life — it transformed my mind. I learned to dance, meditate, write, play music, code, design, build startups, and grow creatively.

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The Personal Transformation

Before this, I had a negative experience with traditional education. I chose a university without awareness, disliked the process, and my potential felt lost.

But that contrast helped me see and value the true power of Portals Academy.

Visiting elite U.S. universities, I once thought I had missed my chance for “that kind of education.”

I was wrong.

By inventing and playing the game of being a “Legendary Student,” I received an elite education — effective, personalized, powerful — on my terms.

And best of all — now this game is available to everyone.

No matter your background, you can become a student of the Legendary Portals Academy. All it takes is a choice.

Portals Academy: The Education of the Future

This is not just an app. It is a philosophy, a method, a living system of mind development.

Why It Works:

1. Structure & Challenge — 100 Portals = clear progress and big vision
2. Gamification — Ambition, Role, Feedback, Community
3. Neuroscience & Metaphor — activating deep learning through story
4. Freedom & Customization — you decide your path
5. Integration with Life — it works alongside your projects, not instead of them

You live your life. You build your company. You travel, work, love, create. And parallel to that, you track your mind’s evolution.

With time — the effect becomes exponential.

Conclusion: Welcome to the Academy

What started as a simple walk in a park became one of the most profound transformations of my life.

The “castle” on the hill? Now my campus.

My room? A dorm of the legendary university.

My daily steps? A curriculum of awakening.

Nothing outside changed — only the way I interact with reality.

That is the essence of Portals Academy.

Every Portal is a key. Every step is an awakening. Every day is an invitation to play the greatest game of all — the one where you become fully yourself.

Welcome to the Academy.

The game has already begun.

📖 Want to Know How It All Began?

You can:

• 📚 Explore the full story through the book
• 🎮 Or skip straight to practice and start tracking your own Portals — right now, for free