Why This Blog?
A Hello-World-like blog post with an equally lame title about why this blog exists and what I would like to do with it going forward.
I’m just a regular guy, trying to help startups and their teams succeed in a challenging environment. Apart from that, I have a wife (Nina), a son (Leo) and a dog (Lego). I have an opportunity to work full time with a magnificent client: Acenta, a marketing agency that is set on co-creating the future of tourism for hotels, destinations and other stakeholders in the tourism industry and with a host of clients at the company I founded in 2016, We Wow Web. It comes with people I love and a never-ending menu of challenges I enjoy solving.
We own a car and just a while ago my wife paid off her mortgage for the 52 square meter flat we live in. We are lucky to live in a quiet part of town, in a country – which you should visit, should you ever get the chance – where you don’t have to worry about crime rates, or healthcare bills, or being able to send your children to college. Incidentally, the same country that gave the World Luka Dončić. (Slovenia. And you are welcome.)
In 2002 I suffered a spinal stroke and have a wheelchair to prove it. It allowed me to do unimaginable things: spend the following 10 years of my life focused on Para-Alpine Ski Racing, being part of Slovene Para-Alpine Ski Team, and representing my country in 3 Paralympic Winter Games: 2006 Torino, 2010 Vancouver, and 2014 Sochi – if you are a nerd for details, such as me.
During that time I was also exposed to some other amazing opportunities: becoming the 1st skier with a disability to ski down the 2nd largest ski jumping hill in the world in a straight line. Crossing Slovenia on a handbike in 25 hours. Being a TEDx speaker. Being named Friend of Wings For Life Foundation (along with many exceptional athletes, among them Felix Baumgartner, the man who – literally – jumped from the edge of Space). Working as a motivational speaker for established brands in Slovenia and Europe, trying to inspire the up-and-coming developers on meetups (and perhaps soon, conferences). Professionally working with and for many talented developers, designers, and business owners.
But it’s the other side of the coin that sent me on a journey. If life – or more specifically, my own spinal stroke and two of my wife’s breast cancer diagnosis – has taught me anything, it is that you should take nothing for granted.
I am by no account perfect. I’m at my best in challenging situations, or as I like to put it, long-distance suffering. I’m also my own worst enemy when the landscape is perfect. I tend to overthink, over-engineer, and subsequently discard ideas before even giving them a chance to succeed. I still fear front-end code and have a real problem, when trying to write on the first page of a blank notebook someone bought for me.
I hope to get exactly 3 things out of this:
- talk about lessons learned in startup land
- give you a behind-the-scenes zero-bull$h!t of some of the stuff we get to do there
- (still don’t know and that’s OK.)
Follow along if this sounds like something you would be interested in.
Between 2005 and 2014, he was a member of the Slovene Para-Alpine Ski Team and represented his home country, Slovenia, in Paralympic Winter Games in 2006, 2010 and 2014.