Sense of gratitude after five years of hard work

After five years of hard work and good laughs, long days and countless travels, I have quit the company I have helped to built. It was a hell of a ride. We have grown the company from 20 people to 150 people in the development (DevTribes as we like to call it) and build four development offices in both Czech Republic and Belarus. We went through all possible and known failures such as:

• losing clients (multiple times)

• burning money faster then expected

• not having money to pay employees wages

• losing good people

• hiring wrong people

• not being able to get rid of people for longer then necessary due to "irreplacability" syndrom

• hitting multiple death ends in development

• chosing wrong technologies

• rewriting things into new language in order to be more affordable for our clients

• dealing with internal growth problems (changes in line of command)

• selling what was not yet built

• going through rejection after rejection from both potential investors and clients

• running after two many rabbits at the same time

• pivoting many times

• motivating people over and over again to stay and believe in the vision

• etc …

And on, and on and on. It was never easy. Constantly dealing with new issues and challenges. So why one signs up for this? Because if you try to build something meaningful, something great. Something what was never done before the way we envisioned it, it wont be easy. It was the University of leadership and struggles, hands on. On the last day of my leaving, head of the tribe asked me with what feelings I am leaving the company. I have answered that I am leaving with strong sense of gratitude and proudness. That I am proud about the team and what we were able to accomplish. That we put together like minded people and we worked hard. Because any great masterpiece requires the team, not just the individual. That is the lesson I am taking with me. Thank you life for those five years. 

Now it is time to start writing new chapter.