Hard Years, Real Wins: Why 2025 Changed Everything

2025 was a breakthrough year here both personally and professionally, and looking back, the second half was definitely a successful launch in the right direction after two grueling years of warming up.

Just like training for a competition or studying for an exam, the months (or sometimes years) of hard work don’t show progress in between, no “instant gratification” boosts, and no rewards on the path.

Unlike other personal quests in the past 25 years (individual career moves or personal milestones), the last few were challenging to many – between a pandemic, geopolitical tension, ZIRP over, layoffs, and AI turbulence, adapting to the “new normal” is not over yet (and who knows, maybe never will?)

Luckily, “Evolve and Adapt” has been a Core Value at DevriX for years. And likely not surprising, but the values of the company I founded over 15 years ago are closely aligned with my personal mission and life philosophy.

In hindsight, the 2020s haven’t been easy, but 2025 was hard AND rewarding. I can pinpoint specific wins, and professional testimonials, or compare similar time intervals with the same ones in 2024 and 2023.

And I’m thankful for that – at work and at home.

I’ve grown to appreciate the “physical world” as I did when I was a kid. In this evaporating, viral social web, I’ve made it to more events in 2025 than the past 5 years together.

I’ve texted more people, too. Personal contacts, close or not, and grew my personal network in town and across a dozen different countries.

I celebrated my birthday with over 50 people attending!

I reignited my passion for building thanks to vibe coding – both Lovable and Cursor/Antigravity, launching weekend projects and migrating apps in hours.

The RevOps transformation for DevriX was a big deal. After doing GTM work for years and blending the line between Growth Shuttle consulting and DevriX executive needs, ripping the band-aid off was long overdue! The SEO lead flow kept delaying that until SEO crashed in 2024, and this was a good moment to plan and pivot before that pilot.

All in all, we live in a completely different world from the one before 2020. Going outside of my box shaped some new traits and taught me new skills on the process. There’s a whole lot more coming this year and some audacious goals for the next one 🙂

Which is why I’m hopeful for 2026 and starting the year with positivity, hope, determination, prayers for health and luck, and energy for the hard work and commitment required for any successful journey.