Category: success

20+ Years as a CTO: Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Being a CTO isn’t what it looks like from the outside. There are no capes, no magic formulas, and certainly no shortcuts. After more than two decades leading engineering teams, shipping products, and navigating the chaos of startups and scale-ups, I’ve realized that the real challenges and the real lessons aren’t technical. They’re human, strategic, and sometimes painfully simple.

Here are the lessons that stuck with me, the ones I wish someone had told me when I started.

Clarity beats speed every time

Early in my career, I thought speed meant writing more code, faster. I would push engineers to “ship now,” measure velocity in lines of code or story points, and celebrate sprint completions.

I was wrong.

The real speed comes from clarity. Knowing exactly what problem you’re solving, who it matters to, and why it matters that’s what lets a team move fast. I’ve seen brilliant engineers grind for weeks only to realize they built the wrong thing. Fewer pivots, fewer surprises, and focus make a team truly fast.

Engineers want to care, they just need context

One of the most frustrating things I’ve witnessed is engineers shrugging at product decisions. “They just don’t care,” I thought. Until I realized: they do care. They want to make an impact. But when they don’t have context, the customer pain, the market reality, the business constraints,they can’t make informed decisions.

Once I started sharing the “why,” not just the “what,” engagement skyrocketed. A well-informed team is a motivated team.

Vision is a tactical tool, not a slogan

I’ve been guilty of writing vision statements that sounded great on slides but did nothing in practice. The turning point came when I started treating vision as a tactical tool.

Vision guides decisions in real time: Should we invest in this feature? Should we rewrite this component? When the team knows the north star, debates become productive, not paralyzing.

Great engineers are problem solvers first

I’ve worked with engineers who could write elegant code in their sleep, but struggle when the problem itself is unclear. The best engineers are not just builders, they’re problem solvers.

My role as a CTO became ensuring the problem was well-understood, then stepping back. The magic happens when talent meets clarity.

Bad culture whispers, it doesn’t shout

I’ve learned to pay attention to the quiet. The subtle signs: meetings where no one speaks up, decisions made by guesswork, unspoken assumptions. These moments reveal more about culture than any HR survey ever could.

Great culture doesn’t need fanfare. Bad culture hides in silence and it spreads faster than you think.

Done is when the user wins

Early on, “done” meant shipped. A feature went live, the ticket closed, everyone celebrated. But shipping doesn’t equal solving.

Now, “done” only counts when the user’s problem is solved. I’ve had to unteach teams from thinking in terms of output and retrain them to think in terms of impact. It’s subtle, but transformative.

Teams don’t magically become product-driven

I used to blame teams for not thinking like product people. Then I realized the missing piece was me. Leadership must act like product thinking matters. Decisions, recognition, discussions, they all reinforce the mindset. Teams reflect the leadership’s priorities.

Product debt kills momentum faster than tech debt

I’ve chased the holy grail of perfect code only to watch teams get bogged down in building the wrong features. Clean architecture doesn’t save a product if no one wants it. Understanding the problem is far more important than obsessing over elegance.

Focus is a leadership decision

I once ran a team drowning in priorities. Tools, frameworks, and fancy prioritization systems didn’t help. The missing ingredient was leadership. Saying “no” to the wrong things, protecting focus, and consistently communicating what matters that’s what accelerates teams.

Requirements are not the problem

If engineers are stuck waiting for “better requirements,” don’t introduce another process. Lead differently. Engage with your team, clarify expectations, remove ambiguity, and give feedback in real time. Requirements are never the bottleneck leadership is.

The hard-earned truth

After twenty years, I’ve realized technology is the easy part. Leadership is where the real work and the real leverage lies.

Clarity, context, vision, problem-solving, culture, focus these aren’t buzzwords. They are the forces that determine whether a team thrives or stalls.

I’ve seen brilliant teams fail, and ordinary teams excel, all because of the way leadership showed up. And that’s the lesson I carry with me every day: if you want speed, impact, and results, start with the leadership that creates the conditions for them.

Why AI won’t solve these problems

With all the excitement around AI today, it’s tempting to think that tools can fix everything. Need better requirements? There’s AI. Struggling with design decisions? AI can suggest options. Want faster development? AI can generate code.

Here’s the hard truth I’ve learned: none of these tools solve the real problems. AI can assist, accelerate, and automate but it cannot provide clarity, set vision, or foster a healthy culture. It doesn’t understand your users, your market, or your team’s dynamics. It can’t decide what’s important, or make trade-offs when priorities conflict. Those are human responsibilities, and they fall squarely on leadership.

I’ve seen teams put too much faith in AI as a silver bullet, only to discover that the fundamental challenges alignment, focus, problem definition, and decision-making still exist. AI is powerful, but it’s a force multiplier, not a replacement. Without strong leadership, even the most advanced AI cannot prevent teams from building the wrong thing beautifully, or from stagnating in a quiet, passive culture.

Ultimately, AI is a tool. Leadership is the strategy. And experience with decades of trial, error, and hard-won insight is what turns potential into real results.

Stop procrastinating! How to prevent it.

Still trying to stop procrastinating?

stop procrastinating

There are probably numerous days that you site behind the computer to do some research or get some work done and doing a short break to read some news or check social updates and as you done this you aren’t aware that time passes as you jump from one link to another while the time is passing by rapidly. You have probably tried many things, like avoiding to use those sites, setting time aside for short breaks or some other solution but every time you spend more time doing nothing than to spend that time into something productive.

My way of curbing procrastination time to minimum

You probably procrastinate as everyone but you don’t do it so efficiently, there are many ways to curb this behavior especially with avoiding reading the news updates all the time. We live in an era of information overload and we developed a habit of a need to be constantly updated with latest updates.

I am using few tools which are completely free of cost for basic usage you will need to prevent procrastination. Here is how I do it:

I have installed self control app on my computer and you can get it at this link. It is free of cost. Basically what it does is that you add a list of web sites that you want to block for a selected period of time.

You are probably wondering now which pages should I add to this blacklist. Well the obvious sites should be the social networks. Most of the links we click to other sites are coming from there to funny videos or interesting stories. There are ton of these sites, but major one should be Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc. Though have in mind if you develop for social network logins you have to keep alert to remove them for that period otherwise you can do no related work to it for that day. Other useful list of sites that need to be blacklisted are on your history list in your favorite browser. Go through the history and check all the sites that shouldn’t be there during your work hours and add them to the list.

Next step is to add time inside self control for how long it should be blocked. First advice never do mistake and set it over 24 hours. Perfect time to set the limits is 10-12 hours. You would probably say I don’t work so many hours and I agree you mustn’t but from the time you set the time and all other chores you need to do during the day believe me that is the most optimal time especially if you are working for yourself or being in a startup environment. It is dynamic over the day so keep on tracking your time that way.

So next step is to activate the self control and you magically stop procrastinating. Wrong. Keep on reading.

Continue reading “Stop procrastinating! How to prevent it.”

Four Questions About Leadership

I hear four questions asked about leadership often. This article gives a short answer to each of these important questions.

Why Does Leadership Matter?

Parents universally hope that their children develop leadership qualities. They know that leaders are people who are effective in what they do, are respected by others, and typically rewarded for those skills in a variety of ways. It is in these formative years that, through our parents, we first see leadership as desirable and important.

As young people we look up to people around us that motivate and listen to us people that seem like real-life heroes. We consider these people leaders.

As we grow we begin to relate leaders to their jobs and ministers, teachers, police officers. And later Mayors, Presidents, and CEO’s…

As adults all of these thoughts and experiences define why we think leaders have desirable traits and play roles we admire (and why we desire these things for our children).

All of these experiences and thoughts help us define why leadership matters and it matters because leaders make a difference and can shape the future. It matters because leaders are valued and valuable. In everyone’s mind leadership, especially when it is good, matters. Continue reading “Four Questions About Leadership”

How to be success

You may be smart, you may be talented, you may be handsome, but you aren’t successful. After all, the guy that never was that gifted or never had great ideas and he has less brains than you, is now your supervisor!

How did that happen? Why do all of us with the knack to be great, never saw our dreams come true? And what is the common characteristic between successful people?

According to statistical researches, what divides successful people from non-successful is that the former had a particular goal in their life and worked hard to achieve it. On the contrary, people that had many goals and ideas, but spent more time talking about them than working on them, never managed to make their dreams come true. Continue reading “How to be success”

Why Setting Personal Goals Is Important

A lot of people like to learn how to be successful. They read books, listen to audio cassettes or even watch videos that tell them how to be successful in life. However most people fail to apply that knowledge, and as a result a lot of what they learn is ultimately wasted.

I know I am guilty of this myself. I once learnt about the importance of setting personal goals, but never applied that knowledge. For some reason I studied it, became interested in it, but took it no further. But later I then heard an expression that changed the way I looked at and ultimately used information I acquired.

That expression was, ìwhat’s the pointing of learning something, if you never use itî. As soon as I heard that saying, I realized that I had been learning lots of things, but never applying them in my life. Learning how to set goals, was one of those things.

So Why Is Goal Setting Important Anyway?

Taking the time to sit down and write out your personal goals is perhaps one of the most important things you can do for yourself. And incidentally, all successful people set themselves goals. That in itself should be a big enough reason to set them!

What Are Goals?

Goals are simply the things you want to do in life, and by writing them down you can clarify exactly what you want and how you are going to accomplish them.

Most people have a vague idea of what they want to achieve in life, and keep these vague ideas in their head. However, because they are vague ideas the action they take to accomplish those goals is also vague. And as a result, usually ineffective.

Personal Goals Will Focus The Mind

So writing down goals on a piece of paper allows you to decide exactly what you want to do in life. Once you know what you want to do, you can then create a specific plan of action to accomplish those goals.

It’s like giving yourself a map and compass to reach a certain destination in life. Without that map and compass you would most likely loose your way, and never get to where you want to go.

This is the real value of goals, as they help to give your life meaning, direction and a sense of purpose. With these things will also come a sense of control, which will also make you feel happier with yourself. You will be steering your life in the direction you want it to go, rather than being blown around like a leaf in the wind.

Set Yourself Some Goals!

So take some time to think about the things you want to accomplish in life. Write them down on a piece of paper, and create a plan as to how you will achieve those goals. It might just be the most important and valuable exercise you ever do.

 

Breaking Bad Habits Of Failure

People living today are extremely lucky. 50 years ago the internet never even existed, and cable TV was something you read about in sci-fi magazines. Now, thanks to the internet, you can find information on virtually anything you want, instantly. Something which was only a dream just 10 years ago.

Yet with all this information available to us, people still fail to become successful in life. Why is this? After all, there is so much self help information available telling us how to be successful, but most people still fail to achieve success. And why do people still suffer from depression, when there are so many books telling them how to live a great life?

The fact is, information is not the problem. And no matter how much technology advances, people will always have the same problems.

What Are The Reasons People Fail To Achieve Success?

If you ask someone why they never succeeded in what they were trying to do, they will most likely tell you it was someone elseís fault, or something happened that was beyond their control. However if you compare that persons life against someone else’s life, you could probably find many examples of people who suffered under far worse conditions yet still became a success.

This shows us that the real reason people fail is not because of something outside of them, rather the reason lies within.

Internal Reasons For Failure

When you continue to do the same thing over and over again it is called a habit. You are probably familiar with bad habits such as smoking, but are you familiar with the habits of failure or the habits of success?

 

Creating Habits Of Success

Since success or failure is ultimately achieved through the actions you take, habits therefore play a tremendous role in determining whether you will achieve success or failure in life. For example. If you read everyday, that is a habit. This habit is likely to expand your knowledge of a subject, and vastly improve the chances you will master and be successful at it.

However, let’s say that instead of reading everyday, you prefer to sit down and watch TV for a few hours. Do you think this will help you master any subject? Or become an expert in your field? In all likelihood, the answer will be no.

So if you look at achieving success or failure in terms of the actions you repeat on a daily basis, then it is quite simple to understand why some people succeed, and others complain of failure. People who are successful continually do things on a daily basis that will increase their chances of success. Whilst unsuccessful people do not.

This does not mean successful people never fail, they do. But what they don’t do is give up, because they have developed habits of success.

Change Your Habits!

The message you should take away from this article is that in order to experience change in your life you must first identify your habits. Think about what do you do on a daily basis, and ask yourself if those things help you achieve what you want in life?

If the answer is no, you must then change those habits, because by doing the same thing over and over again you will only get the same results over and over again.

Saying Yes

“All that man achieves, and all that he fails to achieve is a direct result of his own thoughts.” -James Allen

John Lennon, at the height of his popularity, had his heart captured by one simple word: yes. He was rich, talented, desired and loved by people all over the world and had the option of nearly any woman he wanted. And ‘yes’ was what did it for him.

He attended an exhibit in England and Yoko Ono was one of the artists. The piece in question was a ladder which led to a tiny sign and a magnifying glass. In order to see what was written on this tiny sign, one had to climb the ladder and look through this magnifying glass. It said, ‘Yes’.

It started with a yes. John later said he liked the piece so much because of it’s positive message. He said if it had been something negative, he wouldn’t have found Yoko or her work interesting in the least.

We all say ‘yes’ or derivatives of it every day (yeah, uh huh, ya). A positive response to a question or situation. Yes.

When we say yes, many times we are projecting an attitude and an affirmation, more than just agreement, and we are showing an openness and welcoming.

As a persuader, I love to hear ‘yes’.

Self awareness and attitude go hand in hand with persuasion. This requires that you “check in” with yourself and pay special attention to all the signs and feelings we experience.

There’s a young women who works at the cafe where I work sometimes. She has the ultimate ‘people suck’ attitude. ‘I’ll never get what I want. Why can’t I ever find a parking spot. I’m so fat. I’m always broke. . .’ Wow. This is not a ‘can do’ attitude. She is most certainly not saying ‘yes’.

By changing our loops, our negative tapes, for positive ones, and you’ll be rewarded immeasurably. It takes a lot of conscious work and can sometimes be uncomfortable.

There have been days when I let negative moods get the better of me. Sometimes it happens without you even knowing it. I’m not normally a complainer. I take action when action is warranted, but I had a bad day not too long ago where I was irritated by absolutely everything. I noticed the ugly paint job on the house down the street, I noticed the horrible driver in traffic. And then something happened that interrupted my (temporary) pattern of negativity. Someone just said, ‘Are you okay?’ It made me realize that, yeah, I had really been complaining a lot, it had been a bad day. I took a deep cleansing breath, checked in with myself, and intentionally readjusted my attitude. Presto! That ugly paint job was inconsequential.

Life happens. Part of life includes ‘bad’ things. We have the choice to respond with either positivity or negativity. Emotions are choices.

Charles Hannel, author of ‘The Master Key System’, (an incredible study in self-improvement and higher consciousness) said of attitude, “The predominant thought or the mental attitude is the magnet, and the law is that like attracts like, consequently, the mental attitude will invariably attract such conditions as correspond to its nature.”

As you begin to reorient yourself to a ‘yes’ attitude, you will get more ‘yes’ in return.

Creative Imagination

Creative imagination is more than just active imagination. To be able to actively imagine things, to see and hear things in one’s mind, is an important ability. It doesn’t have to involve much creativity, though, does it? Daydreaming, for example, is a process of imagination. It can consist of an elaborate fantasy world, but one full of all the things that many people think about.

Creative imagination, then, has to include the ability not just to imagine things, but to imagine original things. It is seeing things that others don’t see, and coming up with new ideas. So how do you cultivate this?

Creative Imagination 101

First, exercise your basic imagination. It can be as simple as thinking in pictures more, or listening to music in your mind. Play little “movies” in your mind, until you can watch them on command. This is a simple process, but for those of us that can’t easily do it naturally, it can take a lot of practice. Fortunately, it is not an unpleasant activity.

The second part of developing your creative imagination is to get more creative in your thinking and imagining. Start by paying attention to your creativity. Our subconscious minds give us more of what we pay attention to. Ignore creative aspects of your life, and you’re telling your subconscious they are unimportant. On the other hand, if you note when you’re creative, your subconscious mind will start feeding you more creative ideas.

Different surroundings can also encourage your creativity. Want more creativity in your love life? Hike up a mountain with your partner. Do you write? Try sitting on a roof to write. Want new ideas for your business? Take a notebook to the park and sit by the duck pond. A change of environment can get your thinking out of it’s ruts.

You can play games that exercise your creative imagination. One such game uses a technique called “concept combination.” Alone or with other players, you combine random concepts or things in new ways, to see who has the best idea. A thermometer and a billboard, for example, could generate an idea for a sign that checks the weather and adjusts the message accordingly (“Come in out of the heat for a cold beverage,” or “Come in out of the rain and warm up with our gourmet coffee.”).

Don’t Wait For Creative Imagination

Creative inspiration certainly can strike at any time, but it strikes more often when there is work instead of waiting. So if you want to come up with creative inventions, start mentally redesigning everything you see. Imagine a better bicycle, a faster mail service, or a better chair. Continue this for three weeks, and it will become a habit.

Of course, creative imagination goes beyond solving specific problems or inventing things. Truly creative minds are always coming up with the questions too, not just the solutions. If you want to be more creative all the time, focus on three things:

1. Changing your perspective. A child might think that working just to not work (to retire) is silly. Thinking from that perspective might give you ideas for how to make money doing things you enjoy. Seeing the world as a bear sees it might give a painter imaginative new ideas. Looking at things from a customer’s perspective is a sure way to find creative improvements for a business. See everything from several perspectives.

2. Challenging your assumptions. What if restaurants didn’t have employees? Visitors pay a machine as they enter, feed themselves at a buffet, and everything is as automated as possible, so one owner-operator could run a large restaurant alone. Challenge all your assumptions for practice. Do you really have to pay rent? Do swimming pools need water? Can exercise be a bad thing?

3. Let your ideas run wild. Does a flying bed seem silly? It could lead to the concept of a helium mattress. When you get off it in the morning, it floats out of the way, up to the ceiling. Perfect for small apartments. Don’t stifle your creativity. Relax, and let ideas come. You can always discard them later.

For these techniques to be a habitual part of your thinking, use them regularly. Since it takes several weeks to develop a habit, remind yourself to use them each day. Jot a few of your favorite techniques on a card and carry it with you. Look it over throughout the day and apply the techniques to anything. Soon, you’ll have a more creative imagination.

Be A Leader Not A Follower

Most people in life are happy to follow the lead of other people, to sit on the fence in a debate or have the attitude of hiding at the back of the class. The most successful people are leaders and make things happen for themselves by taking a positive attitude and through working very hard to reach their goals. We are all able to become leaders and this article may help you to achieve this status.

I grew up as a very nervous person, who had very little self-confidence and who was very shy. I was not happy being this way and often felt jealous of other people who were happy to speak up and take control of tasks and situations. I wanted to be one of these leaders and not the follower that I certainly had become.

In my early twenties, I decided that the time had arrived to make a series of life changing decisions. I was determined to have a happy and successful life and was aware that I needed to change my whole attitude and approach to life.

I was not happy at where I worked and joined an employment agency in an attempt to find alternative employment. In the reception area of the agency, I started speaking to a man who was also their hoping to find a different job. His name was Mark and we got on well and wished each other the best of luck in our quest to find work. We even exchanged phone numbers and vowed to keep each other up to date with our progress.

I was then interviewed by a man who explained his plan to help me to find this new role of work. He was very bright, clever and positive and had many interesting ideas. He seemed very confident that I would soon be employed for a different company more suited to the skills which I had.

At one stage of the meeting he described the scenario of a group interview. He suggested that we may be ushered into a large room with a big table. As we sat down there would be a sheet of paper asking the group to debate a particular subject. He stated that all of the people in the room would be in the same position, all looking for work, all nervous, however that in that room I could be whoever I wanted to be. He said that I needed to stand up and take the lead by stating that I would act as chairman and that if anyone had a comment that they wanted to make, that they could raise their hand. If I did this I would show my prospective employer that I was a leader.

I went home and thought about this and did not believe I had it in me to act in the way that he wanted me to, as I was not a leader. Later that evening Mark phoned and all he was talking about was the group interview scenario. He also stated that there was no way that he would be able to stand up either in the way that had been described.

I did not have to ever attend a group interview, but Mark did. He surprised himself by carrying out the advice and stated that after he had said his initial statement about being the chairman, that he had never felt so powerful and in control. For the rest of the day other members of the group had been regularly asking him questions as if he was some sort of team leader. He was very proud of himself and I am happy to report that he was successful at that interview and is very happy in his new position.

He has also taken the success and learning experience into his social life and states that he has never had a higher self-esteem. I am very pleased for him as he is a genuine person who works very hard. He is also one of only a few friends that I can honestly say that I trust.

I have taken inspiration from Mark and have entered into a career of helping people who stutter, to achieve fluency. This is something which I really enjoy and which gives me a large amount of job satisfaction. I am also far more confident than I ever have been and have at last found happiness.

In conclusion we all have it in us to be a leader. We need to be brave and determined to take control and remember that all we can do in life is to try our best. We are only sure about living one life, so lets be happy and not accept second best. Be a leader in life, not a follower.