Piotr Soluch

2015 year in review

2014 was a great year for me. It was great in personal life and in business life too. I had very high hopes for 2015, I felt that everything is going very well. Unfortunately, 2015 turned out to be a very challenging year with few very low points. 

Small burnout

I started 2015 with a bit of a melt down. I had extremely difficult time at work. There were days where I could sit in front of a computer screen and couldn’t do anything. I felt like I’m locked in a cage. Somehow I was blocked.

It lasted several months and led to few very stressful situations at work and at home. I lost few projects that I was sure to get.

Eventually I figured out what was the root of the problem, it was a mixture of complete lack of rest and to much emphasis in my life on hobbies. It took few more months to get back to normal rhythm and few more to regain trust of my customers. There’s still some work to be done, so I can be sure that this won’t happen again in the future.

Welcome Olivia

In late March, Oliwia, my third child was born. Her arrival brought a huge deal of happiness in my life. From the day 1, I was absolutely in love with her. I could try to explain how I feel about her in words, but I would fail miserably. It’s something words can’t express.

A little baby is a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of work too. Add sleep deprivation, crying, constant interruptions and you have a recipe for efficiency killer. Overall though, Oliwia was a bright little light shining in my life. She was additional motivation that helped me to move forward.

Up and Down

The business was very unstable last year. There were few ups, but few big downs too. The first half of year was a clear step back compared to 2014. A pretty good second part (especially Q4) meant that turnover in 2015 was only 20% lower then in the previous year. Not what I hoped for, but it could have been worse.

One highlight of that year, was my front-end developer, Pawel. He was super solid the whole year and kept on producing great work. I could depend on him even in the most difficult of times. He kept our projects going and did a lot more that he should have. Without him, my company would have a lot more problems last year.

In 2014 I almost hired 2 people. In the end it didn’t work out and I saw it as a failure. I felt that the business is not growing and I kept comparing my company to others. But after several months of 2015 I realized, that being small has great benefits. For the first time I really felt comfortable having a small company and keeping it that way.

WordPress

WordPress kept on playing a huge role in my business, all websites and apps we built, were run by it. I didn’t get to contribute to WordPress as much as I would like to, but I managed to submit few fixes and one made it to WordPress 4.4. Another Core Contribution felt great.

I also volunteered at WordCamp Switzerland and got invited to speak at a Discussion Panel with few other Agency owners. We discussed what running an Agency that depends on Open Source software entails. It was one of my highlights of 2015 for sure.

Conference in India

Another highlight was Jesus.net conference in Hyderabad, India in December. I took few extra days before the conference to do some sightseeing and it was worth it. India is a very special place. Going there is a huge eye opener experience.

The conference was great too. I did a lot of networking with fellow tech people in Non-Profit sphere and met few inspiring people. I also had a lot of time to think during the trip back to Switzerland and it led to few changes in my life. More on that soon.

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Overall

It was a character building year without a doubt. I’m really glad it’s over now. It wasn’t all bad though, in the end I’ve learned a lot and I’m a bit wiser. Now I’m looking forward to 2016. It look very promising! Hopefully the next review will have more highs than lows.