Here is a collection of 17 timeless lessons l have learned from Robert Gryn’s self published medium article, where he goes into depth about creating Codewise, the once second fastest growing company in Europe.

1. Business is a game where you are only limited by your own creativity and skills

Business is a game, the most beautiful game in the world. A game of few rules, one where you are only limited by your own creativity and skill set, and one where the competition is at the highest level. It’s the ultimate arena to prove yourself in.

2. Money is a secondary reward of the entrepreneurial journey

As you mature and realize that money isn’t as important as you once thought, you realize that success isn’t the amount of money you make, or how famous you are, it’s the process of doing and building something that you’re passionate about — something bigger than yourself.

3. Maintain a healthy distance to money, do not allow yourself to attach to money emotionally

The scarcity mindset is particularly common in Poland. A result of its unfortunate history. Any nation that went through communism will understandably have a scarcity mindset prevalent among its general population. You cannot get very far with this mindset.

4. The road to success is a rocky and unpredictable one. Whatever the outcome may be for you it’ll be worth it.

When you are fully invested in your vision you cannot help but to grow, develop, and mature at a rate like never before. You need to remember that this is the priceless bit of the entrepreneurial journey. Money is secondary.

5. Success is an iceberg illusion

Only the surface of success is visible to others. There is more pain, confusion, self-doubt, loneliness and stress below the surface than most can imagine. Obviously along with an incredible amount of hard work, discipline, persistence and sacrifice.

6. Sometimes following your gut feeling over reasoning pays off more often than not

Robert mentions the decision for renting a larger working space that was a costly and risky decision at that time but paid off in the longterm.

7. The Struggle is the Way

„I would remind myself that the greatest moments in life often follow the most difficult moments in life. You just need to continue pushing through. To accomplish extraordinary things, you must quietly endure uncertainty and suffering.“

„Success is about moving forward, even when you don’t really know which way forward is. Uncertainty is part of the game, those that endure it prevail.“

8. Start breaking patterns

As humans we have this tendency to fall into the comfortable trap of familiar processes, habits, and surroundings — we’re programmed to do this. Try to regularly change things up by travelling as often as you can. Even doing little things like taking a different route to work.

9. CDD (Conference Driven Development)

If you don’t have pressure to execute, by default you take on a more lax approach. „Conference Driven Development forces us to work harder, faster, and smarter because of the looming deadline of a massive conference where we drop big money. You have to put yourself out there to make it big, it’s not going to magically happen on its own. Spend money to make money is what I say. I’ve made people in our company lean toward this type of thinking“

10. Learn to delegate

Some people find it easier to delegate while others struggle, but it is a skill that everyone has to learn one way or another. It’s the simple thought and projection that “nobody will do it as well as I will.” Then before you know it, you are the bottleneck of the whole operation.

What you also fail to realize is that it is quite likely that no one will do things as well as you from the get go. However, if you never trust anyone enough to let them try they will never learn and never be able to become better than you at executing that certain task that you were hesitant to delegate.

11. Don’t allow yourself to neglect your health

There’s always time to do and take care of things, and nothing is more important than your health.

12. The Work/life balance is of utmost importance. Keeping your head straight requires effort.

Remember, when you’re burnt out you’re only a small fraction as productive as you would be if you were well rested, feeling driven and fresh. Not to mention, in the state of burn-out it’s impossible to do seriously good creative and inspired work. You just grind away at tedious-seeming tasks, finding yourself clicking between browser tabs watching the day go by.

13. Grow out of the victim mentality

"I used to go to great lengths to avoid facing the truth that I alone am responsible for my circumstances. Afraid to acknowledge that only I stand in the way of my own success and doing everything I ever dreamed of.“

„Success is about moving forward, even when you don’t really know which way forward is. Uncertainty is part of the game, those that endure it prevail.“

14. Success is a mindset

As you become more experienced you realize that success is quite literally nothing more than a mindset, a way of thinking. Success is only attainable once you fully accept that you alone stand in your way to doing everything you want. Where the wantrepreneur only sees problems the veteran entrepreneur only sees solutions and opportunities. They have the vision of success and failures they’ve learnt from. Always yes, never no. Always doing, never throwing around empty words and not taking action.

15. Recruiting and hiring A-players

Why would you hire someone who is incompetent? Are you insecure about hiring people who are clearly smarter than you? This happens surprisingly often at mismanaged companies. It turns junkyard ugly, too, and becomes a dog-eat-dog culture.

Instead of working together people find themselves fighting against each other to move up or keep control by not sharing information.

The most important thing that you need to get right in the beginning is surrounding yourself with two or three amazing people and then hiring A-players.

16. Find a business partner

„I also cannot recommend going into starting a business alone. Find a partner you can trust, someone with a different set of skills and slightly different point of view, but not to the extent that you argue over petty bullshit. When you do this the interview process becomes a two-person show. You go in together, discuss afterward, and come to a mutual decision.“

What you also fail to realize is that it is quite likely that no one will do things as well as you from the get go. However, if you never trust anyone enough to let them try they will never learn and never be able to become better than you at executing that certain task that you were hesitant to delegate.

17. The path of least resistance

„I like to use an analogy of a river to describe life. Most people’s lives are just that, water mindlessly flowing downstream, going where everyone else is going. Some of us try to break free, try to forge our own flow, it requires you to go against the current, it requires you to break through the bank. Most of those that try will dry up and fail, but some will create a new stream which with time will become a new river and others will begin to flow down the path you forge.“

Full credits to Robert Gryn. Click here to read his full article on medium.