Annual review 2025
A year of extremes at 33: welcoming our puppy Pixel, Mediterranean adventures, getting comfortable with AI coding, and losing my dad unexpectedly.
I’m writing this from Alicante, Spain, still processing the year that was.
I just turned 34, and as every year, I’m now reflecting on the highlights, challenges, favorite purchases, and impactful books of 2025.
This year was a year of extremes. Incredible joy and devastating loss. New beginnings and final goodbyes. I became an uncle and lost my father.
Here’s my annual review of 2025.
The Year in Review
Started the year in Chiang Mai, visited Bangkok, enjoyed some massages and unlimited pad Thai. I can eat it all day.
January 11, we drove to Valencia to pick up our baby puppy Pixel, an Italian greyhound that brought a lot of joy to our home.
January 27-31, Marrakesh for saas.grouping. Lots of fun, workshops, activities, amazing food, and getting to know people I work with every day better. Coming from the padel court, I tried tennis and got absolutely demolished by Rewardful CEO Emmet. Lots of fun, and for the first time I tried a golf driving range and want to play golf sometime soon.
Did my first hiring interviews at Rewardful. Fotini excelled and became our partnerships and social media manager at Rewardful.
April 28-May 2, stayed in Mallorca, coworking, chatting, and doing some local sightseeing with Justas.
May 13-20, a Mediterranean cruise celebrating my mom’s 50th and Isabella’s mom’s 60th birthdays: Barcelona - Tunis - Palermo - Naples - Livorno - Marseille - Barcelona.
Chatted quite regularly with my closest friends.
July: road trip for Isabella’s birthday with her friends and Pixel. Granada, Cadiz, Sevilla, Cordoba. Isabella got her Spanish citizenship!
Bought a scooter, so much fun. It unlocks a new dimension and you see the world differently: more exciting, so much faster to move in the city, easy parking, and also lots of fun.
Early September, Lithuania - caught up with friends Kamile, Martynas, Justas, Egle, and Rokas, celebrated my mom’s birthday, visited my dad for the last time.
September 12-14, did the first edition of a micro conference/retreat, grilled steaks, played poker with cigars, made homemade pizza, walked, chilled in the pool, and talked business, vibe coding, and making a living as online builders and makers. Ash, Edgaras, Janis.
End of September, moved to San Juan Beach, a much nicer area and a bigger apartment in a calm private neighborhood two minutes from the beach. Way more expensive, but I instantly felt a quality-of-life improvement.
End of November, visited Paris, sightseeing, eating good food, and entering the Louvre. Paris, even on cold and rainy days, still has its charm and is one of my favorite cities to visit. Unfortunately, my dad died when I was in Paris, so the stay wasn’t as delightful.
In December, I flew to Lithuania for my dad’s funeral. It was the most life-shattering moment and huge wake-up call to live. I wrote about the in-the-moment feelings and observations of losing a parent in detail here: In memoriam.
Drove to Calella for Christmas to stay with Isabella’s cousins and aunts.
I’m very fortunate to be in excellent health, have a loving and supportive wife who’s also my business partner, have curious and successful friends, live on a beach with lots of activities and a nearly perfect daily lifestyle. The death of my father, while devastating, reminds me to live today, to remember that tomorrow is not promised, and all we’ve got is this moment.
Read full review here.
This is Vicious Notes. My study of clarity, power, and compounding for long-game players who want to build and endure.
I wish I could credit everyone that influenced my thinking and I try my best to attribute the source but just want to declare it here and onwards that any accidental brilliance you read here comes from the great minds and people in the arena. As Sir Isaac Newton would say, I’m standing on the shoulders of giants.
Most people chase hacks. We play decades.