Letting go and following a dream

When I was a student, I put together all the money I’d earned flipping burgers at McDonald’s and I went on a trip just by myself. The trip lasted 4 months, took me all the way around Asia overland and totalled over 35 000 kilometres travelled by trains, buses and hitchhiked cars. But most importantly, it opened my mind and absolutely was the most impactful experience that shaped me in these early years.

Since then I am blessed with amazing life - being super fortunate to work with absolutely amazing people for great companies in Poland, Netherlands and US, creating ideas that had an impact on millions of consumers and customers across the globe. Most importantly though, I have my wife beside me, with brilliant career on her own, and our two wonderful boys who power me every single day.

I am with IKEA for 4 years now and it is a brilliant adventure – being able to drive holistic customer transformation of IKEA Retail in Poland, touching almost every single dimension of that company in Poland and making an impact on millions of customers and thousands of coworkers was definitely the most interesting chapter of my professional life so far. Seeing this work materialize in great team, best customer satisfaction scores in years, paired with great business results – I can definitely say it was worth it, even though looking back there are millions of things I would probably do differently.

My last 12 months at Targówek Store were one of the most memorable experiences. Oh, what a life-changing perspective! Working hand-in-hand with inspiring and devoted people, learning from them every single day, driving commercial results on the shop floor and at the same time stretching IKEA concept in every possible way, was both fun and the best learning experience I have had. I’m extremely grateful for organization and IKEA leaders for giving me a possibility to grow in that way.

Today, I am coming back to my passion and hitting the road once again, now with my family on the side. We are taking 4 months off work to just spend time together and do “a bit” of travelling in the meantime. Family was always on the first place for me and having that time together is an absolute blessing.

But it is also a bit scary, I will not hide it. I have no clue up to this moment where this trip will lead me professionally – nothing is certain, but hell, maybe sometimes it is important to really let it go and just remind yourself what is the most important thing for you and hope for everything else to come into place somehow.

I am sure it will. :) Sooooooo.... Let’s stay in touch and I’m off to pack our very last bag!