These above photos were taken in in the same location in Sedona, nine years apart. The first one in February 2017, during sunrise. The second one in September 2026, during sunset. Same person, same place, but so much has changed in between. First of, I am not wearing the same shoes!
I do not want to get too philosophical and write a “LinkedIn-y” type of inspirational article, but I wanted to share this as a reminder that you can never really know what life has in store for you.
Visiting Sedona and the Grand Canyon, 2017
Back in February of 2017 I was in the US for the RSA conference in San Francisco. Back then I was still working almost full-time at Netsparker (today Invicti), a web security company. On the side, I had my own plugin, WP Activity Log, which was still very much a hobby / part-time project. Whatever revenue it generated, I used to pay a small number of developers on Upwork. I did not have a stable team. I was just trying to see if the plugin could take off at all.
After the conference, I took a few days off and planned a trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona with a colleague of mine who lives in Las Vegas, Dan. At that point I had two children. My oldest daughter was four, my son was one. I was happy at my job. But I also had this dream growing in the background that I had never planned for. I had always worked for software companies, but because I am not a developer myself, I never really imagined being able to start and run my own software company. But at the time, WP Activity Log was growing as a free plugin, and when we launched a paid edition, it started generating some funds. That is when the idea stopped being abstract.
Biting the bullet and switching jobs
My plan was to keep working almost full-time with Netsparker, and switch to running the business full-time if things went well. Based on the predictions, that was supposed to happen in around two years, by 2019.
Then, in 2018, just a year after these photos were taken, I was asked to join full-time at Netsparker. As much as I wanted to grow the plugin business, leaving still felt too risky. It was not enough of a business yet to walk away from a stable income.
Yet I bit the bullet and left anyway. I could not live with the “what if” of never giving my own business a real shot. I never had trouble sleeping before that, but for around four months after, I did. Endless hours and weekends with no real breaks. That is how Melapress (back then WP White Security) was born.
Sedona and the Grand Canyon, 2026
This time everything was different. I now have three children: my oldest daughter is thirteen, my son is ten, and my youngest daughter is six. I run Melapress, and we are a team of 8.
I was in the US for WordCamp US in Phoenix, the first time I spoke at a global WordPress event.
It was also my first time back in the US since 2017. Big thanks to my friend Adi from TranslatePress, who kept nudging me to go to WordCamp US together. The event turned out to be a much better than I expected, and I was happy with how my talk was received.
For the last day, Adi suggested a day trip to Sedona, just a two hour drive from Phoenix. However,on the morning of the trip we decided to also fit in the Grand Canyon before heading to Sedona. So this time I saw the Grand Canyon during the day and Sedona at sunset. The whole thing was spontaneous, and we could not have timed the Sedona sunset better if we had planned it for months.
What if?
Now imagine, what if I never took the plunge and stayed at Netsparker? There was nothing wrong with Netsparker. Most probably I would have been better off financially today if I stayed. However, I would have never had the same life and experience that I have lived since then, and I wouldn’t have had the same freedom that I enjoy today.
Side note: freedom
By the way, freedom does not mean working less because you have your own business. Actually, most founders I know, including myself, work more than the average employee, take on more risk, and carry more stress.
What you do get is the freedom of not having to report to anyone on certain things. But there is a weight that comes with that too. When something goes wrong, the buck stops with you. The stress stops with you. And it gets lonely, especially when there are problems and no one above you or at your level to share them with.
Like almost every other WordPress business, the last two years have been a struggle for us. I had to make some very tough decisions and make some team changes, and changed the way we operate in a few areas. And that paid off; now we are back on a very positive track. But it has been a difficult stretch. I wrote about some of the mindset changes that got me through a chunk of it in my 2025 year end post; In 2025 nothing exploded, but a lot changed for me.
Coming full circle with Dan
Since I was visting the US after 9 years, it was only fitting to message Dan, my friend from Las Vegas I had gone to the Grand Canyon with in 2017. This time I spent three days with him, a proper long weekend. We visited the Hoover Dam, went into Las Vegas, and went to a shooting range, where I shot a few guns for the first time, including a semi automatic!
What I actually want you to take from this
From the outside, it looked like an ordinary trip, similar to plenty of others I have taken. Howevcer, this on felt like a full circle moment; I have come a long way from the first time I stood in Sedona to the last, which is exactly why I did something I do not normally do: act like a real tourist and take the same picture, in the same place, years apart to post on Instagram!
I do not want to get too philosophical about any of this. I wrote this more as a diary entry for myself, but if it helps even one person, it was worth writing.
Do not live with the “what if” doubt in your mind.
Yes, I would probably be better off financially if I had stayed in my job. But I am fairly sure I would not have had the family life, the friendships, the trips, and the enjoyment I now get from my work. Running your own business is stressful. It is demanding on your time, it gets lonely, and it asks for real sacrifices. It is also, without question, a satisfying thing to do, and I am grateful for the opportunity.
So if you have an idea, a dream, or have been wanting to try something, as we say in mountain biking, just send it!