From Dreaming of a Cadillac Escalade to Building PrestaRock: My Journey of 15+ Years in the Making

For the past couple of years, I’ve been struggling with some inner conflict about having stopped writing. Writing was something I always loved, and it was what essentially kicked off my career. But this year, while relaxing on a sunny beach in Bulgaria, as I reflected on my 33rd year, I realized that I really have nothing left to lose. Like those TikTok reels say, no matter what, people will either like or dislike you. If you’re rich, they’ll say you’ve stolen something. If you’re poor, they’ll call you lazy and say you’ve achieved nothing in life.

And at that moment, I thought, just as Viktor Frankl writes in his book “The Doctor and the Soul”, I’ve torn away a lot of those old calendar pages (you know, the ones with advice on what to plant or how to care for your garden on the back?). Frankl says that despite whatever was happening on the days those pages were torn off, you should take joy in the sheer number of them you’ve accumulated. And it struck me—my story is still, in many ways, atypical. It’s filled with countless unexpected twists, small coincidences that steered me and helped shape who I am today.

Another thought that has stayed with me comes from the 2020 LOGIN conference: “What proves that you are the same person you were 10 years ago?” It’s a philosophically intriguing question. Am I today the same person I was 10 years ago? 15 years ago? And who will I become in another 10 years? But let’s start from the beginning…

I’ve always been an active teenager, curious about many things—from conspiracy theories to movies and TV shows. At around 15 or 16, I had a big dream: to own a Cadillac Escalade. That exact model, the one in the picture above, was what I had my heart set on.

Back then, I had already decided to be the CEO of my company, and I promised myself I’d buy that car before I turned 18. Reality took a little longer, and while I don’t have this exact Cadillac Escalade yet, I have something even more valuable: the experiences that shaped me. And today, I want to share some of that journey with you.

I hope that reading about my path might inspire you in some way, whether to pursue your goals with more determination or to learn from my experiences and take a different, maybe quicker, route to success.

As a young guy, I was fascinated by hackers. Have any of you seen the 1995 movie Hackers? I was into figures like Kevin Mitnick (you can check out his story here: Kevin Mitnick)—those were my heroes back then.

However, one of the most crucial turning points for me came from someone closer to home: the son of my Lithuanian language teacher. He was already working in the UK as a broker in a major financial hub and returned to Lithuania to give us students at Ąžuolynas Gymnasium a talk. He shared his story—how he found success and made it to one of the most coveted financial sectors in the UK.

I remember thinking he was slightly eccentric—driven, motivated, and almost too intense. He talked about living a successful life, learning from mentors, and how thoughts can attract wealth and success (what??). Honestly, I didn’t quite understand it at the time. It seemed impossible that just thinking positively could make you successful. He spoke about self-belief, repeating affirmations like “I am amazing.”

It turns out that he was sharing teachings from people like Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins. After this unconventional “seminar,” I started looking into these success coaches. With my first savings, I bought my first MP3 player.

Since my family wasn’t well-off and I was frugal, I got a defective MP3 player for a discount (I still have it in my drawer today!). I remember it cost 50 LTL instead of 80 LTL, which back then was a lot of money for a 10th or 11th grader. It was my first investment in myself

From that moment on, I would listen to these audiobooks every day on my way to and from school (I had to cross half of Klaipeda to attend a prestigious gymnasium). I’ve probably listened to every Brian Tracy book out there. Many of the things said in those books are still relevant today. Even the popular Eat-The-Frog strategy was something I learned as a teenager on my school commute. Around that time I started applying these lessons and wrote my first blog.

Looking back, it’s incredible how everything started from one seemingly small coincidence: hearing that person speak. While many around me dismissed it as nonsense, it sparked something inside me. That day, I decided to give those audiobooks a chance. What others called “bullshit” became the foundation of my journey. Those early lessons, absorbed on my walks to school, pushed me to dream bigger, work smarter, and eventually led me to build PrestaRock into what it is today.

It’s funny how sometimes the smallest moments—like picking up an audiobook—can end up shaping your entire future. For me, that was the first step in a journey that’s now 15 years strong.