Hi I’m Bato, 
an educator, entrepreneur, and experimenter sharing practical ideas on learning, productivity, and life.
Quick Facts About Me
Lifelong learning nerd
I studied Andragogy (adult education) and have spent 16+ years geeking out on how people learn, teach, and create content that actually sticks.
Viral by “accident”
One of those 14 articles blew up to 50M+ views, 300k subscribers, and a six-figure business. Totally unplanned.
Always on the move
I’ve traveled to 40+ countries, lived in five, and tested dozens of life and business experiments along the way.
Educator-turned-experimenter
I’ve taught students, executives, and entrepreneurs worldwide — then started running my own mini-experiments in writing and content creation.
Corporate meets creative
I helped build online education products that generated $50M+ in revenue while still scribbling ideas on napkins for my own projects.
This site = fresh start
Now I’m sharing lessons, habits, and action-oriented tips on building, learning, and creating — with a community of curious people who like to grow together.
My Journey
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to share my story — how deep to go, what details to include, and how much of myself to put out there. For someone who’s been online and offline in cycles, writing about myself has never been easy. But after six years away from the digital world, I realized the best way forward is simple: start again, honestly.
This space is where I document my restart — why I’m here now, what I’ve learned so far, and what I’m still figuring out. You’ll find lessons from experiments, raw reflections on mistakes, and practical insights from the areas I care about most: productivity, creativity, self-growth, relationships, entrepreneurship, and the messy art of building a life that feels meaningful.
A decade ago, I stumbled onto the idea of radical honesty — and it’s stuck with me ever since. That means I’ll share openly, without pretending to have everything figured out, and trust that along the way, the right people will resonate. So here’s my journey so far — the story that brought me here, piece by piece.
Timeline of My Life
1992 – 2011
Roots in Bosnia
- Born just before the Bosnian war, my childhood was shaped by conflict, survival, and family struggles. I grew up in a small town surrounded by dysfunction, illness, and loss — experiences that forced me to grow up faster than I wanted. At the same time, I discovered my first passions: football, books, debate, and eventually, personal growth. By the end of high school, I’d read hundreds of books, quit soccer after 10 years, and replaced video games with curiosity for psychology, self-development, and the bigger questions of life.
2011 – 2015
Student & Educator in Serbia
- At 19, I moved to Belgrade to study Andragogy (adult education), expecting to build a career in HR. Instead, I discovered my talent for teaching. Through AIESEC, I became VP of Talent Development, traveling across Europe, delivering thousands of hours of workshops, speeches, and trainings to students, executives, and entrepreneurs. I fell in love with learning, experimenting with new skills, and passing them on to others — and that passion sparked a new dream: scaling education online..
2015 – 2017
Designing Learning at Scale in Malaysia
- After graduating, I joined Mindvalley, an international personal growth company, where I designed and later directed digital learning products that generated $50M+ in revenue. It was an intense crash course in scaling education globally, giving me firsthand experience with product design, marketing, and the psychology of learning. At the same time, I realized I didn’t fully fit within the culture — much of the content leaned toward belief-based solutions, while I preferred creating practical, applicable tools people could use day to day. With those lessons in hand, I slowly began building my own blog and experimenting with content, including early attempts at understanding virality.
2017 – 2019
Viral Success & New Challenges
- One of those experiments unexpectedly exploded. After analyzing patterns in marketing and psychology, I pinpointed some of the mechanics behind virality — but ultimately, timing and luck also played a huge role. A single article reached 50M+ readers, was translated into 30+ languages, and grew an email list of 300,000 subscribers. Overnight, I had a six-figure business, media coverage in Forbes, CNBC, and HuffPost, and an audience I never expected. But with rapid growth came chaos and burnout. Virality gave me credibility but also consumed me, and for the first time, I started questioning who I really was behind the success.
2019 – 2022
Loss, Grief & Searching
- In 2019, my father was diagnosed with cancer again, and I moved back to Bosnia to care for him. After his passing, I fell into grief, anxiety, and depression, compounded by the pandemic that kept me stuck in my hometown. I shut down my business, deleted my email list, and tried to rebuild myself from scratch. Still searching, I chased new paths: I joined a startup accelerator in Norway (only to get deported due to COVID restrictions), tried again in Spain, and finally made it to Thailand, where I reconnected with new people and ideas. But in the end, I came home once more, realizing I couldn’t outrun my roots. This chapter was painful and chaotic, but it shaped my resilience, my values, and my clarity about what matters.
2022 – Now
Restart & Legacy
- With my mom moving abroad, I stepped in to take over our 40-year-old family business — something I’d resisted for most of my life. Today, I’m modernizing it, building systems so it can thrive without me, while also restarting my creative work online. I’ve built a studio, got a dog, and started a new chapter with my girlfriend. My focus now is twofold: honoring my family’s legacy while building my own — through writing, videos, and projects that help people use their time better, live more intentionally, and create things that matter. This website is the start of that new journey.
Life Stuff with Bato
Do less of what you have to, and more of what you want to. Get my weekly raw takes, experiments, and actionable lessons on productivity, creativity, and living well — plus your free guide, The Little Book of Time.