The mountain that built me
My first real mountain hike is something I’ll never forget. It lasted about eight hours — a long, brutal, and breathtaking ordeal. I instantly fell in love with the mountains.
What I didn’t expect was the pain that followed. For days, every muscle from my neck down to my toes ached. It was my body’s way of saying, “You’re out of shape.”
I was also painfully slow. There’s a special kind of humility in starting from zero — when everyone else seems ahead of you. But despite the soreness and exhaustion, I couldn’t get enough of it. Each time I returned home, I felt cleaner, calmer, lighter — as if I’d taken a shower for the soul.
Later, I discovered the Japanese have a word for that: Shinrin-yoku — forest bathing. Sounds just right.
Lessons from being the slowest one
When you’re the slowest in the group — especially in my hiking group — you learn fast that there are no breaks for you. People get tired of waiting. So you keep going.
This is the point we reached on my first hike - the Raysko praskalo waterfall in Bulgaria.
You build endurance — physical and mental — because stopping isn’t an option.
Only later did I learn that respectful groups put the slowest person in front. Mine didn’t. It was more of a boot camp than a hike. One guy even called the hardest routes “character-building.” So I had to find mine.
Around that time, I came across an article about the U.S. Navy SEALs — their mindset, their brutal training. It said that when you’re the slowest, you end up training harder, longer, and eventually surpassing the rest. That clicked.
So I made a mental rule:
Whenever I’m hiking with the group, I’m a Navy SEAL in training.
It sounded ridiculous — but it worked. I stopped taking breaks. Learned that small, consistent steps take you far. And I developed empathy for those slower than me (yes, they exist). Somewhere along the way, I became fascinated with the SEAL mindset — their discipline, toughness, and teamwork. I started reading everything I could find about them.
Mom’s code vs. the SEAL code
Looking deeper into the Navy SEAL core principles, it turned out they were almost identical to the principles my mother raised my brother and me with.
Not similar — identical.
Naturally, I tested the theory with my brother, which turned into one of our usual long debates.
Here’s how the Bulgarian Mom Code matches the SEAL Code:
1. You are what you do.
Since we were kids, Mom drilled into us: If you say you’ll do something, you do it.
No excuses. No empty promises.
She made sure we understood that our dignity and our word were worth more than anything else. Rich or poor — you can still act with integrity, keep your promises, and respect your opponents.
2. “Hlebarovs don’t quit”
We’ve faced our share of difficulties. Mom taught us that problems aren’t punishments — they’re part of life. There’s always a choice, even when it doesn’t look like it. And when things get hard, she’d say: “We don’t quit.” Which, in Navy SEAL terms, translates to: “You don’t ever ring the bell.”
3. Have each other’s backs
We used to have what Mom called “strategy meetings.” Whenever an important decision was on the table, our general — Mom — laid out the issue, and we discussed tactics. We were a small unit. Trust between members was everything. We moved in sync. We had each other’s backs. Always.
4. Bulgarian Mom Standards
In Bulgarian schools, the top grade is a 6. I remember Mom calling me in panic because my brother’s term average was 5.85. She was genuinely worried about his future. That was normal in our house. The standard was perfection. Hard work. Constant improvement. You’ve heard of “Asian Mom standards”?
We had Bulgarian Mom standards.
5. “The first to get angry loses.”
She taught us emotional control. Keep your cool. Don’t raise your voice.
If you get too emotional — pause, think, respond with reason.
Problems are solved through dialogue, not shouting.
6. Discipline
Our mother is the most hardworking person I’ve ever seen. Twelve- to sixteen-hour shifts, early mornings, perfectly structured days. Every morning before leaving for work, she’d wake me up and list my daily tasks, which I usually forgot immediately and had to call her later to repeat. She refused to write them down. Each of us had a weekly plan: schoolwork, chores, and extracurriculars — piano, drawing, and English lessons. So when Jocko Willink said “Discipline equals freedom,” it felt like home. In our house, how you felt about a task didn’t matter. What mattered was that it got done.
7. Get some
She never said it like Jocko does, but her actions spoke louder. Whenever there was a challenge, she rose to it. She helped us when needed but also let us face the consequences of our own decisions. That’s how we learned to take action, work hard, and go all in when we wanted something. So “Get some” became our later-in-life translation of her philosophy.
8. Good.
Growing up in a single-parent family teaches you resilience and persistence. But Mom had another rule: “Busy kids don’t have time for stupid stuff.” That’s why we had endless lessons — drawing, tai chi, piano, languages, sports. It wasn’t about perfection — it was about always learning, always improving. So when Jocko says “Good,” meaning whatever happens, use it to grow — that’s her, perfectly.
Not a family — a unit
I’ve never liked it when companies say, “We’re like a family here.”
It always sounded manipulative — a way to guilt employees into overworking for the family.
My answer has always been:
“I already have a family. I’m here to work. I’ll give my best, stay late when needed — but if that becomes the norm, you have a planning problem, not a culture.”
If I ever built a company, I thought, I wouldn’t want it to be a family or even a team.
I’d want it to be a unit — like the Navy SEALs:
Highly skilled. Highly efficient.
Bound by shared purpose.
And when the mission’s done, you go home to your real family.
Friendship can happen, but it’s a byproduct of mutual trust, not a requirement.
Here, Todor and I are on a mission to find a hut in the mountains.
Cosmonavt: Our version of that unit
That’s what my brother and I are building at Cosmonavt:
A place where professionalism, integrity, and loyalty replace corporate clichés. Where every project is a mission. And where returning from it means coming back sharper, stronger, and more connected than before.
In case you are looking for some more Navy SEALS sayings, you can check the following:
39 NAVY SEAL RULES & SAYINGS
MENTAL DISCIPLINE & RESILIENCE
The only easy day was yesterday.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
Embrace the suck.
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion — you fall to your level of training.
Stay in your three-foot world.
Discipline equals freedom.
Never ring the bell.
TEAM ETHOS & LEADERSHIP
Mission first, team always.
One team, one fight.
It pays to be a winner.
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
No one is coming to save you — it’s up to us.
Lead by example, not by rank.
Earn your trident every day.
Two is one, one is none.
Loyalty is built, not given.
Never out of the fight.
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE & STRATEGY
Shoot, move, communicate.
Fortune favors the prepared.
No plan survives first contact.
Adapt, improvise, overcome.
Don’t run to your death.
Move with purpose.
Plan your dive — dive your plan.
Small details make big things happen.
Trust, but verify.
Speed is fine, but accuracy is final.
LIFE PHILOSOPHY & MINDSET
You don’t have to like it — you just have to do it. (Leila Hormozi turned this one into “Fuck your feelings, follow the plan”, which I very much love).
Calm is contagious.
Hope is not a strategy.
Do today what others won’t, so tomorrow you can do what others can’t.
Be the man in the arena.
Suffer in silence, succeed in public.
Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
Win the morning, win the day.
Ivena Hlebarova is a brand designer and the co-founder of Cosmonavt. She is fond of great stories in any shape or form and is endlessly curious about how shapes, forms, and colours influence our perception and how to help brands communicate humanely with people.