MY STORY
But it has not all been fine and dandy; moving around Europe every three years, living apart from my family during the week, getting up at 4am, being on a plane so often that staff at the international airports knew me by name, it comes at a price.
Career and private life are often at odds and finding the right balance is difficult. Many of us do not succeed immediately. I myself have paid a high price for this school of life, as I got divorced, almost lost contact with my two children and suffered a lot in the process.
But after the dark nights, a new day always comes. I have found a new life partner, we have build a new family, a third child has been born and the two children from my first marriage have come back to me. The trials of life gave me new insights into my purpose in life, the call to return closer to my core mission grew louder and louder, and so, despite the astonishment and opposition of many, after more than twenty years of an enviable international business career, I decided to make a big change. I left my job, studied psychotherapy and started my second career in psychological counseling. My vision as a young doctor was to be able to use my knowledge to help people with health problems. Today, I still believe that with much more knowledge and much more experience, I can help many people with struggles in their lives. And that gives my second career the meaning. The circle has been concluded.
From an early age, I said I wanted to become a physician, and I did. Unfortunately, my career as a medical doctor was very short, as the need to provide better for my family led me to a different career.
I really started my professional career as a manager in the pharmaceutical industry; it was difficult at first as I felt I had thrown away my dream of helping people, but eventually I found my professional sense of purpose when I saw how the medicines I was working with were really saving people's lives. It was a natural step to supplement my basic education with a postgraduate degree in management, but practice showed me that the key to success was common sense and working with people, which is what I especially loved to do as a manager. I loved talking with them, advising, providing encouragement and support, and being a mentor to many of them. The joy of this collaboration was mutual, and it brought us great results, both in business and in our personal lives.