In Part 1 I delved into my earlier life, childhood, family, and first part of my working life after university. I showed you how that piqued my interest, and gave me experience, in Real Estate and hospitality. At the end, I summed up the last 10 years in a few sentences.
That’s not because they weren’t important or interesting, they just played a very different role in forming my thoughts and perspectives.
Luxury Life & MBA
During my time in Italy, doing my MBA, I went through a number of emotions and was feeling pretty torn.
Coming from my time at Trilogy and Opus, I had been enjoying the life of luxury goods and design, top notch food, and general service of the rich and famous. So I chose to specialize in luxury business management while at SDA Bocconi in Milan, Rome, and Switzerland. All the other students I was studying with were in a similar boat, brands and high snobiety were the priority and focus. And that kind of life can be quite intoxicating.
At the same time, my girlfriend at the time and I were having a hard time and that relationship eventually fell apart. I was also lost about what I wanted to do after my studies were over. This is when I first got exposed to meditation. I’m not really sure how, probably a podcast, but remember this was 2014, meditation wasn’t really “in” just yet.
It was a strange dichotomy, sitting in silence, listening to my own thoughts in one minute, then donning my brand-name attire and heading out to some fancy restaurant or club the next minute.
Anyone who has taken up meditation likely knows that it’s not a quick fix pill. You don’t sit for ten minutes and suddenly have a moment of clarity and all your questions and uncertainty dissolve. At first, and for a long time, absolutely nothing happens, other than you just spend 10 or 20 minutes lost in your own thoughts trying to remind yourself to “follow the breath”.
Anyway, meditation didn’t fix my problems, but the seed had been planted. Deep down I knew I needed to look deeper than just the label on my blazer. But I’d continue being distracted for another 10 years. Thankfully not without benefit.
Germany, Covid, Tech
Being in Germany was both fun and difficult at the same time. On the work side, my uncle gave me a lot of freedom and trust and that allowed us to work well together while I also spun up our Canadian division. That also allowed me to visit my parents and family in Vancouver from time to time.
On the personal side, life was not so great. I was still stuck in the past getting over my ex, while also having no friends in Hamburg, and missing my family and friends in Canada. It was lonely.
Then 2019 kicked off with two major changes.
First I met my now wife, Lotti. And I started working at The Orchard in a tech role as a Product Manager.
The work side wouldn’t have a big impact on my life just yet, but it did mean I was now working with teams in England and the US, so although I was in an office in Germany, I was speaking English and basically “remote”. That would become important later.
With Lotti, at first I was very skeptical. This woman was my complete opposite. Our first “date” was in a chain coffee shop where she ordered a red-wine with sparkling water (Rotweinschorle) 🤢. My Italian ancestors were turning in their graves while my “luxury” colleagues would have choked on their Barolo, spilling it on their Fendi overcoats.
Lotti didn’t care about brands and fashion, she cared about time spent with her friends and time spent outdoors.
- It’s not all about the fancy stuff
- Freedom and travel
- Retreat & meditation
- Lotti