I had almost the worst starting conditions you can imagine. I started my life in prison. Yet, for almost my entire life, I worked my ass off,  day after day. Just to finally find a purpose in life and to be happy, healthy and wealthy.

Vietnamese Dragon

I was born in Vietnam in the 1980s, that is into a country that was still dealing with the chaotic and traumatic consequence of a civil war that we lost.

At our first attempt to escape, we unfortunately got caught and the whole family was sent to prison for many months. Yet, still my parents did not see any future for us in their home country. They hence, did not gave up and worked so hard every day. By selling food on the streets they saved enough money for a second attempt. My father told me that it was two gold bars per person for a ticket to freedom and a tiny chance for a better future. 

This time we succeeded. After spending a whole year in a UNESCO refugee camp in the Philippines, I arrived as a baby refugee in Europe. With literally nothing than their bare hands in a foreign country and four little hungry mouths to feed, my parents did what Vietnamese Dragons do:

We fight for a better future and no matter how often we might fail, we never give up.

My childhood and my parents as great role models, were very influential in shaping the person I became. At the age of forty, with rigorous discipline and dedication, I achieved more than I had ever dreamed of and I literally created my own dishwasher to millionaire story. By then, I ticked off all the goals from my bucket list: I had a wonderful family; I became an international recognized expert in my area of expertise; I started my own successful businesses; I built a big house; I ran a marathon; I finished my doctorate and finally I became financial independant.

Yet, instead of being fulfilled and happy, I just felt empty with no purpose in life. There was a void that I desperately needed to fill. This blog is one of the measures I took to find a new meaning for my life aka IKIGAI.

Purpose of this blog

Once you reach financial independence, making money does not drive you anymore. You start feeling joy and pleasure especially in non-materialistic things, such as memorial moments with your family, sharing your knowledge with strangers or competing in HYROX.

With this blog, I want to share my personal experiences and the lessons I have learned in life during my pursuit of happiness. Nevertheless, I want to be authentic, that is I want to share my great achievements, but also my biggest failures. So, I will share the vast amount of bad decisions I have made in life, how I dealt with them and how each of them made me even stronger.

Looking back, the ultimate game changer for me was to understand, how to look at the big picture of life. Only then I was able to distinguish between what really matters in life, what is worth fighting for and with whom or what I should not waste my precious time on.

Let me inspire you. Just follow my lead.

I do not have any commercial interest in running this blog. As you can see, there are no ads at all. It just makes me happy, if I can inspire you. 

Yet, I would be more than thankful if you could provide feedback or comments regarding the content of this blog. If you like it, feel free to share it with your friends.