It's Always Family First. Always.

Most of us spend more time with our colleagues at work than with our families at home. Even more so if you like your job, and it gives you a sense of fulfilment instead of being just a means of providing for a roof and food. Nonetheless, work will never be able to eclipse the importance of the most valuable asset in our lives - our loved ones, our families.

My wife Niloufar and I are very grateful for the opportunities that life has been offering us. Living and working in Miami is a very unique experience for us, though it comes at the very high price of being far away from our families. In Niloufar's case not only geographically, but due to recent developments in the White House also politically. As an Iranian she is not allowed to leave the U.S. without losing her visa status and putting at risk her return, and it is not even clear whether her parents will get a visa to be able to visit us. You can imagine how happy we both are that now at least in my brother Nic we could receive the first of our family members here in our Miami home.

I love my job, and thus I don't mind working many hours and being away from home quite frequently traveling to Porsche PR activities in Latin America and around the world. But there's always one thing that I love even more - coming home. For the next six, seven months I won't be coming home to Niloufar alone, but also to Nic, which is pretty exciting for me. From the first moment I saw him, he's been in my heart - love at first sight. I became more than just his brother, being not only his godfather, but also his football coach (the original football that is played with the feet) for many years.

We had spent so much time together in the first 13 years of his life, that I still remember our tears when I decided to spread my wings and start a career in the automotive industry at SEAT in Barcelona. I've never regretted this decision, but I often wish that I could spend more time with my family. If Niloufar and I have a son someday, I would be one lucky father if he turned out like Nic. I'm sure you can tell I'm very proud of him. And while I'm only writing about Nic, because he is the first of my siblings to visit, I'm very happy that my other three siblings Laura, Julia dn Ben also have their visits to Miami firmly scheduled for this year, which makes me incredibly happy.

I'll always be their oldest brother, and though I might not end up being the tallest of the five of us, though I might not have the highest IQ nor EQ, or be the most handsome - I'm sure I'm the proudest. And now that I have my own little family and live across the ocean, I still bear my own family and my new Iranian family with me in my heart at all times; keeping in mind that as much as I love my job, as much as I want to progress and will do everything in my power to do so in my career - in the end we work to live, not the other way around. It's our families that stand by us no matter what. It's their smiles, their hugs, their kisses that makes life worthwhile and that gives us the strength to go through any rough patch, also at work.

I've been blessed with an amazing family, and now a second one that is equally amazing. And I've also been lucky enough to always work with colleagues, supervisors, mentors, and bosses who despite always rightfully demanding my very best at work day after day, I knew I could rely on in any unexpected situation, for they shared the same life philosophy that every responsible person should follow, no matter if privately or professionally:

It's always family first. Always.