Learnings from 10 years away from France

Today, exactly 10 years ago, we landed in Australia. Today for Xaviere (the love of my life) and our children, is a celebration of the best decision we’ve ever made: going into the unknown. And what fun we’ve had and experiences we’ve been through. It feels like we’ve had 3 or 4 different lives during this time: pioneers when we arrived in Australia with nothing more than our suitcases, new careers and network, a couple of failed businesses, and, most importantly, new friends and extended family. We became Australians along the way and with the move to Singapore 10 months ago during the Covid-19 pandemic, it feels like they’re still so much to discover, experiment and love.

We’re grateful for the journey so far and I wanted to share some of the learnings.

1. Open your heart and your mind, always

As a French born and bred, I grew up with lots of biases and beliefs. In order to integrate, appreciate, be thankful we’ve been guests to those countries, we applied the listen, learn and love principles.

Listen to the people surrounding you, understand the habits, be opened minded and stay in a neutral space of non-judgement. Remind yourself to not judge and embrace whatever comes your way. Discover yourself in the process.

Learn from people that are different, learn from the cultures around you and learn from trying, experimenting and failing.

Love the process, share the love, share what moves you and makes you alive – whatever it is! Love the present moment, love people who helped you along the way and most importantly don’t forget to tell them!

2. Trustworthiness, ethics and integrity are paramount

As you meet with so many people, as you go through life, you realise that your values are your Northern star. Stick to them. You’ll be challenged, hold tight, it’s worth it.

3.?The only constant is change

The amount of changes we’ve been through during those ten years is pretty impressive. 5 different houses, 3 different communities, 2 continents, 3 employers, 2 ventures, 1 new citizenship. And we all took risks, experimented and tested things. We encouraged our children to do so, and have fun along the way!

I don’t particularly like the expression “You must change or die”, I’d rather say “Change and strive”. But that permanent change is not easy, and never will. But once you accept that change is the only constant, then happiness and love are around the corner.

4.?It is not all pink and rose – so what?

Moving 17,000km away from home is hard. Being away from family is hard. Living in a country where English is not your 1st language is hard. And building professional success in that context is even harder. Changing career at the peak of where you are is hard. Changing country again and leaving Friends who became family is hard.

So what?

If things were easy, they would not be worth the journey, and wouldn’t make the person you are. So embrace challenging things, embrace the unknown. This is the only place where magic can happen.

5.??Confidence, not arrogance. Humility, not ego.

The year I turned 30, I had already built and sold a successful business. I had worked in different roles as engineer, management consultant, founder and managing director. So when we arrived in Australia and started all again, I had to be confident and humble about the opportunity ahead, and not flawed by the success of the past.

And there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and humility and ego. But keeping that in mind and making mistakes a few times, was a great refresher and reminder of this fine line. I thank the people and friends who challenged me along the way.

6.?Your roots are not your identity

The people Xaviere and I are today are not the same we were 10 years ago. I am not saying our values changed. On the contrary, our values are even clearer and our lives are more and more aligned to them. I am saying that your identity changes with your experience, the people you encounter, the companies you work for, the cultures you evolve in, the places you live in and visit, the opportunities you take and how you incorporate all of that in your personality. It takes a village to raise a child… or an adult!

Those learnings are the ones I could think of today but there are many more. And what I am very excited about is the more learnings in front of us. Living now in South East Asia is truly exciting and I cannot wait to share more learnings in 10 years :)

Please also share your learnings in the comments of this article. Keen to learn from you!