Wellbeing is a mindset.

I hesitated to share this story publicly but after thinking thoroughly and seeing more and more business discussions and posts on LinkedIn related to wellbeing at work, work-life balance, prioritization and other related topics, I thought it may be useful to share few thoughts that were impacted by a real life experience of a NDE (Near Death Experience).

Two years ago on this exact same date, Saturday March 21st 2020, I was admitted in intensive care at the Saint Joseph Saint Luc Hospital in Lyon, France. That was due to Covid-19 infection following 3 weeks of ups and downs at home which resulted in severe complications and breathing problems with lungs disfunction.

It all started beginning of March in Paris with just headache and bit of cold. This was kind of pretty normal for me with Paris weather in winter and lots of work on top the usual pressure of Quarter closing. I did not take it seriously (and no one in my close network did) even though everyone at that period was talking about Covid-19 and lots of people getting infected in France. In fact, below 50 age, I can be considered kind of a ‘healthy’ person as per the family doctor, did always lots of sport in my life, played basketball at national level, was still running 10 kms 3 times a week as I was preparing for the 15 kms mountain Trail of Pralognan-la-Vanoise for Summer 2020.

On March 15th, Decision was made in France about confinement and zero transportation, so to avoid staying alone in Paris and few days before the confinement, I left Paris to Lyon to find my wife Virginie and my 3 kids, Mohamad-Mehdi, Monaclara and Noe, who were leaving always in Lyon and I was only seeing them during the week ends. I started to have fever and always lots of headache and cold so I consulted the family doctor who after reassuring me that I did not have to worry about Covid-19 infection and its complications, advised me to stay confined at home with taking some cold and flu medicines, anti-inflammatory (Brufen) - which we knew later that it was a medicine to avoid - and some antibiotics. Even though, my situation got worst and few days later, a very tough cough started to infect heavily my lungs. And here is how I found myself in intensive care on March 21st.

After 21 days in artificial coma, I woke up on Friday April 17th. For the first few hours, it was really hard for me to understand what is going on. Between hallucination, pain, nurses and doctors trying to talk to me to bring me back to life, I still cannot realize all what happened and where I was. Did I die, am I leaving somewhere else, I could not move, I could not talk. It took me almost 24 hours to really understand that I am back to life and that I survived the very severe complications I had. Later, the pneumologist told me all the story and some details and that mainly on Day 12 of my coma, they completely lost confidence that I will be able to wake up and my lungs stopped completely to function and other vital organs started to lose their functions as well. They tried everything but for them I had less than 5% chance to wake up. They don’t really know what happened the next day when suddenly the lungs started to function again and like a miracle, I started to get well again and I recovered in the next few days, the rest is history.

It took me few weeks to retrieve my initial weight and as I lost all my muscles, I had to exercise a lot to get back almost to normal.

Obviously, living this unexpected and unwanted experience made me rethink lots of things in life and had a lot of impact on my personal life and my priorities. I have always been a family person but I was workaholic, priority was always to work and business, I could hardly stop to work during week-ends, I could hardly take time off with my family other than the standard summer one. Always thinking naively that we have lots of time in front of us and will be able to spend quality time with our loved ones later. Wrong assumptions!

This Near Death Experience I lived taught me to always prioritize family and loved ones on everything else.

It taught me to Be 'Super' positive and always be Grateful. Nothing is worthwhile when you and your loved ones are in good health. Everything else can be recovered.

Being accountable, respectful and integer of what you have to do and achieve at work is super critical and important, for yourself, your team, your teammates, your customers and partners. Having said this, this experience taught me to own how to Balance life and work as this is my business, no one else. In same time, it taught me not to compromise on anything important for my family and loved ones.

It taught me to not delay things I can do now for my loved ones.

It taught me to be grateful every morning I wake up and my loved ones are in good health.

Last year, I spent some time writing what I called ‘Traced Destiny’ as this milestone in my life is really a life changer and I wanted to make sure I will never forget the life I always lived and the 21 days that I ‘lived in another place’.

I am so grateful to his almighty God as I have big faith that everything in life and on earth happens for a reason and we are on a bridge to retrieve another life.

I am so grateful to my family, my wife and kids, the doctors and nurses who did the impossible to save me and to all my friends and colleagues at Microsoft who supported me with prayers during this tough period.

I leave you with a quote from Antoine De Saint Exupéry: "The future, you do not have to foresee it, but to make it possible".

Keep well, take good care of yourself and your loved ones.?