Me, myself and I

The picture above was taken in India at the Taj Mahal, and the sheer and enormous size of this wonder of the world (as you can see in the background) sums "me up" pretty well.

You might think: "This must be a megalomaniac..." and you might be right ;-), but seriously, jokes aside, I am a strong believer in hard work. I believe that hard work can lead to gigantic results. Through sports, I have experienced the results of tenacious efforts coming to fruition at a very young age. In fact, in my opinion, sports is the greatest free tool available to create and develop the right mindset for business, life, relationships, and virtually everything else one wants to tackle. 

I started competitive sports at a very young age (7 years old), when I joined Rotweiss Wettingen, the field hockey club in my hometown in Switzerland. Back then, I was a rather chubby kid. I lacked the endurance required to run after the ball, but I was rather good at throwing myself in front of other players, preventing them from scoring, so I was assigned to the position of goalkeeper. The decision to become a goalkeeper initiated a 13-year sprint with about two dozen gold medals: winning Swiss Championships (youth & men categories), competing with Swiss National Teams at European Championships (youth & men), being nominated and awarded the trophy for the best goalkeeper below the age of 18 in Europe, receiving an honorary award for exceptional sports performance by the state council / City of Geneva, being the team captain of almost every category from youth to men teams, and having competed against the best players and clubs in Europe by the age of 16-18. 

It's rather funny, because, in a nutshell, these 13 years can be summarized in about 4–5 sentences. However, the amount of work, dedication, effort, and support of my family, physical therapists, coaches, doctors, and many others helping me during this journey goes far beyond gratitude and 4–5 sentences. Little did I know back then that, after a sports career-ending back injury, these experiences actually laid the foundation of my entrepreneurial career from a leadership, teamwork, work ethic, and belief perspective. On a personal level, and after having experienced what hard work can accomplish, entrepreneurship sparked an insane desire within me. An urge to want to be the best version of myself at whatever I am putting my focus on. With the right work ethic and mindset, nothing whatsoever is impossible, as I have experienced during countless hours of training during my sports journey.

Fast forwarding, it's my 12th year as an entrepreneur, and it has been crazy to say the least. Starting in a small town in Switzerland, my start-up journey has taken me through the finance, lifestyle, education, entertainment, F&B, real estate, and tech industries with bases in Europe, the Middle East, the USA, and now New Delhi, India. As cool as it sounds, nothing comes easy, and it has been a fight throughout, but I truly love it. Living life as an entrepreneur trying to build something far greater than imaginable is my purpose, and despite the hardship, sweat, blood, and tears, at times I ask myself (in a very sarcastic way):

Has it even started yet, or is THAT the challenge? ;-)