Untied

Once upon a time I had a “real” job. I had “real” jobs until 2008. The one that made my parents most proud was Marketing Manager for a small French pharmaceutical company. I was 30 and I was living the Corporate America(n) dream. In these times of Halloween, Facebook keeps sending me back to those days when we had an office celebration, and everyone would wear a costume. It doesn’t really make me nostalgic, but it pinches my heart a bit. A freelance person has recently posted something on a…read more

Although, if you look at temperatures around here, summer is still around, September is well advanced now and it’s a good time to look back at the past few months and put my summer review on “paper”. I recently finished reading Jonathan Field’s How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science and Practical Wisdom, and I like the way he organizes life key elements into three buckets: Vitality, Connection & Contribution. I thought it would be a good template to do this summer review. Vitality Bucket This has…read more

Have you ever wondered what’s best in you? Where your strength resides? What you could build upon, and what you could work on, in order to be more fulfilled with your life? I have. And since I came back from WDS, I’ve been on a quest for meaning. So, following a suggestion from Jonathan Fields, in this book How to Live a Good Life: Soulful Stories, Surprising Science and Practical Wisdom, I decided to take the VIA character survey. VIA character survey, what’s that? Created under the direction of Dr….read more

I have always thought it would never be a problem for me to stop drinking. I’m a light weight: I get tipsy after a pint. I don’t do happy hour every day. I have the occasional glass of wine with dinner, or beer afterwork, or cocktail on a night out. But nothing too extravagant. So, I thought: how hard could sobriety be? Earlier this year, I decided to put that to a test. And I made it easy for myself. I picked April to be my dry month. I knew…read more

My older nephew is starting Junior High in September. It’s a brand new life for him. Soon his voice will change and he won’t be a little boy anymore. Somewhere between 10 and 20, life takes a strange new direction. As a professor in business schools, where some of my students are in their early twenties, I can really see how much of a difference the things you do before you turn 20 can make. In my book… There are a few things you should do before you turn 20……read more

Monday morning. You get to the office, head to the coffee-machine, pour yourself a cup and sit a your desk. You turn your laptop on, check emails. Another Monday. Same walls. Same conversations. Same people. 10 years ago, that was my life too. Until I was offered the best gift of all: I was given freedom. It was certainly not easy. One morning, I got called in the H.R. office where I was explained that I didn’t fit anymore with the company. It was time for me to go. First…read more

Last summer, I was approached by Blend Web Mix to give a short talk. For a moment, I thought very hard: what can I talk about that hasn’t been discussed many times before? What do I have a strong opinion on that I can illustrate with stories and data? And the lightbulb moment happened: the end of weekends as we know them. In the end, BWM was more interested in me speaking about social media, but the question stayed somewhere in the back of my head. Do we still need…read more

I don’t have children. Probably never will. Of my own anyway… But I have two nephews and one niece, all between 5 to 10 years old. I love spending time with my smurfs, and witnessing them lay around all day playing video games just makes me sad. I, certainly can’t give parenting advice to my sister, but I almost as certainly can give life advice to her children. One of them being… There are a few things you should do before you turn 10… Roll in the grass: my sister…read more