Numbers, numbers, numbers. Financial affairs. Money dealing. Budgeting. Investment, cash management, return on investment, Competition, risk return, growth, growth, growth; that was my world, a little while ago…

When I first started in this industry, I thought making money would make me happy. But I also felt I would have to do some meaningful action, for something bigger than me. This would carry ethics & human values. Still, comfortably chairing in my office everything was still. Only my screens would show life & action. Digitally plugged into reality, I wanted to change the world, starting by the financial industry, just by myself, just in my mind, just in theory.

Naïve sensitive optimistic dreamer, I tried. But the first and only thing I had to change was myself. Find myself and be the change I wanted to see.

I was then facing and experiencing the private banking world. Beyond proposing innovative projects related to Socially Responsible Investment, I ended up struggling and pushing to change things from the inside. Financial crisis after financial crisis, all remained “business as usual”. My Socially responsible works went on, the shelves.

I was unhappy; something was missing. I could not stick with the lack of human care, earth care, and short termism. Money was the king, Humanity was its slave, and it is still the case.

It was like getting on board a fancy car, but once inside realizing comfort, speed, and destination was not right; but most of all, the driver was absent. I had either to jump off this car while running full speed, or take control.

Seven years passed and came that day, that day when I would finally accept I will leave it. No matter what, I would try to get closer to myself, closer to what could make me happy, closer to Humanity, Earth.

Not forgetting the past, but leaving it behind.

Leaving it for something else then! But what for; and where to start from? Going toward that something I did not see, that something I did not know, that something bigger than me.

I remember that day. I was just back home from a night out with my rugby mates. Drunk, facing myself in front of my Facebook account, everything I was seeing was a reflection of me: not much meaning, worried, steady, frozen, stuck, but also full of hope, full of energy to make it happen different. That was the moment the dots connected, I started to take action.

Although I was plugged in, it opened me some door to Permaculture, Holistic Management & grazing Planning, Keyline design, soil regeneration, agroforestry and a full diversity of hope people and creative lively actions. My mentors so far are Pierre Rabhi, Allan Savory and Claude and Lydia Bourguignon. All of them, lively inspiring example showing accurate understanding of our modern Human’s paradigm: Desertification and climate change, soil depletion, rain water harvesting, decrease of human social link, ethical values, etc. But more important than that they bring consistent solutions to address these issues.

So my first step has been to organize the closure of my previous life in Geneva: mortgage, remaining student loan instalments, empty my flat, pack my backpack, and go…

I started to study, practice and get certified in Permaculture, Holistic management and grazing planning, Keyline Design. All that, adding up to my previous financial experience.

Care for the people, care for the land and return the excess to the communities and the land: the 3 main pillars of permaculture.

Regenerating the soil while using Holistic Planned grazing bringing communities soil fertility back and their food autonomy. Reintegrating animals to where they belong: the prairies. And reactivate the natural organic regenerative cycle while having high yield crop producing systems.

Understand rainwater harvesting as a free resource, and design the best systems to use it.

The art of creating regenerative systems integrating all ecosystems the one with the others: habitats, agriculture, animal management, water management, etc. Create regenerative human footprint and enable human communities to be happy. Design systems with the least input needs and the maximum outputs. Working with nature rather than against it, cooperation rather than war.

Using all human past experiences in order to understand our flaws, correct it and find a balance. Create a sustained human life on earth with regenerative practices, which take also into money, of course, but not as a central pillar…

So far, in that journey I volunteered in multiple types of permaculture farms, in multiple projects, and in multiple countries: Portugal, North Carolina USA, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Tanzania, and Nepal.

I read more, dug deeper, questioned more, put things in perspectives more, and felt more hope and beauty.

The same hope which was after me when I was working in the financial sector, I am now experiencing, I am pushing forward and sharing around.

I also took some classes, certifications and workshops in Holistic management & Grazing planning and met great people. I met with me.

Change myself; change my own paradigm, start the quest in the Kingdom of myself, jumping in the adventure of Life, Love, Hope, and faith for a better life.