Behind The Mask
My name doesn’t matter.
What matters is that for the first half of my life, my priority wasn’t living—it was surviving another day.
I am 35 years old, born to immigrant parents in a country that did not welcome foreigners back then.
My father left when I was four and my mother worked herself to the bone to keep bread on the table.
In school, I was always at the bottom of the class. You know how kids are—they pick on any deviation from the norm and chew on it like a dog with a bone. Coming from a different continent, I wasn’t just a deviation; I was a full-blown outlier.
Bullying was one of the hardest things I’ve ever endured.
It maimed my self-esteem and forced me to change schools three times. It took years to find the courage to physically confront my harassers—which, sadly, was the only thing that worked after countless failed attempts at “peaceful dialog.”
To make matters worse, I was undiagnosed with ADHD, which explains why I struggled so hard to focus, memorize or regulate my emotions.
I learned a priceless lesson early on:
If you don’t do something for yourself, other people will do something to you.
Home offered no sanctuary.
My mother believed that physical force and emotional austerity was the only way to raise a child.
Between school and home, I had no safe attachments, no siblings or relatives, and a country that viewed me only as an immigrant.
Taking Life Into My Own Hands
I have lived several lives of financial and emotional fragility.
Today, I have overcome the first and am on a healthy track for the second. My purpose now is to share the victories—and the mistakes—I made along the way.
Because I know firsthand how crippling that fragility can be.
This blog isn’t here to victimize myself.
It is the voice I never had growing up. It is my way of forgiving that young kid who thought, “I am not good enough.”
If you are hurting or going through a tough time, know this: You are not alone.
Despite being at the bottom of the class and the bottom of life, I didn’t give up. I realized that when you try, and keep trying, something happens.
It isn’t sharp or sudden.
It’s compounding. Your efforts compound quietly, slowly, until one day you realize you’ve escaped the scarcity mindset.
I was broke through university and my early adult years. But I fought for a chance, and I finally secured a job at a top-tier global investment bank in Geneva.
I clung to that job as if my life depended on it.
Nine years later, I went from a negative net worth (borrowing money just to move to Switzerland) to the top 10% of income earners and global net worth.
My investment portfolio now compounds at a speed I still struggle to comprehend.
But More Importantly…
I have found a partner who loves me and accepts my many eccentricities. I have friends who truly value me. I have found a glimpse of happiness.
I am living proof that you can build a better reality. If I could do it, so can you.
But I still need to figure out the most important piece of the puzzle:
What is the meaning of my life?
Well, while I figure that out, I would be honored to share my thoughts and discoveries with you.
Thank you for joining me on this journey.
My CEO Lifestyle
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