01/06/2026
At 17, I travelled to India for the first time.
I thought I was exploring the world.
Looking back, I think I was learning how to trust myself.
At the time, I had no idea how often life would ask me to do exactly that.
A few years later, I lost my father unexpectedly.
The ground beneath my feet disappeared overnight.
Years later, I left a successful career.
Not because I had a perfect plan.
Because something inside me knew I could no longer stay where I was.
So I began again.
And again.
And again.
I travelled alone.
I lived in different countries.
I built a life in South America.
I moved through New York and several U.S. states.
Eventually, I returned to Belgium to be close to my mother when she became ill again.
Looking back, every chapter looked different.
But every chapter asked me the same question:
Will you trust yourself?
Not your fear.
Not other people's expectations.
Not what looks safe.
You.
There were moments when I listened.
And moments when I didn't.
And looking back, I can see the difference.
Every time I abandoned myself, life became harder.
Every time I trusted what I already knew, a new door opened.
Not immediately.
Not magically.
But inevitably.
Today I understand something I couldn't see when I was seventeen.
The most important journey was never about the places.
Not India.
Not Nicaragua.
Not New York.
The greatest journey was coming home to myself.
And that is still the journey I see in the people I work with today.
Most are not lacking talent.
They are not lacking potential.
They are standing at the edge of a new chapter, waiting for permission.
Permission to be visible.
Permission to change.
Permission to trust what they already know.
The truth is:
Everything changed when I stopped asking for permission.
And started trusting myself instead.
You don't need to become someone else.
You need to trust who you already are.