Successful outside.
No peace inside.

I’ve been there – which is why I can guarantee you: I know exactly how you feel.

I’m of Greek descent, grew up in Germany, and today I live in Zürich. But this path didn’t begin here – it began at the very bottom. Even in school I struggled enormously to grow into myself – not because I was different, but because I didn’t know how to deal with my feelings and emotions. I could blame the system, but that would be too easy. Instead of engaging with my body, my senses and my talents, I reached for joints – and that’s where the whole journey begins. I consumed everything, because I wanted to feel, to experience, to have fun. I didn’t notice I was suppressing my potential, and I certainly had no idea I’d spend the next 10 years consuming hard.

I became addicted. Weed, cocaine, ketamine, speed, a lot of partying, alcohol, after parties and fake friends. The higher the kick, the deeper the emptiness. Anything to avoid facing my own reality. I functioned, I earned good money – and yet I was a poor bastard, because inside I was empty and lonely and looked for validation on the outside. Loud, center of attention, chasing approval from every direction. I lived in Berlin, which didn’t make it better. But as little as I want to condemn school, I equally refuse to condemn the capital for my time there. Not everything was bad, much of it was exciting – but the nervous system and the body don’t forget. I felt the consequences for years afterward. And it’s exactly these experiences that are incredibly valuable today, because they help me understand you and help you step into your power.

How did I do it? With decisions I made consciously at the very last moment, and with the conviction that it’s never too late – that you can achieve anything if you truly want it. That’s why the main question is always: “Do you want change?” If the answer is yes, keep reading – because I promise you, you’re in exactly the right place. If I can do it, so can you.

In 2011 I left everything behind. An old bicycle, no money, no plan. On the road for over six years. On the road there’s nowhere to hide. Just raw reality, every day. That’s exactly where I learned what I pass on today: how to sit with inner uncertainty, how to face what you’re running from, and where real self-confidence comes from – from within, when you take responsibility for your life. This journey, on the bicycle from my father’s garage, became the journey of my life. Whether in Serbia or Greece, in Bulgaria or India, in Nepal or Bangladesh – I stayed clean and truly got to know myself for the first time. I traveled the world without money, hard to imagine when I now look out over the lake from my balcony in Küsnacht. What I pay in rent here in a month was enough back then for a whole year. I cleaned toilets in taverns, washed dishes in restaurants – and for the first time experienced that a wonderful person lived inside me. A young man who felt the joy of life without numbing himself.

In my own eyes, I had made it: clean, healthy, having seen the world – and understanding that all my limitations existed only in my head. Almost six years traveling the world, never more than 5–10 dollars a day, no insurance, no bank account, no fixed address. A kind of homeless man, freed from addiction, with the whole world at my feet.

My energy poured out of me, my life force was at its peak. And then everything fell into place like magic: a beautiful woman approached me on a boat in Greece. Three days later she proposed to me. We put everything on one card – get married and travel the world together. I was convinced that this marriage, and life as a husband and businessman in Amsterdam, was exactly what I had always wanted. All in, successful on the outside, actually happy – and yet it would end in tragedy. My brother once told me: “It always turns out differently than you think.”

With the divorce, everything collapsed – and I mean really collapsed. But this time I didn’t run – not like back in Berlin, not into consumption, not into distraction. I stayed and looked at it directly. Therapy, retreats, men’s circles, conversations with my mother, who watched her son suffer.

I’m a man who saw the world, completely lost his life in the process, and then took it back into his own hands. My body has lived through more depths and heights than most people would ever want. But I’m still here – today stronger, more conscious and more courageous than ever.

And then came the point where my own healing turned into a task. I was on a new level mentally, emotionally and physically. The divorce was the best thing that could have happened to me – I felt alive, conscious, radiating a completely new energy.

I had just moved into my new apartment in Greece when an email came in: “I need your help. I saw how you did it – through the separation, through hard times. I’ve been following you for a while on social media.” That email changed everything. For almost four years I would live in Mexico – completely spontaneous and totally unexpected.

A client flew me to Mexico. I sat across from a man who had everything on the outside – success, money, status – and who still wasn’t in his power. Fears, insecurities, the feeling of not being enough. I knew that look. It was my own, years earlier. And I realized: this is exactly where I belong. I know the hurdles he faces inside, because I lived through those same battles myself and mastered them – which is why I also know the tools.

From that one person came many. I began to work specifically with men who were successful but not in their power. Who functioned, but didn’t live. Not with theory from books, but with everything I had been through and overcome myself. That’s how High-Impact Mentoring was born. Word got around: I was flown to New York, shared my knowledge in Miami and Los Angeles, and traveled with clients from Las Vegas to Paris, Frankfurt, Athens and Monaco. In 2011 I climbed onto an old bicycle and traveled the world – now my clients were flying me over New York in a helicopter to show me their city.

Why Zürich – and the business world.

Swiss culture lives on structure, discretion and respect. Marie was born in Zug; together we lived in Mexico and South Africa and decided to move closer to our parents, who are slowly reaching retirement age. The opportunity arose to live in Küsnacht – and we followed our hearts and the clarity in our minds: a chance to put down roots, in a place where we live our values and, through our calling, make a tangible difference – because we speak the language fluently and embody the culture.

When we arrived in Zürich, my Instagram account exploded and many of my videos went viral. Things fall into place because we adapt, and with mindfulness and gratitude we embrace the privilege of living as guests in Switzerland. Even the local press picked it up:

Zürich is full of high performers who function on the outside and burn out on the inside. Here, addiction often doesn’t look like the gutter – it looks like business class, luxury cars and beautiful watches on the wrist. It’s the after-work wine that becomes a bottle. The ambition that becomes an escape. The next deal that numbs the inner emptiness for 24 hours. I know this world well, thanks to my clients in London, New York or Frankfurt. I bring knowledge from all over the world and unite it, as humbly as I can, in a language that doesn’t lecture but inspires.

The people who feel drawn to us don’t need another wagging finger, and no further seminar on leadership and scaling. They’re looking for calm and harmony. They need someone who understands their world, speaks their language, and tells them the truth without putting them on display. Mental clarity for entrepreneurs is not a luxury – in my eyes, it’s the precondition that keeps success from becoming a trap.