Today, The Mayor told me we were going to speak about values. He said this was a philosophical subject, and maybe he was right. Values are not always easy to explain. Sometimes they are easier to see in small stories, in mistakes, in work, in discipline, and in how people behave when life becomes difficult….
On a bright afternoon after a spontaneous bike trip along the French coast, Maxime joined his meeting with his usual calm energy. The sun had finally appeared after days of grey weather, and he seemed refreshed from a quick ride to Saint-Malo. The conversation quickly moved from travel to something deeper: what it means to…
Good evening began with a tiny identity crisis. “Hi, Janita.”“Good evening, Natalie. Whoops.”And then, like a curtain lifting on a familiar stage: “Hello, Mr. Mayor.” It had that Lunch feeling instantly—warm, slightly chaotic, affectionate, and already laughing at itself . Today’s table had four seats filled: Nathalie (South Korea), Rosii (Brazil), Fruitloop (South Africa), and…
The first thing that happened was a photograph. Ritesh was describing Kerala like he was still standing there — heat that sticks to your skin, the long walk on the sand, the Arabian Sea holding only the sunset (not the sunrise), and his wife, glowing with that kind of excitement you only see when something…
I sometimes smile when people ask me whether I am German or Bavarian. On paper, of course, I am German. I have a German passport, I speak German, I work in Germany. It’s simple. But when someone asks me that question, it doesn’t feel simple. If I say, “I am Bavarian,” what do I really…
A Gymnast, an Engineer, and the Quiet Power of Turning the Brain Off What does courage smell like? Petrol? Chocolate?Does it sound like a techno anthem or silence before a leap? In a recent conversation between mentor Fruitloop and engineering student–gymnast Maxime, courage wasn’t just a dictionary word. It was a backflip off a high…
A Lunch meeting where fear showed up—muted, multilingual, and occasionally wearing a praying mantis costume. The meeting began the way many good Lunches begin: with somebody muted, somebody apologising for their English, and Frank doing his best impression of a strict headmaster who absolutely, definitely expects “nothing but perfect English in this forum.” Nobody believed…
In the mornings, before anything else, there is coffee. Always coffee. Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, I make it for my wife. It doesn’t matter if there is snow outside like a white wall in front of the house, or if the sun is already shining through the kitchen window. Coffee first. That…
I was sitting there listening to Frank trying to pin a date on my life, like he is putting a small flag on a map. “Monday the 16th of February,” he said, and then he said something that made me laugh inside, because it was so Frank—half teasing, half serious: “A year ago you didn’t…
On Friday evening, I stood in the cold at the football training ground, and I was tired in a way that sits deep in your bones. I had just come back from a business trip. My head was full of Excel files, product data, meetings that still needed preparation. My wife was not happy that…
