The best advice of my life
I got the best advice of my life from my uncle. He's not my real uncle. He's my stepmother's mum's husband (I come from a somewhat post-modern family, shall we say). But to make it easier, he was always my uncle in my mind. The kind of uncle everyone should have: a somewhat conservative, very successful businessman, but at the same time one of the funniest people I've ever met.
At Christmas, he always played Father Christmas and towards the end of the meal, when we children were getting restless and looking out of the window at the snow-covered landscape, he unobtrusively got up from the table - and shortly afterwards Father Christmas knocked on the door. After the presents had been distributed and Father Christmas had been given a cognac, he asked me each time: Where is that nice chap, your uncle?
«He was like that. A comedian trapped in the body of a manager.»
He was like that. A comedian trapped in the body of a manager.
He was also the one who gave me the best advice of my life. I was 14 or 15 when he told me something like: If you don't know what to do with your life, it's a mistake to first decide what you want to do and then move to a place where you can do it. Instead, choose a place that interests you and go there. Your career will develop somehow, the place won't.
The suggestion seems somewhat counterintuitive. Wouldn't it be better to first find what you really want and then look for a place where you can do that job? What good is the best city in the world if you have nothing to do there?
I don't remember whether I confronted my uncle with these questions, I just remember that I radically implemented his advice shortly afterwards. Over the next twenty years, I lived in ten different cities in six different countries. At home everywhere and nowhere.
«It's damn difficult to take the roots you've put down with you.»
To summarise, I can say that it's damn difficult to be happy in a place you don't like - whether it's because you don't like the culture, the energy, the vibe of a city or because you're too far away from people who interest you or are close to your heart. (But the reverse is also true: it's damn difficult to take the roots you've put down with you).
So if your child has to make a decision after school or an apprenticeship because they've always wanted to live in Geneva, but have the prospect of a good job in their home town but don't feel comfortable there - then they should move to Geneva, according to my uncle. Without a job. Your child will solve the problem when he feels the energy that the new place will give him.
I'd like to add my own advice to my uncle's: If you do end up in a bad city, make something of it. Because the party is always you.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
About the author Mikael Krogerus
Mikael Krogerus is an author and editor of «Magazin». He writes this column alternately with Michèle Binswanger. Mikael Krogerus is the father of a daughter and a son. He lives with his family in Basel.
More wisdom from Mikael Krogerus:
- War das mit dem Kinderkriegen eigentlich eine gute Idee? Eine vorläufige Bilanz von Vater Mikael Krogerus.
- Was wirklich wichtig ist, hat der Autor schon im Kindergarten gelernt. Heute schickt er nachträglich ein Dankeschön an seine Kindergärtnerin Frau Wolff.