The Real Lara Croft

Have you ever dreamed of meeting the real Lara Croft? If yes, she does exist and she is a surgeon.

Unbelievably intelligent, amazingly beautiful, extremely strong willed and immensely positive. She is one of these women I have met in my life that are real Life Models. No one can complain about their lives after hearing what she went through and what she achieved because she loves life so much.

Born in Paris, she has been educated by fantastic parents both from completely different cultures, father is Japanese and mother is French. She is their only child and the pride of her father and mother. After studies in Political Science in Paris, she became a banker, first in Paris then in Geneva.

When I met her in February 1998, she just had her 30th surgery and was wearing a neck brace. She actually survived a parachute crash in 1997! Her parachute never opened and she fell on the concrete at 220kmh/hour speed. Thanks to falling on her chin, she preserved her brain but everything else exploded and cracked in the shock.

Thanks to the medical team flying to the scene in the next few minutes and the Reconstructive Surgical team in Geneva Hospital, she survived. After a few weeks in a coma and more than 35 surgeries over a 2 years period, she was back on her feet, all in titanium and still as beautiful as before!

What the accident did to her was just unbelievable: she decided to become a surgeon herself and started her medical school at almost 30, became the best medical student in Switzerland and is now working with part of the team that reconstructed her.

Having been in the ER, having suffered hell, having survived when everyone was believing she wouldn't make it - she knows exactly how her patients feel and she connects to them in a very different way than any other doctor!

Lucky patients to have such an extraordinary doctor walking into their rooms on high heels with a huge smile on her face!

The Happy Morgue Employee

When I was in charge of the Faculty of Medicine of Geneva (Switzerland) as Head of the Administration and of the "University Medical Center", one of my reports was in charge of the morgue. This was the place where medical students dissected the corpses to learn about bodies and master their surgical skills, but it was also the place where dead bodies were stored before autopsy.

Two employees were sharing this duty of preserving these bodies and preparing the autopsy rooms for the doctors and students. One of them was just unbelievable...

If you would meet him in the streets, you might think that he is a clone of one of the musicians of ACDC, the former hard-rock group. He wears the same outfit as the musicians which is quite astonishing when you encounter him in the cold and antiseptic premises of the morgue. All day you can hear hard rock music echoing in the corridors that he only turns down when families visit the mortuary. In that case, he welcomes them in the little chapel that he arranges depending on the profile of his "client". It is absolutely surreal to see him arranging the small chapel with furniture and drapes adapted to the music he chooses for the family members. It can be baroque music, it can be lounge music or Richard Clayderman playing softly on his piano.

When he opens the drawers where dead people lie with a sticker hanging from their toe, you don't pull back with horror, only because before he opens the drawer, he has told you the story of the person who lies peacefully in it. His imagination is amazing. Even if you know that his story is totally made up, you listen to the exciting tale he is sharing with you.

Like all these people who have a difficult or repellent jobs, you are always in awe when these professionals seem to sincerely love what they do and that they can share their passion with you.

How imaginative he was to be able to turn these bare tiled walls into a Wonderland and make us forget the smell of formol. Whenever I feel that smell again, instantly I see him again talking about the dead like   a bed story.

Louis Vuitton .... the Nail Man!

I had the priviledge of visiting the factory of LOUIS VUITTON in 2007 with the General Manager of Vuitton Switzerland. It was a wonderful visit through history and a discovery of the scenes behind a worldwide known brand. While we were strolling through the different floors and rooms of the 155 years old house, we knew that we might also encounter one member of the family who works like the rest of them in the factory. The GM of LV Switzerland said to us after the visit that we met him, but he did not introduce himself to remain one worker amongst his co-workers, anonymous and respectful.

It will not be the history of the brand neither publicity for it, but more a tribute to a man that has been working for the Vuitton family since 1975. A man that passionate about his job is just something magical.

Since 34 years, he hammers golden nails into the large trunks or suitcases and he loves it with all his heart. Every nail is as important to him as a surgery would be to a surgeon, an account opening to a banker or an applause for an artist on stage!  This man loves his job and can talk about it to whoever comes to visit the factory at Anières, near Paris and make you believe that this is the best job on earth!

When you hear him tell you all the difference between a small nail and a bigger one, between nails on a trunk and invisible nails in the other suitcases, you look at these luggage with a different perspective and almost imagine the story behind the man.

By seeing such passion and such commitment  in one skilled worker, you will never be able anymore to buy any false branded bags or suitcases. When you are trapped on beaches in Asia or on markets in Turkey, maybe you help the local "black market", but you participate in degrading the jobs of these workers in Europe who have dedicated all their lives to making such a simple gesture as hammering a nail an ART!

Out of Africa

There can be only one person with whom I'd like to start my stories. She is a french woman who lives in Mali.

In 1997, during a charity trip to Northern Mali in the war zone populated by the Touaregs in Saharian Desert, I had the most stunning encounter ever in my life. Never will I forget this woman, never will I forget the energy that was flowing in the air that day. She is the person that has made the strongest impression on me in my life. I have interviewed more than 2'800 people in the last 10 years, specialists, high executives, geniuses and ordinary professionals, but no one made such an impression.

This woman was vibrating with life, with enthusiasm, with passion for her job and she was caring for others. Her life made other lives possible.

Who is she? A French Doctor Lady in her late seventies (if she is still alive, she must be in her nineties today) who decided to abandon the comfort of our western society and help people in need in the most remote place on the planet. She lives in a small village about 280 kms from Gao, North of Mali. She takes care of a population of about 20'000 living souls spread across the desert. She is the only white person, the only european woman in a radius of at least 200 kms.

When I saw her for the first time, she walked out of a mud house holding her hands up. Her arms and shirt were soaked in blood and she was smiling at us. She just delivered a baby and she was so happy to see us. The most beautiful smile, the most spontaneous and genuine smile it was.

To explain why I was so impressed, I have to give a bit of context to this enlightening moment. We had just survived 2 days of traveling from Geneva to Paris by car, then loading our medical material onto a plane flying us down to Bamako, then driving a full night on dangerous roads sitting up on top of a fully loaded truck. The driver had an old truck, just one headlight, no lights in the abandoned african streets, the roads had holes the size of the craters on the moon and of course the driver enjoyed the speed.... and then suddenly the appearance of this woman walking out of a mud house surrounded by young kids, barely dressed, barefooted, their noses mostly running, flies sticking to their eyes, but smiling and laughing.

When she shared with us her life story, you could see how all of us Europeans were impressed by her courage and her risk taking, but also by her success and the joy that she brings to everyone.

She was a secretary to one golden boy educated at the Ecole des Mines, Paris, working her daily hours in this political and ambitious environment. She hated it, there was no purpose in her life. At 40, she decided to go back to studies. She entered the Medical School of Paris and became a doctor. She worked hours, night shifts at different hospitals in Paris, but still her frustration was there, still no purprose in her life. So she decided to move to Bamako, Mali. Still it was to civil, still a big city with business people. At 54, she moved up North and became the first and only doctor for the largest region in Northern Mali, in charge of 20'000 children, women and men. AND SHE IS FINALLY HAPPY!

Albert Einstein would certainly have thought of her when he said: "There are only two ways to live your life: one where you believe nothing is a miracle and one where you consider everything a miracle."

Once upon a time

What an incredible moment it is today! I'm posting my first blog and we're just about 3 weeks away from launching my new company again. So what's all the excitement about? Those of you who are active users of the blog, blog addicts, crack-bloggers, you might find that silly that I feel so excited sitting here in front of my MacBook and typing the first words in, hoping that I'll connect to people across this planet or maybe just hoping that my ideas will also appeal to virtual contacts.

Since kindergarten I have always been a "people's person", a "connecter", a "link" between people, a natural socializer, a "hunter", a PR pro and this all revolved around real people, men and women I could touch, see with my own eyes, smell, connect to. And now? why write to virtual people?

As I've decided to go back into headhunting, into connecting personalities with other personalities, professionals with a welcoming and flourishing environment, business people with clients, talents with organisations, it came all natural that my company would be called "Head to Head" - "Histories to History".

The most fascinating and most beautiful aspect of my profession is meeting people, hearing them telling me stories, incredible and unique stories.

Even in my other job as a Public Relations executive, I do meet people, I do connect individuals who share a common interest, it's all about creating initiatives, making people dream, helping them to meet others who might be a key player in their life story. In the end, introducing people, you always end up listening to people's life story.

And I can tell you, every human being, even the worst or the most boring one, has an exciting story to tell and this blog will be about stories, unique stories that people have told me in my life and who made me look at humanity in a different way. I will of course never give any names nor make it possible to guess who this could be in order to protect these "human jewels" confidentiality.

Head to head, histories to History, let's share the beauty everyone has inside.

HH-HH