The first time I ran into Thomas, I was just an 11-year-old boy, blissfully ignorant about the world beyond my neighborhood. Dariu, my partner in crime and one of my closest friends, was by my side.
Our mission was to craft a mind-blowing school presentation on China. A task easier said than done, especially for a couple of kids from Marseille. Enter Thomas – the reigning “China Whisperer” of our humble hometown. The man’s knowledge of the Far East was so vast, it made all books look like a local town guide. And the way he presented it was like watching an action-comedy blockbuster Sure, we were learning, but it was so engaging we hardly noticed. Our classroom turned into a stage, and we aced that presentation like rockstars, scoring the highest grade in the class.
Thomas didn’t just introduce me to the Great Wall and Kung Pao chicken, though. He gently nudged me towards entrepreneurship – showed me how to dream big, to weave work into the fabric of my life in a nourishing way, and to never stop fine-tuning my business acumen to look smart in front of the fabulous guests at his Corsican table. Heck, he even helped me tackle technical catastrophes, like defibrillating our unresponsive Wi-Fi and resurrecting the ghost printer in Porticcio.
Now, I’ve got a treasure chest full of tales, from designing websites to crisscrossing the globe – all thanks to my adventures with Thomas. Why did I follow him down these rabbit holes? Because each one was a golden ticket to the Willy Wonka factory of learning.
