Cafe de Vie

For the first time since I started writing on this platform, I am stepping away from restaurants, hospitality, food service, operations, and business strategy.

This article is about something much bigger — life itself.

Over the years, I have had countless conversations with former colleagues, friends, business contacts, and people I have met around the world about one simple question:

What is the purpose of working so hard?

And interestingly, there is no universal answer.

Some people dedicate almost their entire lives to their careers. They work day and night, travel constantly, accept assignments thousands of kilometres away from their families, and pursue the next promotion, the next title, and the next increase in salary.

Their argument is understandable.

“I am doing this for my family.”

“I am securing their future.”

“I want my children to have everything they need.”

“I will enjoy life later.”

I respect that perspective.

But personally, I have always struggled with one part of it.

What if “later” comes at the expense of everything we were trying to protect?

Ambition Is Not the Problem

I am not against ambition.

Far from it.

I believe in working hard. I believe in developing yourself, taking responsibility, building a career, making money, and trying to achieve more.

But I also believe there comes a point where we need to ask ourselves:

How much is enough?

Maybe the next step in your career is Senior Director.

Maybe after that it is Vice President.

Maybe after that it is an executive position with a bigger salary, a bigger team, more responsibility, more travel, and more pressure.

But what if taking one step less gives you something that money cannot buy?

More evenings with your family.

More weekends with your children.

More time to exercise.

More time to take care of your health.

More opportunities to travel while you are still healthy enough to enjoy it.

More dinners together.

More birthdays.

More conversations.

More memories.

Is choosing that balance a lack of ambition?

I don’t think so.

Sometimes, choosing a slightly smaller career opportunity in exchange for a significantly better life is actually one of the most intelligent decisions a person can make.

The Salary Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story

I have worked with and met people from many different countries, and one thing I have learned is that comparing salaries between countries can be extremely misleading.

In some countries, you may pay significant taxes, but there may also be systems in place for retirement, healthcare, social benefits, or other forms of long-term security.

In other countries, taxes may be considerably lower and the salary may appear much more attractive.

But that does not necessarily mean you are financially better off in the long term.

If there is no comparable retirement system, pension structure, or social safety net, then you have to become responsible for building your own future.

That means saving.

Investing.

Planning.

And making sure that the money you earn today can support you many years from now.

This becomes particularly important for people who spend many years working outside their home country.

You may earn an excellent salary while living abroad, but eventually you may decide — or be forced — to return home or move somewhere else.

Then the question becomes:

What did all those years of sacrifice actually build?

A house?

Investments?

A business?

Retirement savings?

Or simply a long list of payslips?

The “I’ll Enjoy Life After Retirement” Mentality

There is another philosophy I often hear:

“I am going to work hard now. When I retire, I will travel. I will discover the world. I will finally enjoy myself.”

There is nothing wrong with planning for retirement.

We absolutely should.

But I don’t believe we should postpone all enjoyment until then.

Because retirement is not guaranteed to arrive with the same health, energy, mobility, and circumstances we have today.

Travel when you can.

Take the family vacation.

Go for the dinner.

Play the sport you enjoy.

Spend time with your children.

Take the weekend trip.

Enjoy the coffee.

Celebrate the small victories.

You don’t need to spend irresponsibly to enjoy life.

You simply need to understand that life is happening while you are planning for the future.

Two Very Different Ideas of Enjoying Life

Coming from Lebanon, I have seen a very different philosophy.

In many Lebanese families, there is a strong culture of living in the moment.

People may not necessarily have substantial savings sitting in a bank account, but they will find a way to gather with friends, go out, celebrate, travel, eat together, and enjoy the weekend.

Sometimes they even borrow money to do it.

Financially, that may not always be the healthiest approach.

But culturally, there is something behind it that I understand:

Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so enjoy today.

Then you look at other cultures where people take almost the opposite approach.

They save for decades.

They work long hours.

They sacrifice vacations.

They postpone experiences.

And they tell themselves:

“One day, when I retire, I will finally enjoy my life.”

I don’t believe either extreme is the answer.

The answer is somewhere in the middle.

Save.

Plan.

Invest.

Build security.

But also live.

What About Our Children?

This is another area where cultures can be very different.

In some families, parents feel that their responsibility is to financially support their children through absolutely everything — school, university, housing, and sometimes even well into adulthood.

The intention is beautiful.

Every parent wants to give their children more than they had.

But I also believe there is tremendous value in teaching children independence.

In Canada, for example, many families use education savings programs to put money aside for their children’s future education.

At the same time, young people are often encouraged to start working part-time when they are old enough, learn responsibility, understand the value of money, and contribute toward their own future.

I believe this creates something important:

independence.

There is a big difference between giving your children a strong foundation and carrying them indefinitely.

As parents, our responsibility should not necessarily be to remove every financial obstacle from our children’s lives.

Sometimes our responsibility is to prepare them to overcome those obstacles themselves.

Because eventually, they need to build their own lives.

The Sacrifice We Need to Question

This is probably the part I struggle with the most.

I have enormous respect for people who leave their families and travel to another country or continent to earn money and create a better future.

I understand why they do it.

Sometimes circumstances leave people with no choice.

Sometimes the financial difference is simply too significant to ignore.

But when there is a choice, I often ask myself:

Is the additional income worth the additional distance?

Because sending money home is not the same as being home.

Paying every bill is not the same as attending the birthday.

Buying the house is not the same as watching your child grow up in it.

Paying university tuition is not the same as being there when your child needs advice.

Providing financially is important.

But presence has value too.

And sometimes, presence is the part we discover we cannot buy back.

We Only Get One Life

This is ultimately what I keep coming back to.

We live once.

Every day that passes is gone forever.

We cannot save a Tuesday and use it next year.

We cannot take back the childhood years of our children.

We cannot go back and attend the family dinner we missed because of a meeting.

We cannot recreate the vacation we postponed for another ten years.

And we cannot guarantee that when retirement finally arrives, we will have the same health and energy we have today.

That’s why I believe the goal should not be:

“How much can I work?”

Nor should it be:

“How little can I work?”

The better question is:

“How can I build a life where my work supports the life I want, instead of becoming the life itself?”

There Is No Right or Wrong

I want to make one thing very clear.

I am not writing this article to judge anyone.

I have enormous respect for people who choose differently than I do.

Someone may choose to dedicate 20 years to building a business.

Someone else may choose a senior executive career that requires constant travel.

Another person may decide that family comes first and accept a lower-paying position.

Someone may live in one country for financial reasons and spend years away from their loved ones.

There are personal circumstances behind every decision.

There is no single formula for a successful life.

But perhaps we should all occasionally stop and ask ourselves whether the life we are building is actually the life we want.

Because sometimes we become so focused on reaching the next destination that we forget to look around at where we are today.

My Definition of Success

For me, success is becoming increasingly less about a title.

It is not only about becoming a Director, Vice President, or CEO.

It is not only about the size of the salary.

It is not about how many countries appear on your résumé.

Success, for me, is having enough financial security to sleep peacefully at night without sacrificing the people and experiences that make life worth living.

It is having a career I am proud of.

Being there for my family.

Taking care of my health.

Having time to travel.

Having time to enjoy the things I love.

Continuing to learn.

And still having enough ambition to challenge myself professionally.

Maybe that means I don’t take every promotion.

Maybe it means I choose one degree less in my career if the next degree requires sacrificing too much of my personal life.

And I’m comfortable with that.

Because I don’t want to arrive at retirement with an impressive résumé but a feeling that I missed the most important chapters of my life.

Work Should Fund Your Life — Not Replace It

At the end of the day, perhaps we need to redefine what work is supposed to do.

Work should give us purpose.

Work should challenge us.

Work should allow us to contribute.

Work should provide financial security.

Work should allow us to build a future.

But work should also serve life.

It should not consume every hour of it.

There will always be another position.

Another company.

Another project.

Another promotion.

Another salary increase.

Another business opportunity.

But there will not always be another opportunity to watch your children grow up.

There will not always be another opportunity to sit with your parents.

There will not always be another opportunity to travel while you are healthy.

There will not always be another opportunity to enjoy today.

So perhaps the real question isn’t whether we should live to work or work to live.

Perhaps it is:

Can we build a life where we don’t have to choose between the two?

Work hard.

Be ambitious.

Save.

Invest.

Plan for retirement.

Build security.

But don’t forget to live along the way.

Because at the end of the day, the purpose of working is to help us build a meaningful life — not to postpone that life indefinitely.