Why I Travel: A Conversation on Ambition and Fatherhood

A note to young leaders.

On family and ambition.

When my son was six, he asked me one morning as I was packing my travel bags for the United States:

“Dad, why do you need to travel? I wish you could just stay home with us.”

This is what I told him:

“Immanuel, I’m not going to lie to you. I’m not doing this for your sake.

That would be the easy answer but it wouldn’t be the honest one.

I don’t need to travel to put food on the table. We’re very fortunate, we’ve already made enough for that.

And when I travel, I miss you too, much more than you know.

Still, I’m travelling because there’s an ambition in me that drives me to test myself, to see how good I am and how good I can be as a business man.

So I’m travelling for my sake, not yours – so I can feel fulfilled at a career level. And that’s selfish … but in a good way … because I need to be happy in order to be a good father.”

My son nodded. He seemed to understand, even at that early age.

Ambition is not something to be ashamed of. Far from it – it’s the high, high road to self-realisation.

It doesn’t take you away from your family – it brings you back to them fuller, stronger, more alive.
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