Just coming back from my friend’s. I thought his story would be inspiring.

We initially became close when we started working together at the same company in similar tech sales positions seven years ago.

He left France around a decade ago with barely any money.

We immediately bonded due to our shared ethnic roots and similar experiences.

I went to see him because his girlfriend and kids were away. I thought it would be a good time for a catch-up with the boys.

We went over how everything started with his girlfriend.

He met her at a French in London drinks event. He was initially not planning on going out, but his friend decided to drag him out of his flat by force.

Back then, he was 25, and so was she. He was barely making ends meet, working in the hospitality industry.

He went to talk to her and her friend. They then went on a first date.

On his second date, they went to a restaurant. A £250 bill came out, and his card got declined, so she had to pay, and yet he scored afterwards. Solid game.

Within the first month, she became a mainstay in his flat. She was not seeing other guys, and he was not seeing other girls.

Everything happened fast and was natural. There was no officialisation talk; it just was.

He had his first child while still not earning much when we were working together as sales trainees. By then, they had been together for 5 years.

A second child arrived a couple of years later when he was in a much better financial situation.

He made very astute career moves in his 6 years in tech, where he got at the right company at the right time.

And now he had just bought an 11-month-old Labrador to provide company to the cat, which was keeping company to his girlfriend, mother of 2.

He told me he is about to move into a 6-bedroom house in East London at the end of the month—his second property after the 2-bedroom property he bought a few years prior—the new one costing in the high part of six figures. Stock Options and a 6-figure salary helped.

His girlfriend stopped working, as it made more sense considering the childcare costs.

Although he was kid-inclined, he told me he didn't think it would happen that fast, but like the relationship, everything happened naturally.

I remember the day he delivered the news to me when we were in the office elevator.

“I gotta tell you something?”

“Go on then.”

“I am going to be a father”.

“Fuck yeah, man, congratulations.”

He was beaming.

He later told me that since the first kid came, that gave him a higher purpose than just making money, but providing and catering to a family. Every one of his moves was calculated and eventually proved to be shrewd, driven by his desire to be a reliable provider.

He had become inspired through becoming a dad, thanks to the help of his partner. He felt he had a duty to the gamble she made on him.

I met her, and she is lovely and down-to-earth.

Eventually, I said to him before leaving his place:

“You both aren’t here for no reason. Fortune favours the bold”.

I could not be happier for him to get to the level he did, coming from a bog-standard provincial middle-class French Family and overcoming the original odds given to him in a costly city.

To eventually reach his goals.

Author’s Note: This story is 10 months old, and his third child was born in April of this year.

A humble, jokey and, as we like to say in French, “a sure guy” (Stand Up Guy) who cares for others and found someone on his same wavelength to become a rarity with the Millennials and most likely Gen Z.