Before I moved to Slovakia I worked for a crazy communist (Inside the PVDA, a communist sect ) newspaper in Brussels, the capital of Europe. The experience was a two-edged sword. The party line was boring and dogmatic, and there were no concrete plans to change anything for the better, there was also nepotism, infighting, and a lot of hypocrisy. On the other hand it did teach me a lot about how society works, how politics work, how newspapers get to print their articles and a little bit about today’s economy and dogmatic ideologies. I’m grateful for the experience, but am also glad I got out of it.
Now my career is a ménage à trois, I’m a therapist, interpreter and writer. In blossoming Bratislava, baby!
I love my work! And I wish everybody would have a job they love, we would all be better off.
I blog every day in the hopes of boosting your happiness just a tiny little bit: #thrive. Be all you can be
The values I love the most are genuine humbleness, fairness, self-reflection, empathy and mutual respect. I have some sympathy for arrogant people, as arrogance is just a way to mask very deep and unsettling insecurities. I used to be very arrogant myself and I know what kind of scary destination it inevitably leads to, until you become much more modest. You meet a lot of arrogance, even on Quora, especially in the comments, I always answer respectfully, since arrogant people need love even more than others. I love kindness and if I have a religion it can be summed up as the daily practice of kindness, but it’s best not to mistake it for weakness.
Some Quora answers that caught a bit of attention:
• How do I get rid of negative thinking?
• What could Hitler have done to avoid losing World War II?
• Have you ever witnessed anyone throw away their life?
• What did you assume was exaggerated until you experienced it?
• What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever said in a foreign language by accident?
• What did you learn too late in life?
This is how I prefer to spend a huge chunk of my day, as a therapist, listening to people unburdening themselves. No teddybears were hurt taking this picture. When I’m not doing this, I’m probably teaching languages, writing, or spending time with friends and family.

This is one of the books I’ve written, The Authenticity Diary, this is the Slovak version:
I also have a slight obsession with the American Civil War and the Confederacy. This is a picture of my Civil War reading list.
Thanks to the support and encouragement of the incomparable Belgian academic, professor Gert Buelens, I have the chance to turn this life-long fascination for the ‘irrepressible’ conflict into a phd.
And last but not least, meet my wife, the amazing Slovak woman, Zuzana Pistova. Artist and kindergarten teacher.
Best wishes,
William
