Staying in the UAE was the right choice. But in a few weeks I will leave for Belgium…here’s why.
Spoiler: I will come back 😉

When the conflict started on February 28, I felt the tension like everyone else.

I am not naïve. I have a family, customers, responsibilities, and people around me I care deeply about.

But unlike during Covid, I did not freeze.

I did not retreat.
I did not let low-frequency emotions reorganise my life.
I didn’t overthink endless scenarios.

I shortened my horizon, and I kept going.

Not because nothing was happening, but because my trust in the leadership here is real. Deep. Earned. Calm.

And over the past weeks, that trust has only grown stronger.

These weeks did not shake my belief in the UAE.
They confirmed it.

They confirmed that coming here was the right choice.
That building here was the right choice.
That raising our family here was the right choice.

During Covid, the world fell into paralysis. Habits disappeared. Rhythm disappeared. People disappeared into uncertainty, opinions, and screens. I found it deeply frustrating to experience that, while there was nothing I could change about it.

This time, I chose differently.

I kept communicating.
I kept building.
I kept my habits.
I stayed close to customers.
I stayed present.

And that was appreciated. In uncertain times, people often have a bit more space to talk, reflect, and reconnect. Some of the conversations we had in those weeks were more human and more real than usual.

Most customers postponed their projects for a few weeks, but no one cancelled.
We kept organizing Bravos Labs.
We kept showing up.

That matters.

Because leadership is not only what governments do. It is also how people choose to behave when pressure rises.

And once again, I learned by watching this country closely.

I saw how leadership here handles pressure.
I saw how people respond.
I saw who stays calm and who gets dragged into the theatre of the moment.

Because that theatre is everywhere.

Endless opinions. Endless noise. Endless commentary from people far away who have no skin in the game and no control over the situation anyway.

So much of it is emotional pollution.

That may be one of the biggest lessons of all: most people are not exhausted by reality itself. They are exhausted by overexposure to low-frequency emotions like fear, jealousy, anger, and noise.

This time, I handled that better than before.

A big difference with pre-Covid Yves is that I now name my feelings much more clearly. I say what I feel. I do not push it away. And strangely enough, when you do that immediately, that creates calm instead of trauma.

When feelings are named, the nervous system settles.
And you are ready to focus again.

That is not weakness.
That is strength.

I also saw again how the West often communicates about Dubai in a way that is frankly disgusting. Lazy assumptions. Cheap framing. Commentary from people who do not understand what this place is made of.

Because if you live here through pressure, you see something deeper.

You see trust.
You see decisiveness.
You see social cohesion.
You see a country that knows how to move.

And now the traffic is back.
Schools reopen.
Life flows again.

For outsiders, those may seem like practical details. For those who live here, they mean more. They are signs of resilience and confidence.

This place has backbone.
This place has soul.
This place knows how to recover.

That is why I believe that Dubai Summer will start earlier, so people can prepare, and that from September onward, we will see a full rebound.

And on a personal level, these weeks carried even more meaning.

In the middle of all this, I celebrated 20 years of marriage.

That felt symbolic.

Because when you build a life together and a business together in another country, those worlds are never really separate. You go through pressure together. You carry risk together. You build the future together.

And there was another confirmation that touched me deeply.

One day after our building was hit, my youngest decided to step into the family business through Pink Ladies Games.

In a period like this, that means something.

It means she decided to act.
It means she sees the future.
It means she believes this story is worth building.

So no, these past weeks did not weaken my conviction.

They sharpened it.

They reminded me why we came.
They reminded me why we stayed.

Not because this place is perfect, not for tax optimisation, but because when pressure rises, the UAE continues to show qualities that many others only talk about:

Calm.
Leadership.
Speed.
Unity.
Long-term vision.
Forward motion.

Our belief in the future of the UAE is not based on fantasy.

It is based on experience.

And after these past weeks, that belief is stronger than ever.

So, am I planning to go back to Belgium?

Yes.

To visit my parents
To run 6 private and public Hercules Trophy events in June
And then I will return to the UAE. 😉
With even more belief than before.

The UAE is the right choice.