Finding Fulfilment

A path to happiness

- Julia Bohme

“I’d like to live for a while yet,” says Remo Largo. “But if I were to die today, that would be okay too. I don’t feel like I’ve lived the wrong life.” The 74-year-old Swiss paediatrician is one of the world’s most famous developmental researchers, and he’s aware that his comments are the exception in this day and age. “More and more people are unhappy when they look back, because they’ve led a life that didn’t fit them.” It might not be the case for Largo now, but he does know what that feels like. He wanted to become a paediatric surgeon, but fell seriously ill soon after completing his studies, lost the hearing in one ear, and suffered constant bouts of dizziness. “That’s when I knew I could forget ever working in an operating theatre.” In 1974, he was moved to the

Growth and Development Department at Zurich Children’s Hospital. “No one else wanted to go there, but it’s where I found my happiness, because I was able to satisfy what had nagged at me since childhood – my curiosity and thirst for knowledge. I was able to just be myself.”

Here, Largo explains why this is key to a fulfilled life, and how we can all achieve it.

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