Antoine Maton (SKEMA 1993): reinventing his professional life at 55

Going from HR to sailing is a bit surprising! But in the end, is it really that different?

At first glance, selling yachts and providing Boat Captain services is a far cry from the 25 years I've spent managing recruitment or carrying out audits. It's all new and exciting in my day-to-day life, but on closer inspection, you see a lot of parallels.

• The business relationship: understanding people's needs, proposing advice and solutions, having a sense of service, gaining trust, closing a sale and so on all has exactly the same dynamic as in a recruitment consultancy firm.

• The people we cater for may be decision-makers, executives or entrepreneurs, but many share similar interests, and some are already keen sailors. Adopting a simple, natural, sincere approach with them works just as well as before. I've never found it necessary to play a role.

• The network: what's so amazing is that I'm finding contacts from my years as a recruitment contractor, and even from my days as an auditor at EY. Passion and human relationships transcend professions and time.

• Running a business: I had already created Shamrock RH, which I managed for over 10 years. I pulled out my old lists and methods, keeping what was relevant and adding missing aspects like the long-term vision, marketing strategy, positioning, communication, business plan, the annual budget, and the daily "rituals" to stay efficient and aligned.

Was this change of direction a choice or something that came to you after all these years?

As part of the recruitment assignments I carried out for my clients, I often asked applicants "What would you like to be doing in the next ten years? Then I asked myself the same question. And that's when something really clicked. Some people told me they didn't really have any plans for the last decade of their career, that they were just going to "chug along until retirement".

This gap between what I felt and what people of my generation seemed to aspire to made me wonder. I told myself it was time. I'd already considered this shift at several points in my career, but reason always won over passion. This time, it's a truly considered and calculated choice: you don't just strike out blindly at 55! At the same time, it was a natural choice, because sailing has always been central to my life. When I was eight, I hid under the bedclothes to follow the arrival of the Route du Rhum on the radio. My parents took me and my brothers and sisters on sea trips when I could barely walk: the English Channel, the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. And since then, I've never stopped sailing, even taking to the open sea and crossing the Atlantic. As you get older, it's easier to get back to what you really are.

What adverse winds did you face when you decided to make the change?

The main obstacle is your own restrictive beliefs. Am I capable? Do I have a big enough network? Aren't I too old? Working on myself, surrounding myself with positive people and sharing my doubts with those close to me has helped a lot.

Another challenge: the difference in lifestyle between North and South. We had to organise our family and professional lives, while preserving what we had built.

What are the three key lessons learned from your training at SKEMA that help you most in this new professional challenge ?