Success vs. Fulfilment
Chapter 4 from “Deine zweite Halbzeit.”
Maybe you know that feeling when success suddenly feels empty. For a long time, success was your north star. You reached your goals, made money, built status. But at some point something tips. The applause sounds hollow, to-do lists lose their meaning, and instead of enthusiasm you feel an inner restlessness. A quiet sense that there must be more.
This is how the half-time break begins for many. Many don’t take it seriously. They see it as just a phase, or as a sign of weakness. Yet that is often where a new game begins: a real one, an honest one and yes, an uncertain one, too.
Success is what the world promises us. Fulfilment is what our inner self is calling for. Success you can plan. Fulfilment you have to allow.
Many of the people I work with are standing at exactly this threshold. A lawyer who came to me for coaching put it in a nutshell: “I’ve achieved everything – the firm, the clients, the income. But what do I want to look back on in 20 years? Even more work, even more money and an even more expensive car? That’s not enough for me.”
They stand where the first half ends and the second doesn’t have a name yet. Often it takes exactly this moment of rupture to realise: success alone is not enough. Now it’s (also) about something else. About something that feels more like you and at the same time helps others. Something that brings you joy and at the same time makes sense.
How do you know that your life feels right for you?
Deine zweite Halbzeit.
Vom Erfolg zum Impact.
A book about three things that truly matter in your life. Purpose, self-worth and the question of what you want to achieve in the world with your experience and your potential. Through real stories from his coaching work, Peter shows a way from success to impact.
Order at Thalia (German edition) →All books
Deine zweite Halbzeit. Vom Erfolg zum Impact
Purpose, self-worth and the question of what you want to achieve in the world with your experience – told through real stories from his coaching work. Published in May 2026.
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Freigereist
The autobiography of his 15-month journey around the world with his wife – through India, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, the Netherlands, the USA, Colombia and China. Published in November 2014.
Träume verändern
Published in September 2012, one month after the end of his career as a professional footballer. Peter writes about his years inside the system of professional football – and about how he left his biggest dream behind to be open to new ones.
