Some men burn out in boardrooms.

Matthieu broke down in the jungle, having lost 10 kilos, feeling abandoned, and left without money.

He’d built a life of freedom: traveling the world, consulting on eco-resorts, and doing what he loved.

But deep in the Amazon, everything collapsed.

Dengue fever took his strength. His girlfriend left. His bank account hit zero. He returned to Belgium, carrying only a backpack and a shattered ego, and made the decision to start over again from scratch. This time, he embarked on a mission. He turned his childhood love of farming into a regenerative design company serving clients across four continents.

This is the story of how nature crushed him, taught him, and ultimately made him a founder.

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Matthieu Mehuys grew up in rural Belgium on a conventional farm run by his father and brother.

From the outside, it looked green and idyllic. But the fields were soaked in chemicals. Even as a child, something didn’t feel right. At five years old, Matthieu asked for his own garden. His parents, busy with work, brushed him off. Eventually, they relented and gave him a tiny patch of land. He planted radishes. They grew. It was his first taste of success—and something clicked.

But the next planting didn’t go as planned.

He sowed tomatoes and lettuces, then got distracted with his small chicken-and-egg business.

Weeks later, he returned to a garden overtaken by weeds. “I was devastated,” he said. “Why isn’t nature helping me?”

That experience would shape his thinking for decades.

Later, it would become the foundation of his book The 12 Universal Laws of Nature, which explores how to work with nature, not against it.

Matthieu followed the traditional route.

He earned a bachelor’s in garden design and a master’s in landscape architecture in Munich. Then came the job—stable, well-paid, and utterly soul-sucking. He lasted 18 months in a German government office. “It was all paperwork and bureaucracy. I hated it. I got depressed.”

So he quit.

Traded the desk for a backpack. He spent the next year and a half traveling to ecological farms, permaculture resorts, and off-grid projects around the world. One of them, the Blue Lagoon in Bali, left a deep impression.

He thought he had found his path. He had a freelance gig, freedom, and a girlfriend. Life was good again.

Then came the Amazon.

It was supposed to be a four-day trip through one of the most awe-inspiring regions on Earth. Towering trees. Exotic birds.

A sense of wonder that humbled him.

But within days, he was hit by Dengue fever. He lost ten kilos. His girlfriend left him. His money ran out. He had to return to Belgium, broke and broken, living with his parents. “That was rock bottom,” he said. “But also the turning point.”

Instead of feeling like a victim, Matthieu chose to see it as a wake-up call. “Mother Nature gave me everything. Then she took it all away and said, now do something with it.”

That moment of collapse became the foundation for something new.

Matthieu launched Paulonia Landscape Architects, a regenerative design studio that now serves clients across four continents. He started by consulting for wealthy estate owners.

One of those clients told him, “I love what you built, but next time I want to do it myself.”

That was the spark for his second offer: a nine-week masterclass that teaches people—mostly women over 55, how to design their own regenerative gardens using both traditional knowledge and AI tools.

Today, his business serves three types of clients. The first are high-end estate owners who want everything done for them. The second are DIY clients who want to learn. And the third are real estate developers who want to build multi-generational, sustainable communities with lower costs, more income streams, and better integration with the land.

Matthieu is clear about one thing. Governments and charities won’t save the planet. Entrepreneurs will.

“We’ve known about the climate crisis since the 60s. But every major initiative has failed because it wasn’t financially sustainable,” he said.

“If we want change, we need models that create wealth and wellness at the same time.”

That’s what he’s now building with his clients.

His team helps developers design flexible projects that adapt to shifting demands. They reduce infrastructure costs by working with the land’s natural topography. They use local materials to keep construction affordable. And they incorporate housing models that blend generations rather than isolate the elderly. He’s had to weather lawsuits and cash flow challenges.

But nothing shook him like the Amazon. And because of that, nothing will.

Want to explore Matthieu’s work?

Visit his website HERE to see his projects, online masterclass, and book.

Thanks for reading!

Talk soon,

Roman