By the time Eric Domb had turned 32, he was a highly successful lawyer, had his own financial advice consultancy and was making a lot of money. Nevertheless, he says, he somehow felt dissatisfied.

Like many others, he realized, his main reason for getting into law had been to please his parents.

"I'd meet people who seemed to have lives much more exciting than mine," Domb says.

"What do you want to do with your life?" He asked himself, without realizing that he could turn his love for nature and culture into a business.

"I didn't think of that. (It's) too beautiful to be true," says Domb, now 58.

He eventually set up and became chief executive of the 75-hectare Pairi Daiza zoological park, which houses 7,000 animals, including five giant pandas, in the city of Brugelette, about 60 kilometers southwest of Brussels.