CEO Cameron Yarker embarks on monklife
Sometimes moving forward means stripping everything back.
As CEO of Design Australia Group, Cameron Yarker’s world is built around ideas, decisions, people and what’s next. Then he stepped away from it all.
In northern Thailand, Cameron entered Buddhist monk life — exchanging the familiar rhythm of business for robes, meditation, discipline and stillness.
No phone. No watch. No agenda. No title.
Then came the razor.
Cameron’s ordination journey in northern Thailand
“When the hair falls, so does the identity.”
Without the usual markers of success, status and routine, there is nowhere to hide. What remains is you — and the constant movement of the mind.
The monkey mind. Thinking. Planning. Solving. Replaying.
Meditation doesn’t necessarily silence it. It teaches you not to follow every thought that appears. For someone accustomed to looking ahead, the lesson was simple: be where you are.
Eventually, the robes came off and Cameron returned to Design Australia Group.
The ambition hadn’t changed. The perspective had.
Leadership became less about carrying everything and more about clarity — knowing what deserves your attention, creating space for others and understanding the difference between simply showing up and being truly present.
That experience has since become part of something larger, influencing Cameron’s involvement in the emerging Mindfulness Park near Chiang Mai — exploring the connection between mindfulness, design, community and how we choose to live.
Business and stillness.
Ambition and acceptance.
Design and mindfulness.
Perhaps they were never opposites.
Care deeply. Hold lightly.
Keep moving forward — but don’t miss where you are.
There is no finish line.
