This document is a work in progress that I use to structure my thoughts on my inner workings. While it is not directly written to "explain" how I work to others, but non-me humans may find this document helpful/interesting.
Table of contents
These are a small collection of memories that shaped who I am. They are either experiences I look back on often or experiences that taught me something that became core to who I am.
At the time it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to meet my dad's side of the family after the war. We became used to the bullet holes in buildings, 5 times daily power cuts and the lack of supermarkets. Looking back, it taught me a lot about cultural and economic differences in the world.
From ages 7-19 I was a competitive trampolinist. My coach was a very stubborn man who believed in constantly working towards the next big thing, be it competitions or skills. At the time he felt like a pain in the ass, but I now greatly appreciate the discipline he taught me. The sport allowed me to travel a lot for international competitions, which at the time I took for granted but now I am very grateful for.
I was fortunate to get into a bilingual high school program, which allowed us to have 1 week exchanges with schools in the UK, Denmark and Australia. Each of them were a fascinating window in how kids our age were being treated so differently from us. The direct experience of school uniforms in Australia and the UK, not having levels like ours anywhere and the concept of a boarding school were so foreign to my teenager self that they changed the way I look at everything from news to movies.
During the last year of high school I worked 3 jobs to save money for a 2 month trip to a kung-fu school in the mountains of China. My time there gave new meaning to the words discipline and structure. It was a happy coincidence that our school was invited to perform with Jackie Chan in Bejing, they wanted western-looking kung-fu background dancers.
During my undergrad I attended an event where the goal was to start a company in 3 days. At the time I still thought I was going to be a biologist working in a lab, but I guess my father's entrepreneurial genes couldn't resist the catnip. My team ended up raising angel funding, and the whole thing collapsed spectacularly after wonderful realisations like "business people don't know how to run a business" and "build it and they will come is a lie". Nevertheless the whole experience demystified the idea of running a business for me.
During a conference I attended in university I met a man called Tim Draper, a most colourful figure who ended our conversation with "you should apply for my summer school!". I didn't think much of it at the time but ended up applying for it because the website looked nice and they offered me a discount. Only there did I realise that Tim was a venture capitalist who invested in everything from Hotmail to Tesla. That summer was filled with experiences that I would never have had in the Netherlands. From formulating business ideas to sleeping in a submarine, shooting an AK47 and sleeping in the woods for a night.
After finishing up a job in Amsterdam, I decided to take a year to travel and write down my learnings on productivity, health and money. That year helped me put in perspective how I want to live. Which coincidentally is to travel at a more relaxed pace and to write more since it clears my mind.