[Applause]
good afternoon y’all my name is John and
I work at United World College two years
ago I went there for a cup of coffee and
basically I’d never left in order to
understand that story you need to first
know sorry you need to first know about
don’t see any slice yep thank you just
like me my mom was born in a family that
worked in hospitality she started
working in her parents bars when she was
fifteen and later on she took it over
along with my dad
[Music]
she worked six days a week from 10 and
morning till 2:00 at night and not only
serving food and drinks to the customers
but more or less also being like a
social worker mending broken hearts
teaching lessons in life stuff like that
and next to that she was also a very
dedicated housewife she was a mate and a
partner to my dad and she was a lovely
mother for me and my sister one day a
week our bar was closed and we would
always go out after school to play
pinball in one of the other bars in the
area and so and the evening stand she
would cook lovely family dinners
sometimes even entertain guests and one
day per year our bar was closed and we
would go on holidays always to the same
places and those places are chiseled in
my memory the first place we would go to
would be Ostend on the Belgium coast and
I don’t know about you how many of you
have experienced Belgian summers let me
tell you
they aren’t all sunny and warm
nevertheless I still have sweet memories
of tallship that we used to visit or the
horse track where we were good where we
would go and see the races but the best
part of those holidays were the shrimp’s
who would get them fresh from the boats
and the four of us would go do a dry
track do a tire track
do try track it or push twist bill
because we had to build them to
ourselves before we could eat them there
were yummy in other years we would go to
clavo which is a tiny city in the north
of Luxembourg and there was a castle and
in the courtyard of the castle there was
a tank and a cannon and we would climb
on it and I would imagine myself being a
brave soldier rescuing us from the
invaders and stuff and every morning
when we had walked through the village
we would end up in that castle there’s a
little bar and I would always be given a
20-year Luxembourg franc coin so I could
put that in the jukebox and play some
music and I even remember the numbers I
had to press to play my mom’s favorite
song
and that was Gigi la Mer also by Dalida
[Applause]
[Music]
we never neglected but for my mom the
attention she could give us was never
enough CG nevertheless we had we
sometimes had talks about how our future
would be and she always would say if you
ever dare to take on a job in
hospitality it stomped on the default
I’ll kick you in the butt because you
will never have chance to spend time
with your kids so taking too hard my
mom’s advice I decided to break with the
family tradition and I went to the
University in MA and started studying
Spanish language in literature but with
my family’s background in hospitality I
was soon involved in all kinds of
student activities and we organized
parties not just for the department but
also on a wider scale and we started
organizing trips to Spain stuff like
that so basically you could say that I
learned more from life than from my
books because it dawned them that it
don’t to me more and more that my
passion was more in hospitality although
of course my career was supposed to take
a different path the biggest lesson in
life though came when I was halfway
through University my mom had a terrible
cough and a back pain and she went to
the doctor and he listened through the
stethoscope and heard something that he
couldn’t really identify so we sent her
off for an x-ray and some further
investigation and that same night my mom
was diagnosed with cancer
and admitted to the hospital two days
later they took out half a lung half of
her left lung and tumor as big as a
large grapefruit now I can tell you
based on the cell structure of that
tumor it was concluded that it was no
fortunately radiotherapy removed the
last bits and pieces that doctors
couldn’t take out during surgery and my
mom recovered pretty fast shadow lost
her life and things were good until
about half a year later new spots were
found on an x-ray during a periodical
checkup
and this time that cancer had affected
her right lung and that made surgery
impossible because you can live with one
lung but not with two hearts the cancer
was even more aggressive and chemo
didn’t work so we’re in in a few weeks
my mom was released from the hospital
with the message that she had probably
my mom was a fighter and she was not at
all going to let that happen it was only
June and she had so many plans for the
summer
she wanted at least to celebrate a
birthday in August in September though
my mom’s health rapidly deteriorated and
I was called back from University I
needed to help my dad and my sister to
take care of her we had to feed her
change diapers washer
all those things that my mom did to me
when I was a little kid and all those
things I was not prepared for she was
put on morphine to help her endured pain
but that also cost that would that also
caused her to sleep most part of the day
and during tonight’s my dad and I took
turn to stay awake next to her bed
I prayed many hours for her suffering to
end but my mom was not yet ready to let
go until that one night when I was on
she let one final breath and died right
forty-four years old I was 22 and I had
on a sunny September day in 1989 we put
my mom to rest in one of the most
beautiful spots in Maastricht on the
mountain overlooking the city and I made
a promise on that very same day to
myself and to her that in my life I
would only those do those things that
are really light and that it would stop
doing those things that I didn’t like
anymore I had just had proof that life
can be over way too soon and I was going
to make the most of it
I was going to live life for the both of
us my mom was not an unhappy person but
I think she would have wanted to do
things differently not just work but
also spent time on the things that
really met her in life and that’s why I
profoundly swore that I would not do
anything I did not like anymore it may
not come as a surprise then that I
decided to quit University
picture this it’s the early 90s no
internet the dark corners of the
Netherlands and I thought that I would
do it by organizing an erotic affair
we create a tax laganja it was like a
fairy tale like bubble in which everyone
was equal in which everyone could be
themselves and express themselves in the
way they wanted to
even if war even if it were just for one
day obviously my mom has never been
there but I know that she would be very
very proud of me and of what we had
achieved for five years we toured the
Netherlands and we did all the big
venues of the country but then it was
again time to go our separate ways and I
decided to leave the company a friend of
mine said hey I know a place you would
really like she was already working
there and I also decided to apply for a
job at Vodafone so when I was invited
for an interview they asked me why do
you want to work for further phone and I
said well actually I already have the
best job in the world so now I’m looking
for the second-best job and they asked
what this best job was so for the rest
of the interview we only talked about
that the same night they called me and
asked me can you start tomorrow so I did
working for for the phone was actually
pretty rewarding now it started off as a
customer services agent but I got to do
a lot of things I was involved in many
new products and services for support
and stuff are the process and project
management and I ended up managing a
team of 20 technical support staff and
you could say I was pretty happy with my
achievements and with my life until I
it proved to be a very special year in
which I did a lot of thinking about my
mom obviously but also about life about
the meaning of life about its purpose
and about my purpose in it and then I
was given the opportunity to do a
two-week for a volunteer trip to
Kyrgyzstan for a charity that was very
dear to me
dance for life and they educate young
people all over the globe about HIV and
sexual health and I worked there with
local volunteers people in the age of 11
to 18 and I was captured by their
enthusiasm and I was overwhelmed by
their gratitude for what I did for them
and I just took pictures and I just
spoke to them so after that trip I
returned home with even more life
questions to ask and more stuff to think
about then a few months later at the
entire customer service management that
from Vodafone was dragged into an off
side a three day training on thinking
differently and the big lie well
basically that was stuff I had been
thinking about all year my colleagues
were pretty cynical but for me it was
nothing new on the first day they gave
us an assignment we got a little wooden
board and on that board
we had to illustrate our drives in life
on one side what what do you wake up for
in the morning what drives you what what
makes you tick and on the other side we
had to illustrate our barriers the
things that keep us from achievement our
inhibitions and while most of my
colleagues were pretty hesitant I was
done in two minutes
on one side I drew a big red sparkly
heart and on the other side a big black
cross it all makes perfect sense but
then I don’t that I probably would have
to share the story of my mom and the
promise that I made to her and myself
with those people because that’s what
this is all about I know was how could I
think of that oops but no one asked
about the board and at the end of the
day the board went back to my room only
the last afternoon of the training
session we were told to pick up the
board and I felt adrenaline pretty much
like now my heart was racing and then
our trainer said well you don’t have to
say anything about the board and I was
like huh what did we make it they just
wanted to break through our inhibitions
and for that they put it on to building
great building blocks and put the board
on it with the inhibition side up and
with the barehand karate chop we just
had to break through the inhibitions and
I thought well I can do that and when it
was my turn it was still pumping and I
was like oh my god so I hit a now hit
heart and I broke the board but there
was a little uncontrolled and I did not
only break the board but also one of the
bricks
a my hand at hearth but I didn’t notice
adrenaline was still pumping and I
couldn’t call calm down so in the end I
said to talk to our trainer I think I
have to share the story after all and
when I did you could hear a pin drop in
the room but also people saw pieces of
the puzzle falling together my story
moves a lot of people and in the end it
okay in those years that followed I got
involve myself in more and more other
activities in the company because of the
balance that I got it made me feel
better at work again I involve myself in
the staff Association organized many fun
events and trips and stuff but I was was
also one of the initiators of the first
photophone Gay Pride celebration and
those extra things that extra
appreciation that I got through the
company was a good balance to get my gap
back my joy in work then in 2014 they
announced a reorganization within
customer services that would also
involve a cutback in management and I
started questioning myself again I asked
myself four questions do I still like my
job
do I still like for the phone what would
I achieve and how can I do that and
basically my conclusion was that I still
like my job and ofits and I still like
photophone but most of the things that
are liked were not really involved with
my daily tasks overnight I decided that
I would volunteer for a trip for a
buyout and I would save colleagues from
a fourth dismissal but then what what
was I going to do after photophone well
I decided once more to follow my heart
and turn passion into a profession I
created two companies and I was going to
do the stuff that I was good at I was
going to organize events like I had done
many times I was going to cook fine
dinners like
for my friends many many times I was
going to learn more about wine and
champagne and was going to do something
about that so I created my offense
service and I organized trips and bodies
and I’m a wedding planner and I do I
worked as a cook in festival stuff like
that and with my web shop
I sell only champagnes and other public
ones and why the bubbly wines because I
feel genuinely they’re not only
Christmas but every day
deserves the extra sparkle okay
so how did I end up here as a startup
obviously my agenda wasn’t full from day
one and someone asked me hey can you
come and help out HR for a couple of
hours a week at universe at United World
College and I was like I don’t know that
so I decided to plan a visit and I can
tell you I was sold immediately the vibe
in the school the energy from the
students the pleasantness and and and
the people that I met the same day I got
my staff badge but helping out soon
changed in full-time contracts so now I
have two businesses and the 40-hour side
job
but it’s a joy to work there I feel part
of an incredibly amazing community so
basically that’s it my name is John I
work at UW see I came there for a cup of coffee and I never left
good afternoon y’all my name is John and
I work at United World College two years
ago I went there for a cup of coffee and
basically I’d never left in order to
understand that story you need to first
know sorry you need to first know about
don’t see any slice yep thank you just
like me my mom was born in a family that
worked in hospitality she started
working in her parents bars when she was
fifteen and later on she took it over
along with my dad
[Music]
she worked six days a week from 10 and
morning till 2:00 at night and not only
serving food and drinks to the customers
but more or less also being like a
social worker mending broken hearts
teaching lessons in life stuff like that
and next to that she was also a very
dedicated housewife she was a mate and a
partner to my dad and she was a lovely
mother for me and my sister one day a
week our bar was closed and we would
always go out after school to play
pinball in one of the other bars in the
area and so and the evening stand she
would cook lovely family dinners
sometimes even entertain guests and one
day per year our bar was closed and we
would go on holidays always to the same
places and those places are chiseled in
my memory the first place we would go to
would be Ostend on the Belgium coast and
I don’t know about you how many of you
have experienced Belgian summers let me
tell you
they aren’t all sunny and warm
nevertheless I still have sweet memories
of tallship that we used to visit or the
horse track where we were good where we
would go and see the races but the best
part of those holidays were the shrimp’s
who would get them fresh from the boats
and the four of us would go do a dry
track do a tire track
do try track it or push twist bill
because we had to build them to
ourselves before we could eat them there
were yummy in other years we would go to
clavo which is a tiny city in the north
of Luxembourg and there was a castle and
in the courtyard of the castle there was
a tank and a cannon and we would climb
on it and I would imagine myself being a
brave soldier rescuing us from the
invaders and stuff and every morning
when we had walked through the village
we would end up in that castle there’s a
little bar and I would always be given a
20-year Luxembourg franc coin so I could
put that in the jukebox and play some
music and I even remember the numbers I
had to press to play my mom’s favorite
song
and that was Gigi la Mer also by Dalida
[Applause]
[Music]
we never neglected but for my mom the
attention she could give us was never
enough CG nevertheless we had we
sometimes had talks about how our future
would be and she always would say if you
ever dare to take on a job in
hospitality it stomped on the default
I’ll kick you in the butt because you
will never have chance to spend time
with your kids so taking too hard my
mom’s advice I decided to break with the
family tradition and I went to the
University in MA and started studying
Spanish language in literature but with
my family’s background in hospitality I
was soon involved in all kinds of
student activities and we organized
parties not just for the department but
also on a wider scale and we started
organizing trips to Spain stuff like
that so basically you could say that I
learned more from life than from my
books because it dawned them that it
don’t to me more and more that my
passion was more in hospitality although
of course my career was supposed to take
a different path the biggest lesson in
life though came when I was halfway
through University my mom had a terrible
cough and a back pain and she went to
the doctor and he listened through the
stethoscope and heard something that he
couldn’t really identify so we sent her
off for an x-ray and some further
investigation and that same night my mom
was diagnosed with cancer
and admitted to the hospital two days
later they took out half a lung half of
her left lung and tumor as big as a
large grapefruit now I can tell you
based on the cell structure of that
tumor it was concluded that it was no
fortunately radiotherapy removed the
last bits and pieces that doctors
couldn’t take out during surgery and my
mom recovered pretty fast shadow lost
her life and things were good until
about half a year later new spots were
found on an x-ray during a periodical
checkup
and this time that cancer had affected
her right lung and that made surgery
impossible because you can live with one
lung but not with two hearts the cancer
was even more aggressive and chemo
didn’t work so we’re in in a few weeks
my mom was released from the hospital
with the message that she had probably
my mom was a fighter and she was not at
all going to let that happen it was only
June and she had so many plans for the
summer
she wanted at least to celebrate a
birthday in August in September though
my mom’s health rapidly deteriorated and
I was called back from University I
needed to help my dad and my sister to
take care of her we had to feed her
change diapers washer
all those things that my mom did to me
when I was a little kid and all those
things I was not prepared for she was
put on morphine to help her endured pain
but that also cost that would that also
caused her to sleep most part of the day
and during tonight’s my dad and I took
turn to stay awake next to her bed
I prayed many hours for her suffering to
end but my mom was not yet ready to let
go until that one night when I was on
she let one final breath and died right
forty-four years old I was 22 and I had
on a sunny September day in 1989 we put
my mom to rest in one of the most
beautiful spots in Maastricht on the
mountain overlooking the city and I made
a promise on that very same day to
myself and to her that in my life I
would only those do those things that
are really light and that it would stop
doing those things that I didn’t like
anymore I had just had proof that life
can be over way too soon and I was going
to make the most of it
I was going to live life for the both of
us my mom was not an unhappy person but
I think she would have wanted to do
things differently not just work but
also spent time on the things that
really met her in life and that’s why I
profoundly swore that I would not do
anything I did not like anymore it may
not come as a surprise then that I
decided to quit University
picture this it’s the early 90s no
internet the dark corners of the
Netherlands and I thought that I would
do it by organizing an erotic affair
we create a tax laganja it was like a
fairy tale like bubble in which everyone
was equal in which everyone could be
themselves and express themselves in the
way they wanted to
even if war even if it were just for one
day obviously my mom has never been
there but I know that she would be very
very proud of me and of what we had
achieved for five years we toured the
Netherlands and we did all the big
venues of the country but then it was
again time to go our separate ways and I
decided to leave the company a friend of
mine said hey I know a place you would
really like she was already working
there and I also decided to apply for a
job at Vodafone so when I was invited
for an interview they asked me why do
you want to work for further phone and I
said well actually I already have the
best job in the world so now I’m looking
for the second-best job and they asked
what this best job was so for the rest
of the interview we only talked about
that the same night they called me and
asked me can you start tomorrow so I did
working for for the phone was actually
pretty rewarding now it started off as a
customer services agent but I got to do
a lot of things I was involved in many
new products and services for support
and stuff are the process and project
management and I ended up managing a
team of 20 technical support staff and
you could say I was pretty happy with my
achievements and with my life until I
it proved to be a very special year in
which I did a lot of thinking about my
mom obviously but also about life about
the meaning of life about its purpose
and about my purpose in it and then I
was given the opportunity to do a
two-week for a volunteer trip to
Kyrgyzstan for a charity that was very
dear to me
dance for life and they educate young
people all over the globe about HIV and
sexual health and I worked there with
local volunteers people in the age of 11
to 18 and I was captured by their
enthusiasm and I was overwhelmed by
their gratitude for what I did for them
and I just took pictures and I just
spoke to them so after that trip I
returned home with even more life
questions to ask and more stuff to think
about then a few months later at the
entire customer service management that
from Vodafone was dragged into an off
side a three day training on thinking
differently and the big lie well
basically that was stuff I had been
thinking about all year my colleagues
were pretty cynical but for me it was
nothing new on the first day they gave
us an assignment we got a little wooden
board and on that board
we had to illustrate our drives in life
on one side what what do you wake up for
in the morning what drives you what what
makes you tick and on the other side we
had to illustrate our barriers the
things that keep us from achievement our
inhibitions and while most of my
colleagues were pretty hesitant I was
done in two minutes
on one side I drew a big red sparkly
heart and on the other side a big black
cross it all makes perfect sense but
then I don’t that I probably would have
to share the story of my mom and the
promise that I made to her and myself
with those people because that’s what
this is all about I know was how could I
think of that oops but no one asked
about the board and at the end of the
day the board went back to my room only
the last afternoon of the training
session we were told to pick up the
board and I felt adrenaline pretty much
like now my heart was racing and then
our trainer said well you don’t have to
say anything about the board and I was
like huh what did we make it they just
wanted to break through our inhibitions
and for that they put it on to building
great building blocks and put the board
on it with the inhibition side up and
with the barehand karate chop we just
had to break through the inhibitions and
I thought well I can do that and when it
was my turn it was still pumping and I
was like oh my god so I hit a now hit
heart and I broke the board but there
was a little uncontrolled and I did not
only break the board but also one of the
bricks
a my hand at hearth but I didn’t notice
adrenaline was still pumping and I
couldn’t call calm down so in the end I
said to talk to our trainer I think I
have to share the story after all and
when I did you could hear a pin drop in
the room but also people saw pieces of
the puzzle falling together my story
moves a lot of people and in the end it
okay in those years that followed I got
involve myself in more and more other
activities in the company because of the
balance that I got it made me feel
better at work again I involve myself in
the staff Association organized many fun
events and trips and stuff but I was was
also one of the initiators of the first
photophone Gay Pride celebration and
those extra things that extra
appreciation that I got through the
company was a good balance to get my gap
back my joy in work then in 2014 they
announced a reorganization within
customer services that would also
involve a cutback in management and I
started questioning myself again I asked
myself four questions do I still like my
job
do I still like for the phone what would
I achieve and how can I do that and
basically my conclusion was that I still
like my job and ofits and I still like
photophone but most of the things that
are liked were not really involved with
my daily tasks overnight I decided that
I would volunteer for a trip for a
buyout and I would save colleagues from
a fourth dismissal but then what what
was I going to do after photophone well
I decided once more to follow my heart
and turn passion into a profession I
created two companies and I was going to
do the stuff that I was good at I was
going to organize events like I had done
many times I was going to cook fine
dinners like
for my friends many many times I was
going to learn more about wine and
champagne and was going to do something
about that so I created my offense
service and I organized trips and bodies
and I’m a wedding planner and I do I
worked as a cook in festival stuff like
that and with my web shop
I sell only champagnes and other public
ones and why the bubbly wines because I
feel genuinely they’re not only
Christmas but every day
deserves the extra sparkle okay
so how did I end up here as a startup
obviously my agenda wasn’t full from day
one and someone asked me hey can you
come and help out HR for a couple of
hours a week at universe at United World
College and I was like I don’t know that
so I decided to plan a visit and I can
tell you I was sold immediately the vibe
in the school the energy from the
students the pleasantness and and and
the people that I met the same day I got
my staff badge but helping out soon
changed in full-time contracts so now I
have two businesses and the 40-hour side
job
but it’s a joy to work there I feel part
of an incredibly amazing community so
basically that’s it my name is John I
work at UW see I came there for a cup of coffee and I never left
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