Interview yourself: Lodewijk [How to be an Original]
Shane of Shane and Peter posted an interview on their blog. Well, they posted the questions and asked entrepreneurs to answer them. I’m about to start as an entrepreneur, so I’m taking up the challenge. Below you’ll find the interview, starting with Shane’s original questions, and followed by the questions that others came up with (they had to, except for Naomi she seems proclaimed herself to be exempt…of course).
So here’s the interview:
What’s your personal mission statement?
I’ve written about that before. It’s based on my five core personal values: Love, Fun, Authenticity, Freedom and Growth. My mission statement is:
I, Lodewijk van den Broek, love life and have a lot of love to give. I enjoy authentic growth and I help others to grow. I’m here to have lots of fun and enjoy my freedom in comfort and vitality.
What’s the biggest mess you’ve dealt with this year?
My backlogs at home! My 3 year archiving backlog being the biggest. Man, the time I spent sorting through papers, making files and folders. But now I’m (almost) done, I’m loving the results!
What current entrepreneurial efforts consume your time?
Preparing to start a business in training and coaching. And blogging of course…that’s a major personal branding activity. And as a trainer, coach or public speaker you need a good personal brand.
Why do you do what you do?
Because it’s aligned with my mission and feeds my values. I really enjoy doing what I do. I love to love my wife, my son, family and friends. I love to work with people and break through mental and emotional barriers to get to higher grounds. I love to grow and to see others grow.
What inspires you?
People performing beyond their expectations. Nature, the beauty of it and the immense power it possesses. The universe in all its greatness, it puts things in perspective.
When do you get most excited?
Seeing authentic change happen in people. The amazement on their faces when they do something they thought was impossible. I love it!
Boxers or Briefs? or as Naomi says, Bikini or Thong, duh?!?
It’s a combination of both (boxers and briefs that is). They’re more like tight boxers…
What do you do when you’re not [designing | programming | managing | writing | toiling for the wo/man]?
Euhm…I eat, I sleep, I play. Seriously, I like to read both fiction and non-fiction. I’m training for half a marathon (somehow I keep writing marathong…what’s on a man’s mind…). I’m doing DIY work on the house. I blog. I play video games (not that much lately). And occasionally I go out and drink a beer with friends.
What one thing made the biggest difference when getting started?
Just getting started. Simply taking the first step. Stop thinking, start doing. You’ll learn along the way.
What’s your exit strategy?
Good question. When successful and not entirely doing what I love: make myself obsolete and let the income become almost passive. When not successful…get a job again. When successful and doing what I love: death (but I’ll wait around for a long time until the grim reaper gets me).
What is the last thing that made you belly laugh?
Sjeez, I can’t remember. I laugh a lot with a one-year old in the house. Icanhazcheezburger makes me laugh when I start reading them out loud. But real tear-jerking belly laughing…I can’t remember. It happens about once every month though, uncontrollable laughter…I love it.
Have you ever been in business before?
Yes! Well…kinda. When I was a student I started a company. I wanted to design and build loudspeaker systems for concerts and stuff. I learned a lot about it, even followed classes on acoustics at University (Eindhoven University of Technology), but I sucked at it. I designed a couple, bought the components, built the cases, and plugged them into a real system (friends of mine had have a rental company for these kind of systems). They sucked!
I went on to use the company to do freelance work on administration and business advice, which did pretty well. Especially considering my only clients were my dad, a friend of my dad, and the company I did my practical training period (which is my current employer). Naming it Bomb Squad Sound Systems turned out to be…well…not so smart.
I discontinued the company in 2000. Too much hassle with authorities over not being a fiscal entrepreneur.
At what point do you consider yourself successful?
On a lot of counts I am already successful, because I do what I want to do. I want to achieve so much more, but I love where I am already and I feel successful already. It would be perfect when I reach the point where money cannot dictate what I do anymore.
What was your first experience with a computer?
I think I was around 6 years of age. We had an Apple II clone at home. Videogames come to mind, Apple Panic and Lode Runner. The latter I played together with my brother, using paddles. I controlled vertical movement and filling of holes, he controlled horizontal movement and making holes. How about teamwork!
And we had a Mac too for a short while. I think that would have been around the time Guy Kawasaki started evangelizing them. After that, only IBM / Microsoft environments.
Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates in a jello wrestling match, where’s your money?
In the bank, waiting to be invested in my own company. Sports betting is not allowed in the Netherlands.
Where do you do your best thinking?
It depends… if it’s about the big questions of life: in nature all by myself.
For getting ideas structured in my mind, standing (important!) in front of a big sheet of paper or a white board. Yes, I draw on them too. Not just standing there.
For something that hasn’t “fallen into place” yet, during DIY work at home. Things seem to fall into place during that kind of work.
For cultivating ideas, in a group of like minded people. I tend to start the process, then back down and absorb what’s coming, and provide structure towards the end.
What does your average daily work / life balance look like?
On an average day of the workweek:
- Wake up at 5am.
- Blogging with coffee until 7am or 8am.
- Shower, have breakfast with wife and son.
- At work at 9am, back home at 6pm.
- Have dinner with wife and son until 7pm.
- Put my son in bed around 7:30pm, maybe have a bath together.
- Have an evening with my wife, maybe some television, maybe some blogging, maybe some DIY work, maybe…
On Monday’s I work from home, my wife is at work then. The same elements apply, but mixed very much throughout the day. A lot more time with my son, somewhat less with my wife.
I’m curious to find out how being an entrepreneur works out. I’m working from home on days that my wife cares for our son. I guess there’s more family time on those days too, I need to have lunch as well you know.
How much time do you work, play and sleep?
Sleep: 6 hours average on a daily basis.
Work: Day job for 32 hours on a weekly basis, starting January. Starting my own business (I include blogging here) for 20 hours a week.
Play: Well if you take out eating and caring for myself. The rest of the time is for relaxing and for playing. So that’s enough 
If I could introduce you to anyone, who would it be?
Richard Branson, what an amazing guy. But Paulo Coelho is high on the list too.
What stops you from giving up when you are frustrated?
The knowledge that frustration comes before a breakthrough. So most of the time I’m happy to be frustrated, as I trust that I will make a leap forward because of it. But being in that state is not very pleasant.
If Chuck Norris and Steven Hawking had a baby (hey it’s my damn interview), would you vote for her for president?
Multi-level hypothetical question! I get this image of a small girl that masters kung-fu and has an electronic voice. Sounds like a superhero, sure why not! Not that my vote would count…
What was the one mistake you made in your business that led to the biggest lesson and improvements? (from James)
Becoming a bottleneck capacity myself. That happened as a manager, not as an entrepreneur. A lot of activities, processes, procedures and decisions came over my desk. Add being a back-up for my direct reports and 2nd line for some of their reports to it. Now wait for business to flourish and some people to fall ill or be absent. I was in over my head! I managed to get through, but it wasn’t fun! And I vowed never to let that happen again.
From that time on, I decided to make myself obsolete. Being obsolete meant that I had plenty of time to be ready for urgent situation or for strategic developments. For an entrepreneur that would be great as well. Make yourself obsolete.
If you had the choice of making a million dollars by selling to a million people for a buck or selling to a hundred people for ten thousand dollars each which would you choose? (from Timothy)
Hmm, both can be an option. I want to provide value by delivering meaning to other people. If I deliver this in person by coaching or training, I’d opt for the latter. But selling (e-)books or videos to a million people sure appeals as well. Tough call.
If you could go back in time to do anything differently with your business, what would it be? (from Harry)
Start earlier. I believed I needed more experience to have the confidence to really start as a trainer and coach by myself. Notice the double conviction in that sentence? In hindsight I know that they needn’t be true, and that I held myself back. The experience does come in handy though.
Flight or invisibility? (from Jonathon)
Flight! Definitely flight That would be so cool, ultimate freedom, ease of transportation, no more traffic jams! Invisibility is not really my thing, it has a sneaky touch to it and I don’t like that.
What is it that you struggle with on a daily basis, that if improved or fixed, would greatly improve your productivity? (from ilovecode)
Asking for help. I’m really a do it yourself kind of guy, big time. Asking for help, or even outsourcing stuff would greatly improve my productivity, but somehow I don’t. Although this question did make me realize this again and I know it’s going to be on my mind. This time I might tackle this habit.
If you could put one thing/place/concept in Mr. Rogers’ Land of Make Believe, what would it be? (from Charlie)
Okay, I know Mr. Rogers from an incredible speech he held in the US Senate. But that’s as much as I know about the guy. He has a land of Make Believe? Cool!
What would I put there? The ability to freeze time. Man, I would have loved to have that ability in the past.
Knowing what you know now would you change anything in the past? (from StartupMom)
Tricky question. I doubt it. Whatever happened in the past has made me who I am today. If I lose the drawbacks of events or decisions, am I also going to lose the benefits I gained from them? There are always benefits.
I was thinking about changing the “victory” of Bush at the time of the Bush vs. Gore election, just to make it fair. But then again, the course of events at that time did inspire Gore to go back to his roots, produce a movie and receive a Nobel prize. I wonder if he’s happier now than he would have been as a president.
How scared are you . . . Really? (by Lorna and Tamara)
Scared? Not really actually. Excited is a better word, with a calm confidence about starting as an entrepreneur. Don’t know how things will change when I go full time though. We’ll see about that when the time is right.
What stands between you and your next goal? (from Shane)
A big frickin’ wall! I have a tendency to set goals that cannot be reached by incremental change (some exceptions exist). They need revolutionary change, and Kathy Sierra made a great picture about that:
I wish she started writing again!
What is something you do (or have done) that makes your kid(s) genuinely laugh? (from Aruni)
What haven’t I done? He’s only one year old, so he laughs pretty easily and sometimes it’s even simple everyday things that have him rolling on the floor. But I’ve also walked around with his pants on my head, crawled around the house in pursuit (and vice versa), playing peekaboo. There’s so much laughter around the house since he’s around
When did you know it was time to stop accepting projects you hated simply to make crappy money, versus turning away a sure thing and waiting for a better fit? (from Susan)
Heh, I have yet to deal with this issue. On a smaller scale, I dumped Google Adsense from this blog last week. The turning point? Being excited about making $1.22 on a single day, just before going out to buy a $8 lunch. Euhm…yeah. It just wasn’t worth all the space I reserved for it.
If you drop a cat, how do you make it land on its back? (from Michael)
Euhm…not sure. Why on earth would you do that for?
What habit/virtue do you think you need to develop further in order to succeed (both professionally and personally)? (from Joshua)
This is kind of the same question as the one from ilovecode. I’ll give a different answer though. I think I need to develop self-confidence even further. It’s not bad as it is, but I still have the tendency to adopt limiting beliefs that are holding me back.
Why do you care about Open Source so much? (from Eric)
Suggestive question… I have no real opinion on it really. Open Source is great because it’s good for further development. On the other hand, it doesn’t lead to revolutionary change, mostly incremental change. And revolutionary change is needed too.
Pfff. That was the interview. It turned out to be a big one. I have one thing left, and that’s to come up with my own question. So here it is:
If you were totally financially free (like Richard Branson kind of free), would you still be doing what you do right now?
For a large part: Yes. I’d still be focusing on helping people to achieve authentic change and to do things they thought was impossible before. But I’d also be playing around on my own tropical island, learning how to surf and playing around with a jetski!
Original post here: Lodewijkvdb
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