How not to settle for good enough
life is hard
and so are the decisions that we need to
make on a day-to-day basis
but at the end of the day we are all
looking for the same thing
we’re all looking for a certain level of
happiness
and a certain level of security now what
is it
that makes us feel happy
is it that secure job is it having our
lives
organized in a way that it’s predictable
is it really that security that makes us
feel happy
now let me ask you is the life that you
lead today
is it good or are you happy to settle
for just good enough now i don’t settle
for good enough
i will share with you now why on earth
am i
always in search of the uncomfortable
but more importantly
why i’m convinced that this can help
improve your life
i kind of won the lottery i was born and
raised in one of the richest countries
in the world
the netherlands i was studying marketing
i had good grades i even had a student
job that paid more than most grown-ups
would make in other parts of the world
life was steady
comfortable predictable and i knew that
if i would
if i would continue to make the right
choices that i would probably not have
the worries that many other people would
have in this world
and you know what they say don’t stick
your neck out
if it ain’t broken don’t fix it
well i did stick my neck out and i did
start fixing things that were not broken
as a man of 36 years old i’ve been an
entrepreneur for the past 14 years
and i’ve started several successful
businesses in a country that was once a
foreign land to me
and the locals in that country they
would say that there’s pretty much
no business opportunities whatsoever
yet several times i’ve managed to find
great business opportunities for myself
and people often wonder jan how do you
do it
and once i started taking the time to
think by myself
how do i actually do it i realized
that i’m following a pattern
at the age of 22 i moved to a country
called croatia
and croatia is one of the most beautiful
countries in europe
with an amazing mediterranean lifestyle
great food
good weather over a thousand islands
however economically this country is
performing at the bottom half
of that in europe and i knew that if i
would want to lead the kind of life that
i could have had in the netherlands
in croatia that that would already put
me among the privileged few
so instead of graduating in the
netherlands and pursuing a nine to five
job over there i decided to go all in
on my first business venture in croatia
and i could speak for hours about all
the ups and downs that i had to go
through
how i had to fight for survival month
after month for
years how i had to pour in all my
savings into the business
in order to pay for salaries
how i doubled up my capacity and a few
months later
i lost my largest client
as you can hear times were tough
but i knew that i was moving into the
right direction
year over year i was doubling my
revenues and fast forward nine years
later
the company i had founded employed more
than 400 people
and then i got an offer to sell my
business
i knew that by accepting an offer like
this that this would lead me straight
back into discomfort i would have to
start all over again from scratch
i would have to reinvent myself and at
that moment
i didn’t even know what i was going to
do next
i decided to accept that offer and the
reason why i was at ease with that
decision
was because over the years i had learned
some valuable lessons
each time that i would put myself into
an
uncomfortable situation i would get to
meet new people and learn new things
i would get to discover new places and i
would get to create something of value
and i realized that that is what makes
me
happy
right after i sold my business i started
having a lot of mixed feelings
on one hand i was happy and proud that i
managed to build a company to that level
and to make an exit from it but on the
other hand
i was feeling very scared
and i remember a conversation that i had
with my wife when i asked her
have i at the age of 31 already reached
the peak of my entrepreneurial career
is this the biggest thing that i will
ever do in business
is there going to be something bigger
out there that can perhaps even put what
i did in the past
in the shadows of the next big thing
and my wife responded to me in a way
where she said
first of all you need to ask yourself
what it means to do something big
does that mean big revenues
does that mean big number of employees
or should you maybe be thinking along
the lines of doing something where you
could leave
a big social impact
and those words stayed in the back of my
mind and after giving that some time
i knew exactly what i wanted to do
i wanted to put myself through hardship
again and through my entrepreneurial
efforts
i wanted to do something where i could
leave a big social
impact on the country where my four
children were born
and where i had planned my future
now i know what you’re thinking jan
where do you even find those
uncomfortable situations
well the answer is very simple i talk
with people
and when i talk with people i listen to
what they’re unhappy about
i listen to their concerns and i listen
to what they believe we should improve
or even start in this country
it is those people that lead me straight
towards uncomfortable situations
also known as opportunities
and once i have found an opportunity
like that i start to surround myself
with people from which i believe can
help me fix those problems
we then pitch possible solutions to
stakeholders
and that could be governments local
municipalities
experts sometimes even to people that
have caused the problem to begin with
we then present a strategy that will be
clear for everybody but more importantly
a strategy that everybody wants to be
part of
it’s often not the experts that will fix
problems otherwise they would have
already done so
it’s the people that are impacted the
most by the problem that will eventually
step up
and start fixing things
now like i said i talk with people and
when i talk with people
in this country there’s always one
subject that we speak
very passionately about and that subject
is food but when we speak about food in
this country it’s those people that tell
me
that we as a country are missing out on
a great opportunity
which is that we should be exporting
more
we should be feeding europe they tell me
well unfortunately the reality is
different
way in the past before i moved to this
country it used to produce enough food
to feed an entire region
today sadly this country is not
producing enough food to feed its own
people
and after that had been frustrating me
long enough
i decided that it had to be me to step
up
i wanted to bring solutions for a global
problem
which is how to feed a growing
world population in a nutritious
reliable and in a sustainable way
now there happens to be one country
known for bringing such solutions
and that country is the country where i
happen to be born and raised
it’s the netherlands
the netherlands with nearly 10 000
hectares of high-tech
greenhouses is after the united states
the second largest exporter of food in
the world
so i asked myself the question if the
united states can be first
if the netherlands can be second
can croatia perhaps be third
now let me share with you how much
experience do
i really have in agriculture
zero absolutely no experience
whatsoever in agriculture but remember
in business you don’t have to be the
smartest one in the room
what is important is that you have a
vision and that you share that vision
with others who for those reasons
want to become part of your team to help
you execute upon that vision
fast forward i’m happy to share that we
are currently developing our first
high-tech greenhouse in croatia and it
shall be our goal that through our
efforts
we become less dependent on importing
food and ultimately
to turn this country back into an
exporting nation again
like it once was
today i can say that i’m really happy
it took me a long time to understand
what it really is that makes me happy
before i understood the pattern that i’m
following i would be putting myself in
uncomfortable situations without even
knowing it now that i do understand the
pattern that i’m following
i’m putting myself in uncomfortable
situations deliberately
now don’t be mistaken it’s not that i
enjoy being uncomfortable
what i enjoy is to turn uncomfortable
situations into comfortable situations
because throughout that process i get to
meet new people and learn new things
i get to discover new places and i get
to create something of value
and like i said that is what makes me
happy
and gives me purpose
now let me repeat the question that i
asked you all the way at the beginning
is the life that you lead today is it
good
or are you happy to settle for just good
enough
is the comfort that you’re feeling is
that what makes you happy
and if the answer is no then you will
know what to do
take a few uncomfortable steps backwards
in order to really take leaps forward
because that is what will bring you to
places where you will find happiness
and satisfaction beyond your own beliefs
thank you