Now that my vows are done, I’m ready to wish you all a Herculean 2012.
I hope you’ll all help our famous mascot Herculix to do some good this year. The Herculix Foundation was founded by Inge and it supports Special Olympics in Belgium, Laureus Foundation in The Netherlands, Randall’s Island Sport Foundation in New York and much more to come.
That’s a quote of Peter Bernstein. I agree that we can’t predict the future, but we can create it.
Took the week off from Christmas until New Year. One of the rare holiday weeks this year. That’s what you get when you love your life.
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I evaluated the year 2011 with Inge and decided what to focus on in 2012 to get closer to our long term goals.
Did everything go as planned? Of course not. Nothing ever does, so stop complaining and start working harder! Had major setbacks but also achieved a lot more than expected. Who would have thought exactly one year ago, we would have achieved so much??? So in the end 2011 was a smashing year.
As always, I share my short-term vows with everybody who wants to know. Inch by inch remember?
My general gut feeling about 2012 tells me most people will now experience what we’ve experienced in the past 3 years: mayor uncertainty and chaos. It’s a challenge guys, but we’ve got great news for you: if it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger (Nietzsche).
No winner believes in luck (again Nietzsche), or do you think Messi is all about luck? In any fight, it’s the guy who’s willing to die, who’s gonna win that inch. Are you willing to fight and die for that inch? I am. Because that’s what’s living is.
Last week before Christmas has started. For most of us this means: “Work like a lunatic to close the year in style with family and start 2012 with a fresh mind.” For me too.
As every year, I will share my personal targets for 2012 with you. It never hurts to look back for a few minutes. To get in the mood, I always watch the Google Zeitgeist.
What a year it was! My Chinese Horoscope warned me in January 2011. It was going to be tough, but rewarding. The Chinese were right. I will personally remember 2011 as: revolutionary…
Tomorrow, we launch the early bird campaign for Hercules Trophy Belgium 2012. Our fans get 25% reduction when they sign up their teams in the next 4 days. Let’s hope we break new records.
We’ve got news: for every player in a team, Hercules Trophy Belgium will donate 1 EUR to Special Olympics 2014 through the Herculix Foundation. How cool is that?
Teambuilding + Sporting Day + Family Day + Employee Party + Customer Incentive + Festival + Networking Event + Fundraising + Corporate Branding = Hercules Trophy
3 years ago, my brilliant wife-buddy-lover and myself decided to give our silly dream 3 years to grow. We found a few people who believed us, where 99,9999% told us we were fools.
2 months ago we bought a simple bottle of Cava and did the math.
Was it a tough? You have no idea! Was it rewarding? Without any doubt! Did we sleep? Not really, but who needs sleep anyway? Did we have fun? Oh yes! Would we do it again? Without hesitation! Will we face new challenges? Of course not 
We have no ambition to stop now. On the contrary! We are even more convinced and ready for an amazing journey. We have a fabulous dream, a breakthrough team, a focussed plan, amazing partners and fans all over the world……..and the most inspiring kids on the planet who help us put things in perspective.
and Belgium has a government after 540 days…so…
Those who follow me on Twitter know that for weeks now I’ve been preparing for a new and exciting mission.
The Special Olympics Summer Games 2014 are coming to Antwerp and I will take the role of CMO (Chief Marcom Officer). In the next days and weeks I will create a dream team of professionals who will work on this exciting mission for the next 3 years. As I will remain President and CEO of Hercules Trophy I will divide me time between both challenges.
Why I’m so excited? How many reasons do you need? For me, the video below was crucial to understand I want to be part of Special Olympics.
In 2007, Special Olympics Belgium with the assistance of McKinsey and company developed a bid document to bring the games to Belgium. They succeeded. In September 2014 the Special Olympics Europe-Eurasia Games will come to Belgium for 9 days. Special Olympics specifically target athletes with a intellectual disabilities. Antwerp, one of the 22 Olympic cities, will host the event for 2,000 athletes and their delegations from 57 countries. More than 4,000 volunteers will help to make the multi-sport event unique and unseen.
The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in a sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community.
Understand why I’m so excited about this?
I hope we can make you all fans of Special Olympics in the years to come.
You can find the press release here.
To all the big ego’s out there: you are sooooo 70’s. Carly Simon wrote “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you” in 1972. That’s 40 years ago dudes! Drop the ego, it’s bad Karma.
Everyone, yes me too, has something within called an “ego”. It’s a facade for something they absolutely don’t want you to know. A fear they have. A skill they lack. The illusion of ego is unfortunate because the entity behind it, the authentic you, holds all the cards to living a fulfilling, happy and successful life. If the ego is in charge you will be in a constant state of searching, comparing and desiring as opposed to being, accepting and doing. People who are ruled by ego, tend to do non authentic things to keep that ego alive. Politics, power play, aggression, manipulation, deception, propaganda, betrayal… you name it.
2012 is coming, the world is changing at the speed of light. I hope everyone experiences that by now. Time to take the good karma road again. The big ego’s are struggling. Trying to keep the old system alive. I think the good guys are winning, but times will get tougher in the years to come. We’re not there yet. People just don’t accept the big-ego-attitude anymore. Crazy bankers, lousy managers, go-getters, bad politicians, greedy shareholders, freaky reporters, aggressive neighbours, bad colleagues…you know the type. You see the similarities? They all share one primal emotion: FEAR!!! Their ego is a smokescreen. They don’t trust themselves (because they can’t be trusted) so why would they trust you? They think everyone thinks like them, and that’s where they make a huge mistake. They don’t see that times are changing and one day, all of a sudden, they will be outnumbered.
I’m happy to say I think I lost what was left of my ego in the beginning of 2009. When will you lose yours? The world would be a better place! A healthy dose of self-confidence shouldn’t be mistaken with ego by the way… Ego = bad, self-confidence = good.
For some reason, the big ego’s get extremely nervous when they are around me. And I mean extremely. Some try to intimidate me, but that never lasts very long 
Smile Stay authentic. Even if they try to attack you personally. In fact, just ignore them. Don’t look for compliments from them. Go for a walk in nature. Work in the garden to lose their bad karma. Their actions will come back in their face like a boomerang. One thing though: if they outnumber you, don’t waste your time, walk away and let them dig their own grave.
I learned one thing from my adorable wife: “Never argue with a fool, because people might not see the difference.” Give it some practise and you’ll see your life becomes much easier. Maybe you’ll even inspire some people to lose the ego.
Have a Herculean Weekend!
“Focus”, one of the 4 words in my personal mantra. A crucial one. Hope I don’t have to convince you that a lack of progress is unhealthy. Progress boosts people’s motivation.
Here’s a thought for you. Do you as a leader keep track of progress? Or do you mainly keep track of setbacks?
Terese Amabile, who is Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School, adds in “The Progress Principle” an interesting angle: it’s crucial to know how to handle setbacks, because they have a more powerful negative impact (2 to 3 times more) than progress has a positive impact.
Convinced that progress is crucial? How come that the majority of people fail in this area?
By failure I mean:
It’s funny to see that the majority of people are convinced they are focused when in fact it’s the complete opposite. As a true leader, you just know who’s authentic and who’s not. When you confront people about a lack of progress and you get the “big excuses” and the “it wasn’t me statements”, you just know…
I confess: I hate excuses and I can’t hide it. Why should I accept it as a leader? Happy to be called “a difficult person” in that area. There’s no other option. I have to delight all stakeholders and you really can’t do that without focus.
But I’ve got great news for everyone who wants to work with me, you know, “the difficult person”: if you are ready for it, I’m always available to help you focus (and I can be very nice to people who do)!
Now here’s a new angle to the CEO’s Priority. Michael E. Raynor states in Harvard Business Review that the priority of the CEO should be the corporation’s survival. He claims that it’s not shareholders, not stakeholders, not customers, not society — not even profits. The corporation’s survival should come first.
Interesting thought…must reflect on that…don’t know what to think of it yet.
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Another great quote on startupquote.com! According to Fastcompany, John Doerr is one of the most influential VC’s of his generation. The list of companies he invested in is pretty impressive.
You can read an old (1997), but still very relevant interview with John in Fastcompany about the crucial role of teams in startup companies.
Here are some extracts from the interview
So our 28-year-old goes to the startup meeting. It’s now midnight, and they’re on their 11th cup of coffee. Looking around that table, what does this person need to consider?
That’s the moment of truth. That’s when you ask: “Are these the people I want to be in trouble with for the next 5, 10, 15 years of my life?” Because as you build a new business, one thing’s for sure: You will get into trouble.
Does it make sense to look around the table and start to identify the skills that the group needs? For example, do you start listing functions such as marketing, sales, or personnel that you need to go after?
That’s one way to do it. Often the founders at the House of Pancakes all come from the same department, usually engineering. They’re expert in their own world. But frequently their world is all they know.
But you might think about it differently. For instance, when you’re putting your team together, look for really smart people. It’s fundamental. When you get exceptionally smart people on your team, that’s a big plus. Besides smart, look for a combination of experience, drive, commitment, and passion. You don’t want all experience — but you also don’t want all drive, energy, and passion. Getting that mix right is the difference between ventures that achieve greatness and startups that are merely successful, or worse.
What’s the most important part of any business plan?
I always turn to the biographies of the team first. For me, it’s team, team, team. Others might say, people, people, people — but I’m most interested in the team as a whole – its mix of experience and personalities, its chemistry.
Once again it’s great to experience that smart business people say that it’s all about great teams and not about individual performance. Needless to say that once again this proves the business value of Hercules Trophy, which is the only real corporate team event in the world that focusses on emotional connection through sports.
