Thank you for all the lovely birthday wishes, darlings. Good karma coming your way.

It’s about time I write a personal message. What a year! There are too many moments that matter to mention, but the major ones are:

• We worked with amazing interns and worked on leadership in our own core team. We use the Verne Harnish method to grow to 10mil EUR (we’re not there yet, obviously).
• We launched the free employee engagement survey and index on International Happiness Day in March. Thousands of people completed the survey -and are using it at the moment.
• We celebrated 20 years of Hercules Trophy. It was the best edition ever. At the end of 2019, we already sold out the Saturday edition 2020…
• We organised the first VTM Kids Trophy. A great first edition will lead to the next edition in 2020.
• We partnered with charity organisation Think Pink to organise the Pink Ladies Games in Europe as of 2020.
• We’ve put a lot of effort in enforcing the balance sheet. It may sound slightly boring, but it was what we call a Herculean effort…
• We joined Duval Union and got to know the leaders of a strong ecosystem. The perfect move. Happy to have Marc and Klaus in our leadership team.
• We organised tons of amazing projects (family days/teambuildings/company events) for i.a. Intersoc, Deloitte, Unilin, Matexi, Degroof Petercam, Owens Corning, Decathlon, VOKA Vlaams Brabant, Tereos, Ordina and so many more. They all loved our refreshing approach to create moments that matter and to add that corporate culture to events.
• Telenet Business launched a media campaign where they put us in the spotlight. The whole of Flanders has heard us now, as it seems #professioneelenmenselijk 😉
• We rebranded Herculean to Herculean Alliance, the employee engagement specialists. Crafting Powerful Workforces since 1999. Our purpose is clear.
• We won the Euronext award, which offers us a solid preparation for the future.
• And last but not least: we moved to a brand new – uber-cool – location over Christmas. De Vleeshalle in Mechelen.

When I meet people, they always tell me: “We follow the Herculean news. You’re doing great!” Thanks for the compliments and we do have great stories to share. However, what people don’t see are all the challenges and misfortune we had to tackle with our team. Every day again, just like every other entrepreneur. I must admit that this is something I underestimated when I started this venture. I’m thankful for my team mates who stand by me every single day.

My next learning cycle starts today

Einstein’s theory of relativity states that time and space are not as constant as everyday life would suggest. He suggested that the only true constant, the speed of light, meant that time can run faster or slower depending on how high you are, and how fast you are travelling.

Due to my recent birthday and the start of the next decade, the aspect of time was obviously on my mind. My conclusion is that time is speeding up as I’m getting older. Here’s the proof:

• The first 20 years of my life: learning cognitive and social skills by making small mistakes.
• The next 15 years: learning about intrapreneurship in large corporations, with amazing mentors, by making bigger mistakes.
• The next 10 years: learning about entrepreneurship from idea over start-up to scale-up by making even bigger mistakes.

Time to start my next learning cycle with huge mistakes coming up, no doubt! That should take about 5 years if my trend analysis is correct. My former math fellow students already wonder what will happen after those 5 years… but I’ll think about that infinitesimal question later.

Anyway, empirical studies show that I’m now a better age to do so. Only a few insiders know what I’m up to, but it’s exciting. No, I will not reveal detailed plans, but I will keep you posted though.

Want to join us on the next exciting ride to build the employee engagement alliance? Let’s have a coffee or a delicious lunch at De Vleeshalle.

I wish you and your loved ones an amazing 2020. May the force be with you.