Deze aflevering gaat over mijn nieuwe boek Design Your Own Life, Kies je eigen toekomst. Een gesprek met Cindy en mijn co-redacteur Sjors Sommer. We leggen uit waarom we dit boek hebben geschreven en hoe dit boek tot stand is gekomen.
Plus we gaan in op enkele belangrijke thema's en veelgestelde vragen.
https://bit.ly/michaelsnieuweboek Design Your Own Life is mijn nieuwe boek. Nummer #1 Bestseller. Speciaal voor jongeren en jongvolwassenen. Dit boek geeft je richting voor je toekomst.
Dit is mijn nieuwe boek: https://bit.ly/michaelsnieuweboek Design Your Own Life. N#1 Bestseller. Speciaal voor jongeren. Dit boek geeft je richting voor je toekomst.
Deze aflevering gaat over mijn nieuwe boek Design Your Own Life, Kies je eigen toekomst. Een gesprek met Cindy en mijn co-redacteur Sjors Sommer. We leggen uit waarom we dit boek hebben geschreven en hoe dit boek tot stand is gekomen.
Plus we gaan in op enkele belangrijke thema's en veelgestelde vragen.
https://bit.ly/michaelsnieuweboek Design Your Own Life is mijn nieuwe boek. Nummer #1 Bestseller. Speciaal voor jongeren en jongvolwassenen. Dit boek geeft je richting voor je toekomst.
Dit is mijn nieuwe boek: https://bit.ly/michaelsnieuweboek Design Your Own Life. N#1 Bestseller. Speciaal voor jongeren. Dit boek geeft je richting voor je toekomst.
Welcome to a new Life, your Most Beautiful Life Podcast. You can now also call it the Design your Own Life Podcast. Nice title. Yes, it's a nice title. That is also the title of our new book Design your Own Life Choose your Own Future. Today in the studio, Cindy Pilarchik-Kuhmann and Ashore Sommer, co-director of the book Design your Own Life, and I am there myself. Michael, Welcome, nice to hear you. We are going to talk about the book today and especially about what we wrote that book.
Speaker 2:Yes, I know that a year ago we were outside and then I said to you I think, why don't you write a book that you want to read yourself when you were 20? And that's where I started.
Speaker 1:Yes, that was the starting point and that also meant that a lot of young people went to read the Master your Mindset, and with young I mean well, really under the age of 30. I wrote the book for a little bit 30 plus and then we noticed in recent years that there have been more and more young readers, until even 13, 14, 15 years. And then we sat down with each other and I was going to discuss with George what we will do. We will make Master your Mindset Junior, a junior version of Master your Mindset, a younger version. That was actually the idea when you said why don't you write the book?
Speaker 2:Yes, and then it actually starts like with us all. Then we think, oh, then we'll just fit the book to some more examples of now and in the end then a total out of hand project again.
Speaker 3:And did you do that longer than you expected?
Speaker 2:Yes, a total new book, and also went away, but also realized that that was also a very good idea, that actually didn't work at all Master your Mindset, To fit some other examples, what fits young people but that it really had to be a new book. And then I said to George is it not convenient if we make a laser panel? Because we all don't have a lot of young artists from our environment anymore and I thought it was good to see what is really playing in their lives at the moment. Where are they really going now to really go into a deeper conversation with them? And George, what did you put up then? And that was so incredibly fun and valuable.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was very exciting to see. I didn't have a lot of images myself, but I really thought. Gen Z, those are millennials. Our generation is only a little younger.
Speaker 2:And a little bit for Gen Z. What age is it from?
Speaker 3:Yes, it's from 1996 to 2012, I think. So you're up to 24, but actually from 12 to 24. The book was written for the target group from 18 to 30, so it's a little wider. There are also millennials, but I thought Gen Z, those boys from 18 to 20, about the same age as 30, they think the same way and they have the same issues.
Speaker 3:It was interesting to do some research because you notice certain things that I don't expect myself. You see a lot of stuff that is very much in the dark and because you then end up involving 3500 people, because you get such a big sample, you can see that some things really have a lot of trouble, or these are things that really come often. Because I'm curious, because you just said it to Mike you wrote the book, what you had to write for yourself when you had it, because you see a lot of things happening to boys. But what did you see on social media earlier, asking questions that were asked of you? Because after the research, we had a very good picture. What was the idea that you had before that, before you started the whole process?
Speaker 1:I noticed that it was a big question where the book actually goes about. What am I going to do with my future? How am I going to make choices? I just don't know which side I should face with my life. But those questions were very diverse A lot of problems with parents, really a lot of issues with parents, with education, with choices. I just want to be successful. I just want to earn a lot of money. I want to start a company, I want to be an entrepreneur. How do you do that? And you can find that online. There are a lot of programs and a lot of examples, but as far as I know, you don't really learn that in school, in practice. So there is a very diverse scale of themes that were kept up to me where I thought that is definitely worth a book.
Speaker 2:What do you think about it most after you read the question with the laser panel in contact, because a few things are being expressed in open.
Speaker 3:Yes, we analyzed the results. So first everything was taken over, but I also looked at what terms were used. What was most used was the future choices for the future that one of the three people who gave this specific term. So I don't know what I want for the future or I find it difficult to choose what I'm going to do for the future In that way. One of the three people who wrote it like this.
Speaker 3:But the important thing is, if you read all those stories because we said everything, only that research is already a few books on content read everything. At some point you get a picture of okay, this is the target group for you and then you read further and that is more established. So you really read the same kind of stories. So these are also the things that I also remember when I was 18 or 20. I wasn't really working on it. I didn't really have an idea of what I wanted for the future.
Speaker 3:So that's a big theme, one of the things that I saw a lot of back then. Besides that I have to focus on it or I'm quickly distracted or negative influence from the environment, that there are issues with that. Where do I find a mentor or a coach, until issues that you see less often, like what is my life mission, or how do I find a dream job, or how do I start a successful business. Of course, everything comes to an end, but above all, at some point you see those headlines and that's why you also come up with those 15 questions, because these 15 questions come back every time. That's pretty annoying, that's so.
Speaker 1:So you went to those 15 questions. Maybe you can read them, because everyone who is listening knows what we're talking about. So we filtered all those themes out of those 15 questions and that's the basis of the book where we answer them. But above all, we give tools so that you can find the answer to these questions yourself. We're not just going to give the answer. There's more to it than the intention that you will be able to answer the questions yourself. Would you like to read them?
Speaker 2:I would like to read a few of them. How do I discover what I really want to live with? How do I deal with the high expectations of others? How do I deal with my thoughts and unrest in my head? How can I deal with parents, friends and other people? How do I deal with fear and disappointment? How can I deal with my emotions better? How do I deal with stress? How do I get more self-confidence?
Speaker 1:That's a couple of fifteen questions.
Speaker 3:Yes, Quite an challenge to do something like this, Because I don't know how it was with you when you came to ask the fifteen questions and when we saw that, I thought well, it's a pretty long challenge to answer this in a book.
Speaker 2:I'm curious about the themes that you ask from these questions, Because we can also see it as themes. How much did you recognize it when you were young? I mean between the eighteen and twenty-four. Do you recognize yourself in some themes?
Speaker 1:No, I think in most cases not Honestly, because if you are now talking about stress or researching what you want to do with your life or your future, for me that was very clear. I didn't have any stress. I wanted to work very clearly on the radio. I knew what I wanted, how my life would look like as my life is now. What I personally wanted to know more about is that, yes, there are a few things that are important that we will deal with your thoughts. So the whole mindset part I wanted to know much earlier. I never learned anything about that. And the part of the business and money-saving I wanted to talk about something earlier, or something about courage or something about reading. So maybe that's why I was eighteen or twenty I could have learned what came much later Because you have read a lot of books.
Speaker 2:No, never.
Speaker 1:No, right no.
Speaker 2:Once a friend of yours read a book by Bode Schaefer, but before that did you read a lot of books.
Speaker 1:I never read books like that as far as I remember. I thought reading was very stupid. I had to read books at school, of course. At the port I read D H Lawrence and D Lise Lover why, no idea? And the Dave De Jackal by Fredric Forsythe and Francois Sagan for France, but those were some sort of obligatory numbers. I thought I read so stupidly. I don't understand what you're reading. Why do I have to read a book? What do you have there? And I think that's the challenge of this book that we have written now, and I can imagine very well that there is a very large group of young people school students who now also think, hello, why would I read a book? Or do I see it as an challenge?
Speaker 3:Yes, but you do have a number of very specific interests. You say so. You knew what you wanted to be. If there was something about how you can earn more money, you do have an interest in it. If I gave Michael this book at the age of 18, and said there is definitely something about it, are you going to read it? If you had something like that, you would have gone crazy. I'm not going to read it at all, or how was that for you then?
Speaker 1:Well, I would find it very difficult if you ask me this question now. So would I be reading this book then when I was 18? I don't know that. But then what Cindy just said, a friend of mine gave that book by Bode Shever with the title how do you get your first million? How do you get your first million? Well, that was a trigger for me. So I wanted to read that right away, just like when I had read Girl Rich. That triggered me. And how to be a millionaire, how to live like a millionaire. I found those interesting titles. So when you are interested in a certain subject I think without the subject you are then willing to read a book.
Speaker 3:Yes, so it actually starts with the interests. Yes, because then it was for you. Cindy, did you leave your book at the age of 18?
Speaker 2:No, the same story as for Michael. I never read books. I didn't have any pleasure in that. No, as long as I remember, I never read. And Michael gave me the secret as the first book.
Speaker 2:That's a very easy and simple book and I immediately started reading it and from then on I really read a lot of books, all about fiction, and I found that very interesting. And I was 24 years old then Because I was writing the book for young people and I also meant the book I wanted to read at that time. And I also noticed we noticed that Mastur Mindset was a little more focused, also with the example of 35+. There is actually not really a book that, if you are 22 years old, which in this matter is simple and easy to explain, which is also easy to read, especially for people like me, and I just don't read that much yet Then it's nice if it's easy to write as you go through it easily and I also find pleasure in reading and I also think that in combination with a lot of assignments that are included here, the summary that you have made at the end it's super easy to read and we get a lot of that back from the target group and we also really have a lot of awareness about it.
Speaker 2:Do you also? But I know for you it was different.
Speaker 3:You read a lot. When I was really 12, 13, 14, I didn't read a lot. I was going to read, especially because my mother just bought me books, and not that she wanted to, but she liked it, of course, because she thought, okay, maybe she'll read it, and I think it was her intention to get me interested in books, but she didn't really need it. So you have to read this. Or it's more that I got a new book for every opportunity, until she had a book from a fantasy series for young the grey year-olds, and that still exists. Then she bought it for me. Well, I thought that was a booyant because it was a story. I was completely taken in there. I thought, well, it's actually interesting. Then I got that whole series, of course, and after that I did get a little further into it and I thought maybe it's also fun to read something else. And in that way I think that you can have interests in all kinds of things, especially if you really have all the children who are interested, if you then spark those interests. So if you're working on that and you further dive into it yourself, then you'll find a whole world of possibilities.
Speaker 3:So when I was 16, 17, 18, I was really a lot, but that's still fiction, so it's really that I was working on this kind of theme.
Speaker 3:That was also well, a lot later two, three, four and twenty, actually from philosophy, because I was going to read philosophy Most of all. That's also in my case, in the case of you start with the real old philosophers, then you go more to modern times and at some point you also get into the approach with books, for example from Hill, that you come across that for a while that you think, oh, this is super interesting. But that was also when I was four, five, twenty that I really was working on those kinds of things. And I think that's because there really is very little what is really written for the target group, what is really accessible yes, that's right. Also, if you're 18, then even if you read books, then you really read in a very different way than well, like we would now read a book. And then the whole challenge, which you also said, mike, that if you read little books, how do I look at books, that it really has to be extremely accessible and it must also be connected to the needs that you currently have.
Speaker 1:But what I'm reading in the first feedback and the reviews is that the mission has been completed through reading we will come back to that but that it is written in a way that it is very accessible and understandable easy. What I often have with these kinds of books if you have a lot of books about yourself that it is often so dusty and so I have to go through it then I often put it away. And this is fun to read, with a lot of practical examples of young people who we have spoken to, who tell their stories. So it is also a very recognizable mirror for many others. Oh, I don't have that problem alone. That has Cindy, and Shores has that too, and they have solved it that way, and that's why I think it's a very valuable book, because it's written so easily. From now on.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think it's nice to pick up a piece or a theme and make the power of choice. Why is it in there? Why was it important?
Speaker 3:It is important because we have seen this again. First of all, we started with that book. It started when Sir Mike said for young people. Then we saw that the whole bottom line parallel that this has to be completely different. One of the things that I said too soon.
Speaker 3:What came back a lot is future and choices make for the future, and the big question is then what is a good choice? And that is often made very big. Then you make a choice for always and very exciting because you are very aware of what can and can be very much. So what is a good choice? That question is very much set, so it is interesting to see where that question comes from, but also to write about it. What is a good choice? Is it a choice that fits you? Why is that choice good or not? That is why this piece is in there, and also quite a bit at the beginning, because you don't want to choose what you want to do with your life or what are the choices that go into the book later, with whom you are going around or what you are going to do with your health. Then it is convenient to read something about it earlier. When is a choice, then? For me personally, a good choice.
Speaker 1:I think there is a lot of fear in a lot of areas and especially when it comes to making choices. I am, I don't know, 16 or 18 or 21, and I have to choose and there is a certain pressure from outside. That pressure from outside we have seen a lot in the feedback. It probably comes through the parents, the expectation pattern from outside. But if I choose the wrong study, then yes, then it is very often then then it is the point point point, because afterwards there is no answer, but there is often fear that I do the wrong thing, make the wrong choice. And what we try to make clear is maybe give clarity, to make people more aware that it is not as big as you might think, that there are only few choices that are so big that you cannot change them anymore. If you choose something and it does not fall, you can just send it back.
Speaker 1:You do not have to, if you are so young, to cut your whole life out until the last detail, only what we imagine. That is a bit my vision. It is nice if you have an idea of how your life should look like and if you charge it you could say do you want to have a luxury life with everything on it. Do you want to take everything out? Or you say, well, I prefer to sit on the other side of the universe, I see where it ends, and if I end up in the big one with only misery and drama and problems, then I think that's good too. It is a bit like you know which side I want to go up, and I think it is almost understandable that you do not have a certain vision and whether that is well.
Speaker 1:I'm going to live in a house of wheels and I start a family and I have a dog and a middle-class car and I have a relaxed job. I do not work too much, but I have a lot of free time. I can go around with my friends, my family, my family, and that makes me happy, because I think that's important. That is what makes you happy, what makes me better and happier. That is also good. But you have to know a little bit which side you are going up and you have to make that choice yourself and from there the Dutch subtitle also chooses your own future. It is about your future, but you do not have to have your whole lifebook written for the next 80 years, and I think that too much uncertainty is coming from that.
Speaker 2:You are just saying that you have to know a little bit which side you are going up, and I also think that you know that by doing things, by taking things, what sometimes happens to me is that there is little done and taken and the less you read, the less you have your side-lines. The less you work, the less you study, the less you also know what is not right for you. And I think that making choices is also easier if you take more into account. And it was like there was a kind of freeze-hast, but if I do that, maybe that is not good and I think that right when you are 16 to 25, 20 is a super nice period to try out a lot and to cover and make it easier for you to make decisions there, and I also see a bit of pressure from the parents on that. It should be the right direction, so it feels for me.
Speaker 3:And then you choose a study, for example, and after a year you realize that this is not what I want. But I have someone who told me that I have come across something in a book or whatever it is. You hear, what I actually want is that side, but that insight that you would never have done if you hadn't made that wrong choice for your study.
Speaker 3:And that's why, if you start with the idea that you have to choose one study in my life and that's what I'm going to do, there's only one job for me Then if you look at it in that way, you get a kind of freeze. Then you get that fear of making mistakes Because it's so static. And if I understand you well, I also say that it's more. It's more we're going to do something.
Speaker 1:I think it's going to be very important. It's going to be important and you'll get something on your path. The choice was finally made by me, but the choice was to write a novel. Then the choice was in heaven. Master of Mindset wasn't a very conscious choice. Everything I do now is not something I'm thinking about. That's the outcome. Because of the things I do. Because I came across Cindy talking to other people, I discovered that I could help people. Based on my own experience Because of helping people the last ten years, I learned a lot again. That's why I think I've become much better at it. That's why we could have written this book. But things come on your path Because of the money for Cindy, of course. If Cindy and I hadn't come across each other, you might have done something different.
Speaker 2:I want to tell you a fun story.
Speaker 2:What would be my tip for young people? One of them is to make sure you work in places where you can spread your network. When I went to study, I worked in a café on the 9 streets. I knew there were always many interesting people sitting there. That brought me to a network where I would never come back. I know a lot of valuable people who I still talk to. I met them when I was 18.
Speaker 2:One of the guys who always came to the café was a poker player. He was called Arthur. I told him I was going to Barcelona with my girlfriend. He said he needed to meet Thijs, a friend of mine who lives in Barcelona. I gave him my number, sent him a message and he made sure I could come to all clubs. He knows everyone in Barcelona. A nice guy contacted me and made sure he was making the way for me in Barcelona. I contacted Thijs, otherwise I would never have come. I knew Thijs and I knew you. I think it's a tip when you're young to work in places to walk on stage, where you can contact these kinds of people.
Speaker 1:But also go to work somewhere where good people can learn a lot. I think that's valuable for later. Start with the bottom line. Understand that you don't know anything. So start from the bottom and look around you. Learn from those good people.
Speaker 2:I think that if you look at your past life, you've always learned so much. I think that maybe you've been unconsciously a sort of strategy To always learn from people who you want to learn from, to go around with them. When you went to the fields, to the radio, you always went around with those people.
Speaker 1:That's what I've always said. Look for an example when I worked at Veronica in the late 80's, my example was with the radio Jeroen van Inkel, Of course. It was a gigantic example, together with Adam Curry and in the voice field, which I've done a lot with, which has been a very learning process for me. For years I had Alfred Lagarde and Jos Berge Hennigau. That was when the two big names and voices were really in that area and I was walking with them day and night, but literally day and night. We were often in the studio until 3, 4, 5 in the evening and then I was there as a little boy. I didn't drink coffee for Alfred or Jos, and then I could listen and see how they were doing, and then I learned a lot from that. I spent the night with those guys in the studio.
Speaker 1:So if you look at people who were successful in their lives at a later age, they weren't just one or two years old. They've been doing that since they were very young. I was talking about the period when I was 18. And that sometimes I said to them at 3 o'clock in the evening I think I have to go home, otherwise my mother will be disturbed. And then they said do you want to work here? Do you want to get? Well, Then I'm going to get the crook, then you'll come back, and so I go then, and I think I learned a lot of work ethics from that. But I just looked a lot away from the best, and that may be an important advice for everyone. Look for people who are really good in a certain area where you would like to go, and you can learn from that.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's of course a very old model, a teacher-master-learning model. What has already been adapted to it for thousands of years? It strikes me that at young age I see it less and less. For me, that's really a teacher-master's very conscious search.
Speaker 3:But is that also not because there are less targeted interests? Because if you're very interested in something, then you look at it as this is. I think this is annoying, that I want to be good in who is good in there. That can then be an example for you and then you can also take the necessary action to get in contact with someone like that. If you don't know, if you have no idea what you want and also don't like what you actually think, and you have no interests, how are you going to find someone who will help you? I mean, then you don't have a direction Because, look, you said you went there, you went to work, you came in contact with people. How was it for you in the past when you had that age? Because you are not going to work for a place where people come with networks.
Speaker 2:Yes, I came to live in Amsterdam, of course. I was 18 years old and I thought well, I want to meet nice people. And where do you have to meet nice people? In the interesting nice cafes in the Kroeg, yes, and then you can choose every Wilker Kroeg. I did some research on which network I want to get in contact with.
Speaker 3:So you are also very focused on that because you didn't think specifically that you would have done that. I'm going to put that network in front of this or that, but you notice that there are opportunities. I'm going to make at least a lot of contact there. I can learn a lot.
Speaker 2:It seems more interesting than, for example, in a tourist cafe where everyone is walking. And the other thing is that that would be absolutely my advice, even if you might say, if you don't know exactly what you want to do, I already knew that very clearly because I didn't know that either. But during my internship period I sat at a PR office which was very well written for very well-known brands and I thought, well, I don't know exactly what I want, but if I later know a company or what I know, then PR is an important part of it. And if you're good at PR, you can buy everything. And in particular, if you have a product, it has to be sold, it has to be known.
Speaker 2:And I thought, if I sit at my own rest for half a year, I'm going to learn a lot. And I learned so much from that. It was really sort of devil's wear spread. So you just get a half year old. It was really pittish, but, just like with me, you learn a certain work ethic by playing at a level like that at a company, at a lady's place. And that would be absolutely my advice Make sure you choose stages in final scripts very carefully and make sure you can learn a lot at places you can go to. That's really the moment.
Speaker 3:So you're your own teacher.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:That's what we're going to do. When we started Mastermind Academy, we said, yes, all those things you don't learn at school, all those things you don't always learn from your parents in your upbringing, we're going to offer our own school for that. We did that. This is our way of learning how to learn things that are very important to your life. But, of course, you can also share your own school of your own, and I think it's interesting to learn this or that, and online and on YouTube and Google, you can find almost everything you can find yourself in. Everything is there. It's much easier than my opinion.
Speaker 3:So the question is why are there so many young people? My idea is that there are more young people who don't know what they want. Why is that question arise?
Speaker 2:I think that used to be in the game. When we look at your time, I think that you have a generation in front of you. I think of that completely. But when I look at my father, it was just the tool company. My father was in high school. He went to the building. As a child he worked in particular, every day. After that he went to the tool company. I still have an uncle who studied, but there wasn't a lot of choice. I think that was especially for the generation of our parents. There were fewer conversations. I think you did a lot more what your father did already and there were a few people who went to study. They became an artist, but that was often in the family. Or you became a truck driver. I think there was also a little less. I think it was just a little more transparent. You went to the LTS or study or you just came into the field of work. At that time I think it was much less choice.
Speaker 3:Is it possible to make it more difficult, or do you have to make it with a certain mentality? You asked me.
Speaker 1:I think it all has to do with mentality and that whole generation of what I want. If you don't know, you get the leftovers. It's so simple you choose, you can choose, you have all the freedom to choose. It's difficult, it's hard to work with it, otherwise you get the jobs you're not happy with. And the other problem is that, in my opinion, the image of expectations of the outside world and parents that you all have to present, I think that's all part of it. I think the ambition level was dramatically lower than I look at the whole generation, but on the other hand, I see that we, the generation of me, the parents of Gen Z, have become a lot of pudding generation themselves.
Speaker 2:I think if we look at the parents of Gen Z and look at the burnout figures, then I think that there are already a lot of parents of these children who are in a burnout.
Speaker 1:I spoke to a good friend of mine from the week we were together and he said I have a new job. A girl, a lady from just 30 under 30. And she said I want to work full-time. We said, oh, what's nice. Finally someone wants to work full-time again. So she said for the security. I used to ask and what's full-time with you? And then those ladies said 28 hours. And we often notice that people don't want to work until max 22 hours a week and that's fine.
Speaker 1:I certainly have a opinion about that. But if you want to do that, you have to do that. But don't fear that someone who works 60 hours a week will earn 2 or 3 times as much money and that he can buy a nice house and you don't. That's a logical result and that's in the whole process of writing this book it has become clear to me.
Speaker 1:I thought that the generation was a little more weak. If you read about Gen Z, then the generation is weak and sick and poor, and some have that. But a very large part of that group is ambitious and is well-informed and does well things and is well busy with the future, and that makes me very happy. So I think there's a lot of hope for this whole generation. But you have to read this book. I think that for a lot of people, being an eye-opener, a life-changer, can really give a basis for how you want to give your future. I think that the book, that everyone there it doesn't matter if you don't know what you want, or if you do know what you want, that everyone will help you a lot.
Speaker 2:Yes, I want to take another theme out persuasion, and I know that when I get to know you how you think about yourself, your thoughts, what thoughts you have a negative mindset, a good mindset I think that for me, at the end, is life-changing. What are your thoughts on yourself? I think that's very important. Can you still remember how you got into ARAC? I think you shared a lot with Penya about mindset and your thoughts on yourself.
Speaker 1:I think so, but I couldn't remember. I couldn't remember. I was 29 at the time. I had few overwhelming beliefs. It was different. I was pretty much knocked out. I thought I could do everything, that I knew. Nothing was impossible. I did show the opposite, but I never had any overwhelming beliefs. I was very relieved. I was a bit invisible in the class. I never had any fear of being kicked out. Do you know why you were relieved? I was scared to death when you got the message from Kolev Juzek. I thought it was a drama.
Speaker 3:Why is that? Because you see that when it comes to expectations of other people or someone finds something in the class as a child, then it's terrible. If you have to stand in front of the class and read something, everyone thinks that's terrible. Isn't that a fear?
Speaker 1:That would be a fear. I never experienced that as a problem. I was so relieved I thought it was a drama. Who doesn't have that? When you have to stand in front of the class? Maybe at home, when you had a birthday, the whole family was there. Tell us that story. You thought, oh no, I always had the same red head. I was terrible.
Speaker 3:Maybe everyone has that, but what's striking is that some people are still having issues later. Other people are less.
Speaker 2:I want to read a bit for you, which I think is a nice piece. Why do you think like you think? I think that's a great question to think about. For a long time, your convictions are outstanding, without being aware of that, especially in young years and during your upbringing, your life conditions, your income, your culture, your education, your parents, your friends and your teachers. You don't have to do anything. What happens is that, without you going through that, those convictions are being beaten up and that's your belief, even if you haven't asked about that.
Speaker 2:I call it your programming or your management system, because during your life, everything is programmed in a system and that management system navigates you through life. Compare yourself to the computer. When you're born, the hard-to-write and working system is empty. The management system is version 1.0. After that, all the impressions are being pushed aside. The hard-to-write is filled with all kinds of circumstances, experiences, learning moments, feelings and thoughts, partly positive, partly negative.
Speaker 2:For me, thinking about reads is also a big part of the convictions you get. I think that for myself, when I was 24, it was incredibly interesting. My life has changed because I'm aware of why I think about money. What thoughts do I have about myself? What thoughts do I have about my friends? And I think that by being aware of that, I can see that I've been given money from home, I've been given work, and how to see the results of my work Science, of course. You often see people from a doctor's family coming from science. You see that everything that has to do with spirituality is not allowed to be or not to be included. Why do you think so? Why did you get rid of that? Why did your fate stop thinking about it? Because you think you're good. That's how you hear it, and everyone has that in his own way by the teachers, the mentors, but also your friends A huge influence on your friends' parents.
Speaker 2:And then I asked myself how does your best life look like when I was 24? How would you like to work? Is it so boring to see? Oh, but just grab a white, white A4, and I'm going to look at everything again. How do I think about money? How do I think about health, what you also see very often my sisters have the food sisters.
Speaker 2:Almost always people with overweight have one of the elderly who also has overweight. So you have a certain way, a certain habit. You have to think about it in a certain way seen by your mother or your father. When your mother is an emotional eater, you often take that over because you just don't know anything else. What I see, what I do, and I think that's really valuable. When you're 20 at the beginning and you look at what kind of persuasion was very beautiful, what was super valuable, what I learned from my parents and where I could maybe find other mentors or teachers for or other books to see if I can spread my thinking field, if I can think of something outside that frame, and that's what I really hope. If you're a young person with this theme of persuasion, that you can spread it and when you succeed you're so much freer because then you have a choice.
Speaker 3:So it's actually about being aware of how the standard is. This is not reality. What my vision of reality is, that's a perception that's colored by what my parents always said oh good, if you've got this number, or whatever elders say, or people in the family, that's all going on. But at some point in your life, that perception of hey wait, I'm running a program. This is I also have an influence here. These are certain persuasions that are in me. Do they bring me further or do they not? That's what you mean.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I think the biggest difference is being aware of it, and that's what I really thought about you being aware of it, because before that I was just like that, very much like I can. That's just how I am.
Speaker 3:Yes, what's actually good, which we also saw in the research the PEG generation that word, so that someone from 18 or 20, who says I'm living my life like this and that's also because I'm in the PEG generation and houses are too expensive, that's actually the persuasions that speak, because if you look at reality, is Gen Z now a PEG generation? I know what you think of that. I think so too. We live in such a good time. There are so many beautiful things, there are so many opportunities. You see in the generation a kind of split-sync, where you also have a group that has real young entrepreneurs who know really beautiful things to achieve. You have only a laptop needed and you can build a nice company. In principle, that's it too. Why would you say this is the PEG generation or that comes from there?
Speaker 1:I also understand that there are instructions by the circumstances in this time that you say I'm now a victim of, for example, that you have to pay rent for your study debt, then you can say that's very annoying. That's annoying too, but that's not why you're suddenly a PEG generation and you can compare it to what people say. But you were born in the right place in the right village, so what?
Speaker 3:makes the difference, why makes one the choice to be a victim and why makes the other the choice to be a winner. That's the difference.
Speaker 1:We described that in a book.
Speaker 3:Yes, but people asked this.
Speaker 1:But I want to go back to the point because Cindy had that conviction One of the first reactions I received from a mother who bought the book for one of her children. And she says I open the book on a page where it says that you write diplomats are not needed. We have a head, a piece of text about it. I don't think diplomats are needed to be successful. So she was very enthusiastic about the book and she said yes, I'm not alone there, because this is false foresight. Diplomats are very important because they have to have something to fall back on. And then she thought this is exactly what you mean with these convictions.
Speaker 1:There are only a few people with diplomas who are successful and have a nice life. Most people just come into the big middle of the road and they just go with them in the grey stream. But most people who really have a nice life but no diplomas in any case, the diploma they have is not where they do something with it, often the people who take the creative people who do something new every time. But if you don't have that ability or you're afraid of it because you just want that fixed salary, you have to look for a job and then you need a diploma Besides, of course. But the descriptions are also expanded, they are very realistic. If you become a doctor or a pilot, or for certain professions, you need a diploma. You have to study for a long time, that's logical.
Speaker 2:Yes, I hope that people don't misinterpret it when they listen to something, because it is, of course, a sign that I am a huge representative of that, that you are very well known in certain field areas and you have a lot of knowledge, but you don't have a HBO or a HVO diploma or whatever you need for a diploma. But I am a representative of that. You are well known and look for good teachers in that area.
Speaker 1:But that's written too. You have to understand it very well.
Speaker 2:Yes, sometimes I notice that people misunderstand us a little, but this is just incredibly important. It is a very big factor of successful people that they do know a lot about things.
Speaker 1:Look, what I mean is, if you get your HVO diploma with all sixes, are you not good enough? You only have a diploma, you get an exam at the exam, but you're not good at anything, so that diploma is worthless. It's good that you say this, otherwise everyone gets angry. You just have to be good at something, but a diploma doesn't have that much to do with it.
Speaker 2:Yes, there are a lot of assignments in this book. I like that Because the assignment lets you think about yourself and I think that's very valuable to know yourself. I think this is always a great assignment. I think you can do it every year or a few years, and I think that they are alive for a lot of reasons. We have written for the young goals, but this assignment and many other assignments don't take time. You have it. It remains an interesting assignment.
Speaker 2:On page 16, page 195, research who has the most influence on you? Who of the people in your direct life environment has the positive influence on you? Who are high-performance in your environment? Which people can help you to get to your next level and who gives you a negative feeling? Who costs energy and lives a single contribution to your life? Who do you even like to grow as a person and why would you go so far with those people? Look good at the people around you your relatives, friends, your parents and colleagues and then put the relationship between your and their behaviour Between their mindset and yours. If you discover that some people have a negative influence on you, why would you go around with those people? What would you do to make it easier, for you Know that you can and can make your own choice here. That's not always easy, but it's best for you.
Speaker 2:I'll write the assignment further. One write the name of the ten people you deal with the most, and that's why we're talking about where you have daily contact with. So on your work, friends, colleagues, family. Two place the people in three columns Positive influence, neutral and negative influence. Three put the star behind the name of the three people you deal with the most. Four put the circle around the three people who have the most positive influence on you. Five put the line under the people who have the most negative influence on you. I think you're doing the assignment at PENYA.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to say something good about you.
Speaker 2:I remember that you had to do this at PENYA.
Speaker 1:This was one of the first assignments I had to make when I was 29.
Speaker 1:PENYA is your business coach right, yes, and this was something new for me. You don't think about it here, but with all the knowledge I have now, I know how important this is. Penya always calls me. Show me your friends and I'll tell you your future. And that's true. If you know who someone is dealing with and how much influence they have on you, you can actually predict how the future of someone like that will be. With one certainty, maybe a small margin of error, you can just predict it. So there are still statements like if you hang around with monkeys, your life becomes a circus, and that's also the reality with a lot of people. So this is such an amazing assignment. You have 30 assignments in total. This gives so much insight.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that you're going to go back to the part of your conviction we just had, and this is an assignment that you're going to look at very consciously and take the time for that to your friends, your parents, your colleagues. You're going to look at what statements they often make about what they can't do, how entrepreneurial they are, and if you're going to predict that and you're aware of that, you can also look at yourself how much influence I'm going to have on me.
Speaker 3:Yes, and how was that for you when you said you were going to Penya and you got this assignment, so you analyzed who you were going to come with and what the influence was. How was that? Because often, when this is done first, you notice that you have made a conscious choice. How was that for you?
Speaker 1:This was too long ago for me to give you a good answer to that, but I was 29. In that period I had a few very ambitious, creative friends around me. Anyway, I'm not going to like people who don't like me. If I don't like someone, I'll quickly get rid of them. I was already 11 years old at home, so I didn't have much to do with the influence of my parents. But I'm going to make that list then, and then there will be some names on a list where you think, hmm, why am I actually going with that person? Well, I might be a bit more radical in that that I can quickly get rid of them, and I know a lot of people have trouble with that. But it's important to be aware of that and that's where it's going to go, because if you're aware of that, you can make a conscious choice, and you often see that as feedback on the book. We get back that people say, whoa, I wasn't aware of that.
Speaker 1:Yes, my friends find it annoying. Oh, there are these kinds of examples in books. My friends find it annoying that I'm so busy with my business. I'm busy with the startup. The story of the boy with the girl. The girl finds it a bit annoying that he always has friends with her company. She doesn't socialize much, she doesn't really get any attention from him and she has the same. I understand what she means, but the boy is so dedicated to building his business he likes that and that's a lot of feedback and I can imagine that it can be difficult.
Speaker 1:If you're in the friend club and that happens of course with friends and friends You're going in a certain direction. We often see that with a group of girls who get kids at some point they're busy with that, and then there are one or two who are not busy with that yet Because they're busy with their business or with their job. And then you notice that those friends groups grow a bit from each other. But you keep going with each other Because we've known each other for so long. But that's not a good argument to say that we're still good friends. We're just going around with each other for a long time or you still have to stay with each other for a long time. That's a second one.
Speaker 3:Yes, and then, in conclusion, because we've just talked about the superstitions and you say that the people who deal with it most have influence on your programming Because those superstitions come to your hard drive, does he often ask okay, I'm a little more aware of this now. How do I get into contact with the right people? The right people are the people who fit in with what you want to do, so they have a positive influence for you personally. Well, you have to look for that. And how do you do that? How do you find a coach? Do you ask a lot?
Speaker 1:Yes, and the question of the week I ask you is yes where do you need coaching? What do you think is a good coach? Where do you want to learn something?
Speaker 3:Yes, so that's actually the question that comes up. That often appears, so it's not entirely answered yet, because if you know what you want, then you can also find someone who is good at it, who can learn something my advice would be if you are looking for a coach, don't go to Google and look for a coach.
Speaker 1:People who are a coach, a business coach. That's more psychological than that. People really know where to talk about helping you out. There, however, there are a number of good business coaches they are, but what I mean by a coach is what Cindy earlier said it's a teacher. It's someone who is very familiar with it, not someone who calls himself a coach online. No, if I want to learn Timmerer, I go to a very good Timmerman who can teach me that. If I want to learn sailing, I go to Hengdevelde, which was one of the best sailors in the Netherlands who could teach me that.
Speaker 1:Just like with those voices, just like with Penya business, just like with writing that I went to the writer's school. I look for people in a certain field of study and then you come to a writer's school, other people with the same thoughts who want the same thing as you do, and of the 10 you come across, you find three nice things. If you come to Maximum Potential, you come across a lot of people who just stand in the life. If you, they all have a life question, a vision. They want to go somewhere. You come across people who you like.
Speaker 1:One of my teachers, rob, who is also mentioned in the book, for example, he taught me that story of Mike. You can sleep better in the bathroom than having the suite in one of the Achenebes' one-star hotel, because in that five-star hotel you come across people you want to meet. Just like you're going to fly business or first class, which I used to do, you always come across people you know during the flight, always. And so what is the moral of the story? Those people understand them in certain places that you can look for. Then the question is why they would have someone interested in talking to you. So you have to come up with a good story or a good question or the added value. Why would someone find that interesting? But look for places where those people come and that are not network thieves. That's where you're not going to find the people you have.
Speaker 2:In my opinion, I want to give you a quote from the podcast you recently recorded with Tuko Lopsang. She's on YouTube Dutch under the title, which is very nice Because he's a bit more difficult to follow himself with his English, but Dutch is about titles. Please recommend it. Look at YouTube. I think these are very nice questions to ask yourself regularly. Where are you now? How did you get here? Where do you want to go? I'll tell you. I think this is the core of the Mastermind Academy. This is where you help people to go to the academy With everything they do in the Mastermind Academy. But this is the question we often come back to, and here you have to think about it.
Speaker 1:These are the most important questions for yourself to answer. If you take the book together, this is an important summary. If you take it even further back to the core, it also says that it is the statement of Peña when I first came across it. He said Tell me what you want and I will tell you how to get it. And that is for sure as a little basis for the book. Just ask a question. I know that this book will answer almost every question. You have Not every question, but almost every question. I am convinced of that. That is why it is an important book to read.
Speaker 1:But if you only know a little bit about what direction you want to go with your life, what you want to do, then you have to move in that direction and then you will discover what is needed, who you need for that, which coach, which people. It is a process, it is a path that you have to walk. So you have to get into motion. That is important and it is important that you walk in a certain direction. That does not have to be very specific towards the goal. But if you are really going to walk in a totally wrong direction, then I think that you will not be able to get to where you want to go. So that thinking about where you want to go with your life, that is important, and ask good questions. But we also treat that as a broad, just like these four very good questions from Toolkoe, my Tibetan monk teacher. I think these are questions you can think about for a very long time, a day, a week, a month and where you may.
Speaker 3:Also, at some point you get a new insight about it and you find new answers, but they are not per se. It is not like you have a closing answer in one time, that question or the kind of calculation with a one solution and oh, that's it. That is, of course, a nice question actually a lot of questions in the book. It gives you a new insight on the way to those answers. Yes, you can give it more guidance, but it is not like you have answered all of them in one time.
Speaker 3:Of course it does not work like that and you see that with these four questions, try to answer them in one time. The chance is very high that you will not be able to do that, and that is why I think it is Christian Amorti. That is a question like a tree and that plant as a seed, and that grows and that grows, and at some point you can sit in the shadow. So it is something that grows, what you take with you and what you will continue to bring, what you give new insights. I think it is the intention to find an answer in one of those things.
Speaker 2:I am still curious for you. If you look back now, there is something you have done, and then I will talk a little bit about the period from 18 to 25. Where you think it is very valuable for the life you are now leading.
Speaker 3:Good question. I think there is a lot of it and I think it is difficult to put it into one specific thing.
Speaker 2:I can answer more. I can think about it. I think I have awakened my love for reading books and I think I am going to read again through you and I can say that I can not even describe what an enormous impact it had on my life If I had given all the books I had written to you. All of them had not been read. If I had not met you and you had me, then I would not have read the power of the present, I would not have read the thinking girl wits. All of those beautiful, valuable knowledge I am going to read again. My advice would really be for people. I hope they will discover it. Reading has a lot of added value to me and I think it is a great success of the life I am now living.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is interesting because now you say this, I always thought when you asked me about it, I got quite a lot of books from people that brought me to a new insight. But now you tell me this I got the Alchemist of someone from Paolo Coelho on my 16th birthday. I thought it was a crazy book because it was part of a fiction world that you know, but that also gave me the opportunity to give a message in a book. Coelho also worked on the philosophy of it. That was a reason for me to continue to write in. So that was the first book. I thought, wow, there is someone behind a book that writes something about it that gives you ideas. I thought that was amazing.
Speaker 3:There have been a number of books that I got in those 8-9 years so up to those 25, as you just said, those books gave me a new insight. So I started with the Alchemist At some point. I had no idea how it came out of it, but through the study I was organized at the university, there were a number of businesses that came to pick themselves up and I met someone who was there only once. I never went to these events, so it was a coincidence. We were just talking about it. He said you have to read Think and Grow Riches by Napoleon Hill. I thought I'm going to read that book. That also meant a lot to me. A year later a friend gave me a Master of Mindset and now I'm here again. So we have been books that gave me a new insight. I recognize that a lot.
Speaker 2:I have one last thing to think about. That helped me a lot. That helped me a lot.
Speaker 1:I have always liked to listen to older people who had a lot to tell. So what I also wrote in the book a number of as I call them my teachers I listened to. That is Meneer Bordenwijk, meneer Karansa and Ome Bül Bül Verwij, the founder of the old Fironica. That were people in my surroundings. I was a young man back then. I'm talking about the period when I was 18, 18, until my a little bit 29th and I thought it was fantastic to listen to the stories of those people who were so far away in their lives. A little like before that. The older people from the tribe, from the village, told stories to the young people where you could learn something, and that's where I think I learned the most in my life To listen to the wisdom, the wisdom of those people. That brought me a lot. Just listen.
Speaker 2:I think what is now completely beautiful at this time and what was not yet in your time. But I can imagine that someone who just made that assignment that you go and look at the people at your surroundings and maybe also what your conclusion is that you don't get a lot of inspiration from your friends, not at work and not at my parents either, and everyone is pretty negative, and I can imagine. But how do I get out of here? You can at least start listening to podcasts now.
Speaker 2:There are so many, especially internationally, but I think the Netherlands is full of the Lotte Podcast, the End-Base Podcast with very interesting guests. We can at least start with that and then combine that with reading books so that you at least get your thoughts out of there. Then the part where you grew up, maybe with parents who didn't have that, and you were lucky because you worked at the radio, that you got to touch with those people. But if you're not there yet and you're not at that job yet, then you start with this and learn a lot from that, and I think what you said then you eventually come because you might find something in a certain field of field and then you go to a teacher, and then you get in contact with the teacher, and then you get in contact with the teacher and before you know it, you two or three more and suddenly you see a whole different network.
Speaker 1:Studying doesn't have to cost money, in my opinion, because you can watch a lot of podcasts, watch YouTube videos, you can google a lot of things. You can ask a lot of things via chat. If you stop there for a long time, you can become an expert in a certain field of field. You can learn a lot from that, especially through all those podcasts, listening to people who have a lot to say so that they can speak out of experience. The only thing that you can spend is time. So the choice to invest that time in yourself and that's what I would also like to give advice to go to workshops. I've been doing that since I was 25, workshops especially about entrepreneurship and success and leadership and money earning. Later on about meditation and mind and psychology. But go outside your education, outside your school, invest yourself in these kinds of things. The short metaphor I would like to try to explain these metaphors, the title of the book is Design your Own Life so that you can give your own life, your future, your own life. We don't say life is entirely feasible. Everything is possible. That's not true. This book is not for everyone, because whoever doesn't believe in it will never get it for each other, but it is for a lot of people and it is often much more possible than you think. That's one If you Well, you think it's not true that life is over and you can't design that yourself. I would like to keep the following to you. Imagine that life is compared to a street where you walk with all restaurants, there are all restaurants, and you are suddenly at the Chinese and you think what do I have to do here at the Chinese? I don't like Chinese, I don't want Chinese. I'd rather go to Italy or to Greece or to whatever, to Japan. But I see you here at the Chinese. I'm in the wrong restaurant or I'm in the wrong environment in my life. I don't like it here, but I want you to walk out and say go to the sushi restaurant or go to Italy or go to the bread stand. Don't worry, you have the same freedom and maybe it's not directly to your luck, but step up, stand up, walk out where you are and go to the place you want to go to the restaurant you want to go to. Then the next, if you come to a restaurant, you can read a menu card or a QR code that you can read what they offer there.
Speaker 1:Many people in the world say you can't choose yourself in the restaurant you're going to eat. You just get a little bit of a shock. It's nonsense, fucking bullshit. In every restaurant you just get a card and you can choose. And that's life. Life is like a restaurant. You can choose what menu card you want to go to. From what menu card you want to go to, you can make a choice. You can choose what menu card you want to go to. People have the same menu card, so the menu card from me might be different from yours or yours, shors, but within that menu card we have a lot of choices that we can make ourselves. So don't live in the misconception that everything is shot in advance and if it's on the table you think well, I don't like it, so that's how you deal with it. That's the metaphor. Shors knows the story, maybe not even the title Design your Own Life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, tell me.
Speaker 1:I wanted to tell you what I find a bit boring. We live in Barcelona, and then we had a good friend, richard, and Richard was a huge driven entrepreneur, just like me, someone who was really enthusiastic, energetic, always had ideas. At some point he had bought a very small old vinyl card in Mallorca, in a very small village, where he said what do you need on that? Mallorca, it's fun in Barcelona. Here it happens. And that vinyl card was completely built and attached and then he went there every weekend and then he went to make his own olive oil and then he came on board the day with a bottle of olive oil. You know, he really lived.
Speaker 1:And then we had it about I'm talking about almost ten years ago, about what we were doing and that I wanted to work again. I had lived in Barcelona for a few years and didn't work. We lived on my boat. I said, yes, we actually want people to help so that they can also live a nice life, and then we're going to make programs about it. And then he said, oh, you mean a kind of Design your Own Life. So the title Design your Own Life is thought through, richard. And then we also named one of our first online programs like that and that program in the past years.
Speaker 1:I don't know I've really done a lot of people with it, but Richard lived here in this village where we now also live, and it's really hard to tell. And Richard had a dream because he wanted to be a pilot very much, so he had a flight course here in the village and then he was going to fly with such a small plane, you know such an aero light thing, and he was really happy. And then he sent me a WhatsApp message and then he said you've got a pilot friend. And that's the last message I got from him, because he had his plane taken private and three weeks later he's here against those mountains where we look out. He was in danger With his plane crashed and, yes, I think that almost every day. And he said then Design your Own Life. And that's actually what the book is called.
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember that very well that we were on board and I heard him say Design your Own Life. And Cori's was always so enthusiastic, Really enjoying a huge life. And the book. The title fits very well Because it is, yes, what we think is very well understood. You know, it makes life beautiful, Create beautiful things, and Design your Own Life makes you contribute beautifully. Yes, it's nice that the title lives on.
Speaker 1:Yes, and there's something we want to report before we finish this podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, I see it a lot on your social media, but for what age is this book now suitable? Where do you find it suitable? For what age?
Speaker 3:Well, good question. It is meant first of all for 18 to 30. That group, I think if you're a little younger or a little older, especially interesting, especially at 40, I still think you'll keep a lot of it, or you would read it if you were 15 or 16. Maybe if you already have a goal from an intense motivation and you're looking for it, if you're really looking for it yourself. I think back to when I was 14 or 15 or 16. I was still busy with everything. I was pretty busy too. I was a little bit of a money-earning on the Internet. I was still doing everything Classes, books but I wasn't so specific in looking for this kind of theme. I think that such a book is also a bit on your path. So I don't know if you have to say well, this is really the book for someone who was also a little bit of a long-term now 12, 13, 14. I was really busy there. No, I think.
Speaker 1:At your own right. So I also got a message from Mehrder in the meantime. Someone said to me I bought my daughter from 8. And I'm going to read it to her, but I really don't think that the book is for someone from 8 or 10 or 12. It just doesn't. You can translate it your own way. I would say at least 15 years old, maybe an individual 14. But otherwise it's just not the book for you. Then you're too young, then you have to do other things in life. I think.
Speaker 3:And you see that, yes, parents think far. But I really want my child to read this. It's also an interesting book for when you're older yourself, and because you then see that this is how the generation thinks and you really get a sense of Gen Z and we also have an investigation, a proposal at the end, of what the things are that we see ourselves as an older, when you think. Well, I indeed have a child from 13, 14. And this book would be really perfect. Maybe it's interesting to read it for yourself. And I think that, yes, you have a role as an example for your parents. So your child is going to do all those things. So you just get a lot of things from your parents purely through what they show, and maybe they also have a bit of the answer there. And I don't mean it's something you have to be afraid of someone from. No, I mean when I was 8, when I was playing hud on the building and outside.
Speaker 2:Let me know, that's how I do it, I know when I was 18, I could live in Amsterdam, and I can't really take it into account now, because if I had received this gift at that time, I would have not had it. But I did notice I had a housemate who had been to Thunder Robins and we were two years apart, so I think I was 20 then and she was 23. It was Thunder Robins. She was completely crazy. And then she came home and I really couldn't do anything with it. I also thought it was terrible. I was not interested in it. So I'm talking now that I was 20.
Speaker 2:Four years later I met you. You also played Thunder Robins, ellen Woods, and of course your whole boat is full with all of these kinds of books. And then it did touch me. But why? Because when I was studying, the question was much more for me who am I and where do I want to go? While when I was 20, I came to live in Amsterdam, I was mainly focused on where the next party is. I was just on my bike from Amsterdam to go. I went to lunch with my friend in the afternoon and then I came home at four o'clock in the evening.
Speaker 3:Long lunch.
Speaker 2:It was very alive in the present, but it didn't bother me either. And I also thought if someone had given me a book I would have thought, yes, fine, maybe I really threw it in the book and I really wanted to give that to him. I thought, maybe you have a son of a nine and you could use that super well and you give that to him and he doesn't look at it Later. And then I know, just like with me that friend who also gave me everything with Thunder Robins without even trying to do it, but of course she said it's super interesting and I didn't find it exciting at all.
Speaker 2:And four years later I followed all the seminars for Thunder Robins. I read all the books of them. I thought it was amazing. So sometimes it's not the moment, and that's why it's quite difficult to say for which life it is. And the one is maybe if he's sixteen he already finds it amazing, and the other maybe only if he's thirty. So that would be my, of course, old, or maybe I really want to have a lot of old. Then that moment will come.
Speaker 1:Or not. I would like to add yes, there comes a listening book version. We don't call it data. We hope this year. And for all the parents who say, yes, I have to tell the diplomatic my children don't read that much. Then they just stay dumb. I just think you're just going to read it. We wrote it to read.
Speaker 1:I think that's an important book for a lot of people. We are not from the listening generation. The listening book you can listen to it later if you've read it. It's coming soon. But I also had some people with a visual limitation who said come to a listening book. Yes, I'm really going to do my best, but it's just a matter of talking about it and until the summer the summer break I'm busy with a lot of other things, so it's not just coming. There will definitely be a listening book version of it, and not only that, but much more, but later on more Can I? Both of you, thank you very much for this nice conversation. I think we made a very nice book with the three of us. I'm super proud of you, super cool. The book sold well in the Netherlands on one in the list. I think it's a what do you call it? A medal.
Speaker 3:Mission accomplished. You came with the idea of first-hand for the younger, but when you put your mind to it, it's something very different. I think we really put something very cool down and at some point, the idea of asking those 15 questions. I thought this would be a mega challenge, has it been? Has it been long?
Speaker 1:But it is a book like no other and of course that is a very utopian delay. But I would find it very nice if everyone who is in the middle school, in the last grade middle school and then goes a little further or goes to study, that everyone will read this book once. Thank you, Read Design your Own Life, and then it's up to you. I also write that in the back. Now it's up to you I've been there Design your Own Life, lives your life. Thanks for listening to this podcast. See you next time.