The Entrepreneur Who Did Not Yet Know He Would Become One
When I think today of those early years of my professional life, gratitude is the first feeling that comes to me. I learned an enormous amount. Not only about coffee. Not only about sales. But above all, about people. At FAEMA, and later at Douwe Egberts, I had the opportunity to know very different customers and companies. Small family businesses. Large institutions. Every visit was different. Every customer had different expectations. And every day brought new experiences.
Yet something was slowly beginning to grow deep within me. It was not dissatisfaction. It was not the desire to leave simply for the sake of leaving. It was a dream. More and more often, I wondered:
"What if, one day, I built something of my own?"
Not because I dreamed of becoming rich. Money was never the driving force in my life. What fascinated me was something entirely different. The freedom to develop my own ideas. To imagine new solutions. To take responsibility myself for the decisions I made. That way of thinking had actually already existed within me. At FAEMA. At Douwe Egberts.
Later at Groupe Riem as well. Wherever I worked, I never looked only at what already existed. Almost automatically, I searched for what could be improved. That sometimes made life more complicated. Because those who constantly see opportunities for improvement also constantly see what remains to be done. I found it difficult simply to leave a problem behind.
When I came home in the evening, my work did not always stop when I took off my jacket. My mind kept working. Even when we sat together at the table, I sometimes still thought about a customer I had met during the day. About a machine that might be designed more simply. About a problem for which a better solution might exist. Dorina knew me. Sometimes she looked at me and smiled.
"You are still working... in your head."
And she was right. My body was sitting at the table at home. But my thoughts were sometimes still traveling the roads of Belgium. Not because I was unhappy. On the contrary. I loved my work. But I loved searching even more. Understanding. Seeing possibilities. Connecting ideas that, at first glance, might have had nothing in common. Many people think a person becomes an entrepreneur on the day they found their first company.
Today, I no longer believe that. An entrepreneur may be born much earlier. At the moment they look at something and think:
"There must surely be a better way to do this."
I recognized that feeling within myself more and more clearly. I sensed that I was not made to follow the same routine all my life. I had too many ideas. Too much curiosity. Too great a desire to create something. Some people find peace in security. I often found it in a new challenge. That does not mean I was reckless. On the contrary. I thought things through carefully.
Sometimes perhaps for too long. But once I was convinced an idea was right, I devoted myself to it completely. Even when others doubted. Many years later, I would understand that this quality would become both one of my greatest strengths and one of my greatest weaknesses. For those who choose new roads risk losing their way.
But they also have the opportunity to discover places they would never otherwise have reached. As I continued traveling across Belgium to visit customers, I also saw the world changing around me. The hospitality industry was evolving. Customer expectations were changing. New technologies were appearing. Businesses were becoming more professional. I sensed that possibilities were emerging for those who did not look only at what existed today, but also tried to see what would be needed tomorrow.
That ability to look a little beyond the horizon remained with me throughout my life. Sometimes my ideas were several years ahead of their time. That may sound admirable. But in reality, it is not always an advantage. A good idea that arrives too early can be as difficult as a bad idea. Not every idea immediately finds its proper moment. Some must wait until the world is ready to receive them.
I would experience that more than once later. But during those years, I knew none of this yet. I only felt my desire for independence becoming stronger and stronger. Slowly. Not overnight. It grew like a seed taking root beneath the earth. For a long time, nothing is visible. Until one day a small green shoot breaks through the soil. That was how it was for me.
I did not yet know which company I would one day create. I did not know its name. I did not know which successes awaited me. And certainly not which difficulties. But deep in my heart, I felt that one day I would follow my own path. Not to become more important than someone else. Not to become famous. And not to become rich either.
But to be free. Free to search for better solutions. Free to give my ideas a chance. Free to take responsibility for my own decisions. And even free to make mistakes. For I have always believed that those who never make mistakes have probably never had the courage to try something new. I made mistakes in my life. More than one. There were times when I trusted certain people too quickly.
Times when I held on to certain dreams longer than may have been good for me. Times when my enthusiasm outweighed my caution. But every mistake taught me something. And without those mistakes, I would never have become the man I am today. Perhaps that is why I can now look back on those years with such serenity. Not because everything always ended well. It certainly did not.
But because I know I always tried to act with honesty and integrity. I tried. I fell. I learned. And I continued on my way. When I think today of that young sales representative traveling all across Belgium from one customer to another, I see something he could not yet see himself. I see the entrepreneur he would become. In truth, he was already there. In his curiosity.
In his stubbornness. In his ideas. In his desire to improve things. And in his need to be able to choose his own road one day. The only difference was... He did not know it himself yet. Sometimes it seems as though life already knows our future long before we are able to imagine it. And perhaps that is one of existence's most beautiful mysteries.