Entrepreneurship

• Create opportunities
• Invest in (new) ideas
• Big risk, big rewards

Entrepreneurship on Curaçao

When I started out completely on my own, the term Entrepreneur was handed out to everyone who wanted to use it. I was no different: I  thought that I was an Entrepreneur.

But what is an Entrepreneur? Does anyone comply to being one? What is an entrepreneur on curacao to be exact?

According to Merriam-Webster, an entrepreneur is someone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise. I would like to add to that definition if I may. It’s not only one who does the above, but one who also brings “something new to the table”. 

Let me give you an illustration. A few days ago, I was speaking to Hello Skàlo where we discovered that not because something is logical [to us], it is logical to others as well. So it might be that you as an entrepreneur are not per definition bringing something brand new , but you are bringing a new vision of the old things already present.

How does entrepreneurship on Curaçao differ from other places? To be honest – I have no clue. What I can describe is what we encounter here as roadblocks which might not be present in other countries. For example receiving online payments. If you are a small enterprise, and you want to export your product or service, it takes some loopholes in order for you to receive money here. Maybe the decentralization of money (bitcoin and the likes) might provide a relief in the future but we’re not there yet. 

Another example is how governmental rules and regulations are not always working with us but against us. If you want to get something done (get a permit for example) for anything really, you can NOT do something short term. You need at least a month to get through all the different departments before you get everything signed off. That can be a discouragement for many who want to execute certain ideas or plans that they have.

Now let’s get personal: would I trade my entrepreneurial spirit to go back into working for someone else? Not in a million years. Of course I’m not closing off any possibilities because I can not predict the future. But if it’s my choice, based on this moment in time I’d say no, thank you 🙂

What do you say? Entrepreneur yay or nay? Let us know in the comments below!

 Something new

• Preservation Technology
• Innovation Framework
• Passion creation
• Maintaining Heritage

Mi tambe por

And so, it’s been a whole year since I’ve talked about “Mi Tambe Por“. This is a passion project of mine which started in 2014 and which has not yet bloomed.

It all started with my kids talking English to me but having no notion of simple words in our native language. Research bit started to find out how to build an app, what needs to be invested and where to go from there.

The biggest lesson I learnt during this time is that having a team is paramount in my success. That’s a whole post on it’s own 🙂

But I digress: let me tell you the story in a nutshell.

Upon receiving offers here on the island for creating the app, I embarked in finding an international team Endshift (shout out to Atif Shahid) who are wonderful in everything they do.

Fast forward to having made a prototype, done market research and to entering a competition. Wow was that a journey let me tell you! Because what started out as a simple thing, where I wanted to teach kids what our culture stands for, ended up becoming developing a framework for not only Papiamentu, but also others where they could keep their heritage, culture and language alive.

For this coming year, the plan will be to have the app done and shipped, maintained and to start on developing the framework. I have learnt indeed that shipping your product is the most crucial step in the process. Because what good does it do to create and not ship? You will never know if it was a success or not.

Mi tambe por coming to you in 2020. By then we will indeed prove if it was a success or not. Time will tell! As always, feel free to comment below!

Something New

• Technology
• Art
• Innovation
• Creation

Photo by Mikefrom Pexels

Something new

As per my post a few days ago, we have tried last week to start something new – it was something totally out of our collective comfort zones but at the same time it was exhilarating to be part of something that might or might not work.

Yesterday I had a talk with my family, of whom I’m the only entrepreneur, aka I’m the ‘crazy one’ of the family. In that talk it became so apparent how much I have grown in the past 4 years. Am I wealthier than when I began? YES.  The word wealth used here is used deliberately. Because how does one usually measure wealth if not by money? For now I’ll concentrate on other things: the amount of knowledge I have gained for example, is priceless. The network that I can now call my own is also something that no price can be put against. 

Why am I telling you this? Because jumping with new things has always been scary [to me]. If you come from an environment where security is propagated more than anything, jumping on a new band wagon is simply just not done!

But guess what? it all starts with adrip. No drip, no movement. I remember vividly the moment I read an article (can’t remember which one) which described the start of something new, with step number 1. At that time I was dissatisfied with my job, and wanted to start something new. But alas, I was not ready and I only fumed at the writer at that time thinking it was easy for that person to say JUMP. Because that person had it made already didn’t they? 

The truth is, that writer was right. You just gotta jump. Both feet in. Ready?

Your thoughts? Does dripping scare you? Let us know below!

What matters

• Family and friends?
• Where u live?
• Food?
• Money?

Getting personal

For a few weeks now I’ve been talking about the little things. I just started right, so you don’t start off by telling anything personal. Also, this is the world wide web aka internet so DUH! I can’t get too personal can I not?

Or can I? You can be the judge. What I would like to talk about is one of the biggest taboo there is and I don’t think it’s only related to the island: it’s a world wide thing. I’m talking about money. Is there anything that gets more personal than that? So yes, I’m getting personal with money.

Now WHY oh WHY would I do that? Well for a number of reasons. The main one being that it’s been on my mind for a while now. Not money as such but my relationship with money. Because even the Bible states: for the love of money is the root of all evil, right? Somehow that got distorted in my head as being money is evil. The middle part of that sentence was conveniently edited out of my head 😀

So it’s not weird that my relationship with money is distorted. Now mind you, “finding” money has never been a problem. Finding meaning working for it and ultimately obtaining it. It’s the keeping part that is the most difficult bit, and where planning comes in. 

Oh Lord what? Yup. Planning. Guess what, I used to not-be-so-good at that too! But since seeing the relationship between money, planning and the life that I would love to have one day, some time ago I decided to change route and learn to look at money differently. Listening to this podcast on Bitcoin, Freedom, Digital Money and then some, made me think that maybe.. just maybe I’m on to something.

Your thoughts? How’s your relationship with money? Let us know below!

Balancing all

• Balance isn’t something you achieve “someday”
• The trick to balance is to not make sacrificing important things become the norm

Work Life Balance

No need for me to tell how difficult balancing it all is. Work which entails a  lot already on it’s own. Having multiple businesses is like having multiple personalities that you have to deal with. Thank God it’s not simultaneously! 

Then you have household to manage. Household chores, kids (also multiple in this case!) to pick up after and a whole bunch of activities and homework to monitor.

And oh, did we already talk about being healthy, taking care of oneself? Ah. That’s on the last page usually mainly because of points 1 and 2 above.

Balance work and life properly… Do any of you have any golden tips in balancing it all and not letting balls fall midair? Let us know in the comments below!

Advertisement is aimed at

• Glamour
• Security
• Avoidance of worry, doubt and fear
• Life fulfillment

Photo by Sebastian Voortmanfrom  Pexels

Getting money quick

Last Friday we decided that enough was enough. We needed money quick so we put our collective brains together to ‘crack’ the getting-money-quick code.

The result of what came out of that brainstorm session is twofold. Or threefold: you decide.

We came up with a really cool new business. Quite simple to execute too, however it’s not one that functions quickly because you still need to set it up, execute before even being able to sell from it. So this is parked for 2020. Anyone interested in the setup phase of a business, holler at me ok?

Then we came up with a raffle idea. We put our services together and well wouldn’t you know it! Together they are worth around 12k. YES! We got ourselves a prize! Then we thought.. 🤔 don’t we need to add some sauce to this? What about adding something tangible? So then an iPad was added to the mix.

At the time of creation we were all excited and pumped. Looking at the analytics we see a high interest in the iPad. (Duh!) Isn’t hind-sight 20/20 vision?

This can mean a few things.
1. When selling you need a hot item aka a gimmick for quick sales.
2. Learning is not high on the radar for people (is this only during holiday season? This warrants another raffle somewhere in the dry season for testing purposes!).
3. Value remains a subjective thing.

Gimmick or advertising… Who would have thought it to be this important in the getting-money-quick modus?

How do you feel about getting money quick advertising and using gimmicks to do so? Feel free to let us know below!

celebrate Culture 

• Thanksgiving
• Christmas
• Carnival
• Lent
• Flag day
• …

Photo by Min Anfrom  Pexels

Happy Thanksgiving – a day late :)!

Yesterday has been marked by many celebrating and telling me happy thanksgiving!

It’s a US holiday that is slowly coming across the ocean our way which is mainly seen in the black Friday phenomenon.

At one hand I’m happy and hope that people really stand still and say thank you (although I’m aware that this is not what it really stands for). At the other hand I’m not so sure if we should just take over the customs and cultures of others. Are we then loosing our own?

Not philosophical today – just wondering what your take is on this particular holiday of yesterday: Thanksgiving… what do you think? Let us know in your comments below!

Sample of both

• Fact: 1+1=2
• Truth: 2=1+1
• Fact: Boiling water is hot
• [My] Truth: God exists

Photo by Ivan Bertolazzifrom Pexels

Fact and truth

This question got prompted by a podcast I was listening to, where the speaker said at one point: “Numbers don’t lie”. Which lead me to question: is that really true? Or is that a fact?

Now mind you: I’m a mathematician so that statement right there would [or should] be music to my ears. Right? Wrong. Because as you can see above: truth is 2=1+1 but the truth is also 2=1*0+0+1*2. 

My head tailspins on that example, which I actually gotten here. It also stated somewhere in that same page that we look inside ourselves to find truths (chocolate is delicious!) and outside for facts (earth orbits the sun). However, this is yet another example of why truth and fact are not one and the same: my truth is that Chocolate is not really delicious. You’d find me more around the Lumpia is delicious but that’s a whole other post cus once I start on food… 🙂

There are numerous articles out there indicating what both truth and facts are. Going back to “Numbers do not lie” I conclude that this is a truth and not a fact. Look at an annual statement of a company versus what’s on the bank account at the moment of the annual statement. 

Thought this picture represented the “Numbers don’t lie” pretty convincingly. You can look it up here amidst other examples.

If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts —
Albert Einstein 
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please —
Mark Twain
There are no facts, only interpretations —
Nietzsche

What is your take on fact and truth? Do you have more examples to dazzle us with? Leave your comments below!

flu visited

• Definition found in MW:
  any of several virus diseases marked especially by respiratory or intestinal symptoms

Thankful for even the flu!

Yesterday afternoon, the flu decided to pay me a visit. Mind you, I don’t get sick often as I firmly believe that it’s a mind thing. Your mind is the driving force of your body, so if you decide that flu and other not-so-dramatic sicknesses are not part of your life, then lo-and-behold. At least, that is how it works for me.

Now, I was puzzled to the chills, the swollen glands and the my-whole-body-hurts phenomenon. It’s been a long while, you see. So, on to the pharmacy, buying paracetamol (cure for everything, right?) and to my bed. Before hopping in bed though, I rebuked the thing and told it to go back to where it came from. THERE! Did I tell it off!

This story is not really about sickness, but about thankfulness. I’m happy that today I’m almost back to normal. That means, that the flu thingie didn’t even last 24 hours. It also shows me that it’s imperative not to take things for granted. My belief system is just that – my belief system. And when someone else tells you that your belief system is no good, it is important not to listen. Who knows you better than you?

So today, let’s be thankful for who you are, what you believe in and what you stand for. For me this means today to go forth and be sick no more. 😊
Happy Wednesday!

Care to share your belief system? Feel free to leave your comments below!

Following who?

• Seth Godin
• Fred Wilson
• Gabe Anderson

Who do you follow?

As can be seen in the list above, I’m following three people who have nothing in common – or so it seems.

When I was younger someone told me to read autobiographies for enrichment of self. Specially people of influence or people you would want to ‘mimic’. It’s in 2009, that I started following Seth Godin because he looks at life so differently that it sparked for me. For example this: his manifesto on what education should be like and what it should NOT be.

[For those of you who know me, you know that I absolutely abhor the current educational system. Unfortunately it’s just me myself and a few others 🙂 so massive change is not yet coming to our sleepy island. ]

What about the others? In this last year, Seth recommended a couple of bloggers. Fred and Gabe were two of them. I subscribed to about 5 or 6 of them, but only Gabe and Fred made the cut.

Gabe is a guitarist and he also writes about stuff he notices, just like Seth. And I have found over the course of this year, that things are not related to music only: they relate to business as well. Enrichment anyone? 

Then you have Fred. I started following Fred because he makes the VC world simple, AND he talks about the most interesting of stuff! For example the Helium project in NYC – I wonder how long it will take for a peer-to-peer low bandwidth wireless network, which will pay you in tokens when running a hotspot, to arrive here! It is token-incentive economics building out wireless infrastructure and as Fred said: I’m also excited to watch this happen 🙂

There you have my little list of people I follow. What are your thoughts? Do you follow anyone and if so who do you follow? Leave your comments below!