1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

To stay motivated for longer periods of time. As a leader you want to give the good example, have the vision. There have been lapses of faith in that vision. Restoring that faith has been a crucial part of my long term leadership, by focusing on the fundamentals.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I had been a banker for almost 7 years, didn't like the job anymore and decided to quit to retrieve my inner soul. That started with writing. After a while, I realized I wanted to be a person that leads in finding innovative solutions for problems I cared about. Once I started that journey, my following grew. Not because I was so interesting, but because I had a long term vision to make the world a little bit better.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I wake up around six in the morning to get ready for the day. Till 8 I work on my personal projects. After bringing kids to school, I take my regular work. Typically, afterwards sports, food and time with family or friends. In the evening I try to learn a bit or see something new.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

When you feel insecure about something which really gets in the way, this can impact your whole being. I had this recently, about something that bothered me. Before I knew, this infected many of my other areas. I had to contain this. How I did it? By focusing on things that did matter to me more.

Once that was underway, the bothered area started to shrink fast. Lesson I needed to remind myself of was to contain areas of concern to those areas, instead of making me insecure about many other areas. This lesson took me three months to be reminded of. It is like surfing. You don't focus on surviving a wave, you care about surfing, every day. Change wave for a challenge, and then you know you need to think like a surfer.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

There are many, but one I would like to mention is Man’s Search for Meaning from Viktor Frankl. This book explains the premise that man’s underlying motivator in life is a will to meaning, even in the most difficult of circumstances. The more meaningful, the better for all

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Different is not always better, but better is always different. If people ask me why I had so many ideas that came to fruition, I tell them I was not so worried about what people thought of me personally, only focusing on the ideas and the feedback on that. Once success came, it was also more the ideas that were successful, not me being the chief guy or anything. Staying modest is one of the key things to remember every day of my life. You can be proud, but not satisfied.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

The parable of talents is a relevant one to me. Originally from the Bible, but very true today as well. What do you do with your talents? Do you play to your strengths and try to improve them, even losing at times, or are you not fulfilling that life's destiny by not working on your talents?