June 2004 - Association of Dutch Businessmen

More documents

Recommendations

Info

POP AND DROP A QUESTION The differences and communalities between “running a business” and ‘the business of running” Question to Marco Grillo Often heard “A healthy mind in a healthy body”, I sometimes wonder how sound of mind some extreme athlete’s are? I know of at least one here in Singapore where that soundness is no issue. His name is Marco Grillo, a tri-athlete who gave up his corporate career to live his passion. I would like to ask him what differences and communalities he sees between “running a business” and “the business of running”? Answer Thanks Cor-Henk for the above question which makes me reflect on an extra-ordinary year. Not many of the ADB members might actually know me. This because of my ‘strange’ choice of sport focus and living in business Singapore. So maybe a short intro is necessary. We arrived in Singapore about five years ago. With some business partners I had started a speciality food business development company. Like most of us, I was dedicated to work results, including long days and lots of travel. In order to balance business, I pushed my sports hobby, triathlon. Triathlon is a multi-discipline sport: swimming, cycling and running. What better place to swim than Singapore? I have a running background and Dutch people are born with natural cycling ability. So at the age of 30, I seriously swam up and down our pool in Mandarin Gardens, East Coast. Fun, especially because my wife kept trying to beat me. With time and effort, race results did improve, but I was thrown back all the time by work priorities. So a bold plan formed in my head. Why not take a period to satisfy the nagging feeling of wishing to reach full potential by total focussed effort? After obtaining the necessary support from my wife and with some savings in the bank, I took up the challenge in March 2003 ... Below are some answers to Cor-Henk’s question, starting with some communalities. Meeting challenges with skills have been one of the main objective. Like ‘running a business’, I believe that ‘business of running’ brought me great satisfaction through setting challenges which were ambitious, but achievable by improving my skills. The overall sports challenge of trying to reach the best personal level and be ranked among the best in the region / world was broken up in all kind of sub challenges and skills. I never left my home for a swim training without knowing why I was doing ‘it’, what would be the focus, and how it fitted in the overall plan. I must say that a good personal coach, helped me a lot in order to improve faster. There has been plenty of goal setting, as in business. Goals on each discipline, each race, each training period. Lots of preparation and afterward analysis. Also had to update goals sometimes. Peak performance requires concentration. It is maybe not the most popular thing about concentration, but concentration also means sacrcrifying. In both business and sport I could only achieve if I let other things go. There are gifted people who seem to be able to do many things at the same time, I am not one of them. Of course there are also some differences. For me the greatest difference between business rewards and sports rewards is that sports includes tremendous body work. The physical reward of feeling good during a training or after a great race is unique. Another difference has to do with basic needs. Nowadays business and private worlds are rapidly changing. A common priority is a need for ‘security’. Business can provide a good reward in terms of security, but there is hardly security in triathlon. That can be scary, make you worry. Social daily life is quite different. Getting up really early to escape the heat during the first training, ‘empty’ days, more training, naps, late afternoon trainings and early Marco Grillo World Championships Triathlon 2004, age group 35-39, 7th place 19 Vol.14 • No. 6 • June 2004
POP AND DROP A QUESTION nights. All quite anti-social as about nobody is living this rythm. Provides sometime a zombiefeeling. Physical and mental fatique occurs. Ever felt tired from a long working day and a workout in the gym, on the tennis court or anything else? Well imagine a triple dose of that. The first three sport months were so immensely tiring. Couldn’t move my arms anymore (after tripling my weekly milage), my legs were full of led (even walking to Starbucks became an issue). Mentally I was also investing, improvement didn’t come so quickly. The last difference I noted for myself is a very personal one. I believe that none of us are ‘couch patatoes’, otherwise we would not be here. However I experienced that my sporting year has showed me that I was often tempted to remain in the ‘comfort zone’. Getting out of it, to reach newer heights, taking additional risks and pain, is a real achievement in itself. I could dwell on for hours on above, but I think that its best to conclude with stating that this project was very satisfying. I learned a lot about myself, I feel more confident and more relaxed. I learned from interesting people and experienced some wonderfull things. The above is certainly not a recipe for great living. That’s just what it was for me! New question to Pieter van der Voort, Bookings The Asian economies are picking up again. Can you give us some insight how the tourism industry is currently developing in Asia? How is Singapore (or Asia) different from developments in Europe or the Netherlands? Is there a large difference between Asian and Dutch tourists with regards to their holiday destination preferences, as well as the type of tourist activities they do? ASSOCIATION INFO Leaving Members Mr. Peter Flinckenbusch Stork Mr. Stefan Verweij PWC Mrs. Natascha Verweij United Moving Services Mr. Eelco Bronkhorst ABN-AMRO Mr. Hans Dieteren HAM REMINDER For those members who have not paid their membership fees please do so by sending a cheque to Association of Dutch Businessmen 22 Camden Park Singapore 299814 Please don’t forget to make sure that your name is on the cheque Please note the ADB Dinner & Dance is rescheduled to Saturday 28 August 2004 13th Anniversary and Annual Black Tie Dinner to be held at the China Club Singapore on Saturday at 19:00 hours Dress: Black Tie This year there is an option to make a table reservation (10 persons) RSVP: email to adb@pacific.net.sg and sent a cheque of $100 pp to Association of Dutch Businessmen, 22 Camden Park, Singapore 299814. Please include your names on the cheque. The exclusive China Club Singapore is build atop the 52nd floor of Singapore’s premium commercial tower, The Capital Tower, located in the Central Business District. This elegant members-only Club is surrounded by 16 meter-tall glass with the most spectacular views across Singapore. The China Club Singapore forms part of the family of The China Clubs Hong Kong and Beijing, which have in the last ten years, become synonymous with the best of executive clubs. Their exotic and sumptuous decorations evoke a strong sense of Orientalism and appeal to a deep feeling of aesthetics. 20 Vol.14 • No. 6 • June 2004
Page 1 and 2: June 2004 MITA 373/03/2001 BUSINESS
Page 3 and 4: A monthly publication of the Associ
Page 5 and 6: BUSINESS Singaporeans consume aroun
Page 7 and 8: BUSINESS Incentives are offered in
Page 9 and 10: DUTCH NEWS 2004, Dutch Media/Newspa
Page 11 and 12: Group A Group B Group C Group D Por
Page 13 and 14: EUROPE Of course, this does not mea
Page 15 and 16: INTERVIEW An interview with … Rob
Page 17: WEB WIZARDS Find Article Would you

June 2004 - Association of Dutch Businessmen

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?