Today is my 40’est bday. FOURTY!!
I must say that becoming 40 is completely different than being 30 for me.
When I became 30, I felt bit like my youth had passed. I had just become the CEO of Belgacom Skynet, which was fairly young to lead one of the leading internet companies in Belgium. I remember feeling that all turned around my job (which I loved), but it also felt like there was not much left for something else. And on top of that, I was the victim of a pretty aggressive carjacking at that moment. But I was proud to lead Skynet, and build of products that made people’s life better. Being on the frontline of innovation and with the internet becoming a driving force of change in the world was and is an amazing journey.
Becoming 40, it feels like my youth came back. Much has to do with the arrival of our little boy Charlie, who became 4 last week. It’s amazing to see how a little boy completely changes one’s perspective on life. Suddenly, I’m not the central person anymore in my own life, and the unconditional love is a feeling that is impossible to describe.
To share something personal: when I was 35 or so, I become Senior Vice President of the ProSiebenSat1 Media Group, and had just won some award for ‘European Media Personality’ together with some others. But I doubted if having a (hopefully) great corporate career was my path forward. On the one hand, I wanted to start something again myself, and create a different kind of difference. And since I doubted, I just asked some people I knew well and respect a lot. I met about 10 persons, ranging from ceo’s to a minister, a top sporter, … They had in common that they were all older than 50.
I don’t want to go into detail of the talks (which I still value a lot), but one similar point of most: when asked if they would have done something different, many answered that they totally regretted missing the early baby years of their kids. Many had young kids in their early 30’s, which for most was also the most busy period in their career, often involving constant international travel. There’s a peak between 30 and 40, on various levels, and unfortunately the careers (if it’s on business, sports or arts) coincide for many with father of motherhood. Summarizing a bit, they some had a view that once a kiddo becomes 6, he kind of starts a 9 to 5 life (school!). It was a really confronting series of conversations, of which I am very grateful to the openness of everyone.
So I decided to quit my corporate career at 36. I was Senior VP of ProSiebenSat 1 in Munich. I learned so much, but I told my boss (CEO of SBS) that this wasn’t for me. I left all my stock options, a huge salary, a driver and a job which made me travel every day as I was in charge of the activities in 12 or so countries. I wanted to become an entrepreneur again and spend a huge amount of time with Charlie & Femke. I also wanted to be abroad for some time again, and we fell for the combination California and Belgium.
I totally love the life of building & growing ideas I believe in. There’s a blurry line between my personal and professional career, but it’s the way I want to live. When I travel I take my family with me, I’m very proud that we started SonicAngel, that we’re rolling out FilmAngel.tv now and that we have some other ‘angels’ coming up. I did miss the ‘more corporate’ part somewhat, but being the chairman of IBBT changed that somewhat. IBBT is the strategic research center for technology and media in Belgium. And I agreed to being on another board of directors and advise on innovation/strategic matters.
But I love what our ‘Angel-platforms’ are doing: creating opportunities for talent by implementing technology platform to eliminate (part of) the inefficiency of an industry.
When I think of it: I think I could even dedicate my life to enabling opportunities for young talent, and to build and grow ideas I belief in. On the condition that I can hold my family close to me.
Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. Facebook & other messages makes it feel that everyone is close in a way. It means a lot to me.
And now, I’m going to offer a drink to our team, and get a w-e away with femke & my little boy.
bart

