A long preface (or: What keeps me from blogging these days) My relationship with writing has taken a steep downturn since I started working. Not that I don’t write at work – quite the contrary. I write all the time – but the style required in consulting is quite different from what I write elsewhere, for example in a blog. It’s not prose – I hardly touch a word processor, so most of my writing has come down to concise half-sentences in bullet points on powerpoint slides. That’s an art in itself, for sure – making a precise argument in limited space… but I find it all the harder to get back to the keyboard and write a “real” text. That’s what keeps me from blogging. Looking back at how the syllables just flowed into the keyboards a few years back, especially during my stints abroad… I miss that ease of writing. To some point, the carelessness as well. The hurdle to just sit down and write has become higher, and most often, I don’t jump it.
Today, though, a late Saturday night – I’m trying again. This, as I am on vacation for the next three weeks, is one of the things I want to do right now: Get my fun and ease of writing back.
My life title You’ve been wondering what that “life title” thing is, right? Well, most people have a job title. I’m a “Consultant”. That says something – though not terribly much- about what I do for a living, and it describes that part of me… but that is not and shouldn’t be all there is to me. Over the last weeks, I have stumbled across two little things that came almost as a revelation to me. As most great things, they are terribly simple – almost mundane – but they have a profound impact on me.
Little thing #1: I read an article of the author/trainer/old school “management guru” Tom Peters, where he states:
Enthusiasm is the sine qua non of success … at anything. Hence, I command: The Very First Item on EVERY job criteria list shall hereinafter be: “Enthusiast.” Every. Job. Enthusiast. First. Period.
That rang a bell with me. That was me. An Enthusiast. I am at my best when I am enthusiastic about something, and I live for moments, ideas, people, things, plans, projects, visions to be enthusiastic about. There’s a good reason why I chose the saying by Charles Kingsley (which is often falsly attributed to Einstein) to be my motto in our graduation book:
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
That’s me: Florian Hollender. Enthusiast. But WHAT am I enthusiastic about? Is there a common theme? A denominator that carries all through life? I found it, that is…
Little thing #2: As I said, it is really simple, no surprise at all, but I never saw it in that light. Lying awake in bed one night (cheese, but not made up), I realized the common thread that spans through all my hobbies, all the things I carry a torch for: It is people, and it is technology. I love climbing, because it requires technique, technical equipment and teamwork. Same goes for diving. I love photography, because it enables me to a creative outlet through technology. I love computers, because they enable me to a whole universe of possibilities and activities, to connect and communicate in new ways. And so on, and so forth. Technology in itself is great, but when you put people and technology together, the world changes. Mine certainly does.
There you have it, my life title:
Florian Hollender. Enthusiast for people and technology.