Florian Hollender | floho.com » people

What keeps me from blogging – and what my “life title” is

Florian — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 01:29:08 +0000

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.

Denmark trip – photos are online!

Florian — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:14:17 +0000

IMGP0757, originally uploaded by floho.

Hey there,

I was lucky to get two days off last week, so I could join Tine and the Lawyer gang, who were on vacation in a lovely house on the danish cost for a week. And even if it was just two days, it sure felt like a long time – it was SO GOOD! We went to the beach, had BBQ, went Bowling, played games until late at night – even had fun like little children with balloons – and on the day when we returned, we found that huge trampoline-like thing which Mareike, Tine, Konz and Alex are enjoying in the picture.

You can find the whole set (including many more jumping happy people!) here on Flickr.

Franziska is up and away again

Florian — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:16:45 +0000

Just so everybody knows, my sis just flew over the big pond again, this time for an exciting internship in Boston. You can follow her trip (three months! Boy, do I envy her!) on her blog.

Different levels of wow

Florian — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:34:57 +0000

This week has a lot going on for me.
Monday and Tuesday I spent at Les Fontaines, the Capgemini University. There I helped to facilitate/give the global Business Case training – that was absolutely exciting. The room packed with 18 participants from Australia to Finland, and me standing in front of them, telling them about financial analysis etc…. I would not have thought that I’d be in Les Fontaines in a trainer role so soon, but boy was it fun! Maybe I’ll get to engage in training that is not dealing with numbercrunching as well – I think that would be even better.

Yesterday and today I am in Berlin, working from our Headquarter, building a training model for an executive workshop. Good to be back in Berlin for a change – remember, I spent my first three months at Capgemini here, and I sure met some familiar faces. The Institute though has already turned on its head staff-wise (no surprise, as everybody stays for three months, and it was January when I left… so no chance of known colleagues still being there). I stayed in a fantastic hotel for this night – you know, one of those with sound and a telephone in the bathroom, with pillows that are actually pillows and not just folded linen, and with a breakfast buffet that would kill me if I stayed there more often. Too good. Mango juice. Salted butter. Two types of salmon. Fish. Cheese. Really really good variety of stuff. They had banana milkshakes. BANANA MILKSHAKES!
So you see why my day was off to a great start.

Now to something of actual importance. Yesterday night I found out about Randy Pausch. Randy is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who delivered (and recorded) two very interesting speeches. One is called “Time Management“, in which he talks about very practical tips on how to get more things done in life. This is not a theoretical talk – it is very down to earth, it is full of things you can directly apply yourselves. The other talk is called “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams“. In this talk, part of CMU’s “last lecture” series, he talks about how he managed to achieve his childhood dreams, and how one can work towards that – or help others achieve their dreams.

The “last lecture” series at CMU is asking the speaker to imagine – if this was the last lecture he or she gave before they died, what would they talk about? For Randy, he needs no big imagination. Randy gave this speech knowing he will most likely die from the cancer he has in the next few months. He already knew that when he gave the speech on time management as well. Don’t shy away now! His lectures are incredibly funny. There is no darkness and sadness in them. All this frightening fact really does is make the speeches more intense. For me, on the receiving end, it feels like an incredible gift Randy has given to us. He even made the last lecture a book – how awesome is that!

When you watch those lectures, you wil realize what a fighting spirit Randy has. Not surprisingly, he is still alive, still fighting hard, still making the best out of the days he has. On his personal website you find a summary of all the things I just introduced to you, as we as updates on how he is doing.

A personal note: Six years ago today, my mum was buried. She died on April 3rd 2002, and boy, I miss her more than words can say. Had she known how limited her time on earth was, I am sure she would have given an awesome last lecture, too. Luckily, she had already filled my childhood with love and some really good advice from which I profit every day.

Entering the mystery shopping zone

Florian — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:06:27 +0000

Hey there!

Today, Tine and I went on a little adventure. From my company, I had the invitation to go to the factory outlet of G-Star (a jeans/clothing brand), with the promise of good rebates. The outlet is about half an hour out of Hamburg, and given the sad selection of jeans left in my closet that are wearable, this was something to try.
So we drove there – really in the middle of nowhere – and entered something like a small warehouse, full of clothes. We were greeted by a shop assistant, who looked and acted more like a bouncer in a nightclub. He asked me where exactly I had gotten the invitation from, and what company I worked for. He wanted to see my passport and proof that I worked for the company (glad I had a business card in my wallet). Then, in a very serious tone, he continued like this:

“Alright, I will give you the hardcore introduction, because if we go into detail, it will take us ages. You are entering a contract with us. You may never, ever, re-sell the clothes you buy here, not in a store, not on ebay. If you do not comply, we will sue you. Whenever you come here, you can bring two persons with you. You are responsible for their actions as well. When you come, you need to present your store ID and your passport. If you cannot produce a passport, we will keep the store ID and you can get it back when you bring your passport to identify yourself. There are no refunds, so look at what you buy beforehand. No go over there to the other clerk and pay three Euros for the store ID.”

Tine suggested that probably, we would need to do ten pushups whenever we did not put something back in the shelves correctly after looking at it. The shop assistant/bouncer guy was only mildly amused.
After this initial shock, it was quite a good experience. Prices were really good, although I understand that I am not allowed to publicize the discounts they give… so I bought myself three new pants – a jeans, a pair with pinstripes that is missing some buttons, and a pair that has a checkered pattern on it… makes me look like a punk, but in a fashionable way. (I hope).

Now if you’ll excuse me, there is some serious weekend-relaxing to do. And some work, unfortunately… but for that work, I get to help giving a training in our company’s university on Monday and Tuesday – how cool is that! I did not expect to come back to that great place as a trainer anytime soon, I certainly feel honored… now I have to meet expectations, of course.

Thanks for all the flowers! And… introducing KillerConsultant.com

Florian — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:53:50 +0000

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was absolutely flattered by all the congratulations I got – via phone, email, SMS, on Facebook, StudiVZ, even on blogs (by schloon and Fran). Thank you everybody! Of course, I was also happy about the congrats that rolled in today. It all really means a lot to me – good to see that even though the new job really consumes me (at least during the week), you still have not forgotten about me!

The last weeks have been busy – I am on a new project at the same client that will last until April 4th approximately, and of course I’ll tell you where I am heading to afterwards (once I know it myself ;-> ). Besides work and enjoying the spare time, I also set up a new website lately. It is called KillerConsultant.com. It does not have to do anything with the Mafia – that name is explained in the slogan: “Doing a great job while having fun would be killer, right?” (so, in this case, “killer” means “great”). KillerConsultant is a site from a consultant (me, obviously) for consultants… because there is a lot of career-related info on consulting out there, some blogs for fun, playing with the clichees of the industry, but I could not really find a website that is centered around the day-to-day life of consultants. So I made one. If you are interested, please feel free to head over there and let me know how you like it!

Cheers
Florian

(who is totally ripped of by the hotel right now, because they changed the internet connection, and now one hour costs three euros… hilarious. Not.)

The importance of… staying in touch

Florian — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:51:28 +0000

Hey stranger!

This is how a good friend always greets me in her mails. Sign of how good I am at staying in contact with friends. Really, by blogging I (amongst other goals) relieve some of this guilt, because I can say “hey, I blogged about that. Did you read it? See, I AM staying in touch!”. Maybe I should make it mandatory for family and friends to subscribe to this site.

In addition, to get you guys some more up-to-date news, I picked up twittering, and you do find the most recent updates right here on the right side of this page. There, for example, today you found the info that I have new pictures online, a great GTD resource site and last news from my work front.

Of course, should you be twittering as well, please add me there, so I can see what you are up to as well! Communication is way more fun when it is a two-way street.

Giving you more stuff to read this week for free that makes you smarter

Florian — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:18:16 +0000

People, once it gets going…

so figures that Lawrence Lessig did license his book “the future of ideas” under Creative Commons. You can download it here. Lawrence has been one of the key persons in the Creative Commons movement, he is a great speaker and his writing does set important landmarks in the understanding (and realization) of what is happening to information, creativity and innovation in these oh-so-modern days. I suggest you put this on your laptop, take it into the week and read it.

Being full of ideas

Florian — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 21:21:26 +0000

This weekend has been great, I hope you had a great one, too.

From the realms of our awesome living room (honestly, I so love our new apartment!), I “found” Tom Peters, Author, Trainer, “Management-Thinker”. The website is full of content – not just stuff, content! – and he is giving away a lot of things for free, amongst that: His complete Powerpoint-Decks and many PDFs, almost small books/essays. Right now I am diving in this stream of new information, adding books to my amazon wishlist and thinking of ways to integrate those ideas into my daily work. For example: How can I make the Institute (the place inside Capgemini I am working for during my first three months) a PSF – a professional service firm – that makes its customers go “wow”? I am currently working on a new internal print ad, so I might be able to integrate the new idea right now. Read this (also free, also from Tom Peters) for an idea of what he means with PSF. Don’t be put off by the writing style – it is very much like listening to a very energetic speaker, rather than reading a book. But the content, as I said, CONTENT, the flood of ideas, is worth a second look/read. Possibly a third.

I am gonna iron some shirts, then go for a quick weekly review, and then all is set for another great week.

Feels good!

Florian — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:16:59 +0000

Another two-week assignment delivered to the customer – this is fun! Honestly, although it is tough hours and demanding work, it really makes me happy. A good chunk of it is the environment – the colleagues mostly. Boy, I know that every recruiting website says that their people are the nicest and brightest and ladida… but here, they are not only nice and bright, they are people I like and some of them could well turn into friends over time. That’s a big deal for me, and I really appreciate it.

Adding to the good mood: Yesterday we went on a team event – my five colleagues and the two leads. We did a three hour introduction to improvisational theatre – that was awesome! The course was conducted by a professional actor who is playing impro for years now, and he got us to do all kinds of things – mostly being spontaneous, developing and continuing a train of thought, finding associations… we went through all kinds of exercises, all of them really fun. We worked really well together – the coach did not want to believe that we all know each other just from a few weeks to a few days. I am happy to be in an environment where, when it comes to play, hierachy really is not played, and I had terrible fun with my folks here.

Looking into the weekend: This is gonna be gooood! Tine came back from Marokko yesterday, so there will be lots of stories to tell and pictures to see. Oh, and of course: Serious relaxing to do! Maybe I’ll even get to go for a run – I was a good boy this week and spend the lunch break on Tuesday and Thursday running through the Tiergarten here in Berlin, so this might expand to the weekend