All you need is one believer

Years ago, I went to school to learn about brands. And I helped building the image of Orange in the Netherlands. Everyone working with brands knows that one of the biggest challenges is to make your brand come alive. To turn it into more than just a name or a logo.

Today, my mission with my own brand is to increase happiness by helping people deepen the connection with their loved ones. By developing books and products that help people capture, share and remember. Sounds great, right? But underneath that one sentence, lies a deep personal believe. I believe that people, regardless of their age, are capable of doing great things. Much more than they think they can. And that believe is deeply installed in me. It’s also one of the reasons I often don’t follow rules. Because if you carefully listen to people’s dreams, you know sometimes all you need to do is follow your gut.

I was blown away by an example in my own life and I hope it will serve as inspiration to you. So here goes. My youngest son Tom wanted to surprise his dad, Barend Schippers, by playing We will rock you on drums. But he is only five and for drum classes he has to be at least seven. I called this great drum teacher Leon from Online Drumles anyway and he loved the idea. He explained to Tom what to do and this is what happened after only fifteen minutes. He totally nailed it!

All I needed to do was to believe in Tom and offer tools and help. And we both won. I gave him the confidence to believe in his dream. It might be drums now, but who knows what his future holds. I hope that by sharing this post, you’ll decide to believe in someone’s dream too, small or big as it may be. In return, you’ll get so much more than you give. That I can promise you!