17.04.09
What is authenticity?
What is authenticity?
When I woke up this morning, it was to the sounds of cars speeding and braking outside my 3rd floor window on Marconiplein in Rotterdam.
In the cars where people sitting anxiously trying to rush to work without having the slightest possibility to go any faster because of the size of the traffic jam.
I suppose it really can’t be a surprise to them that this morning, also, there is a jam.
What I wonder about the most, is that we completely accept the fact, that cars run on gas, and gas pollutes. I would be very surprised if any individual did not know this.
And this mornings breath of “fresh” air stimulated my assumptions on this. And even so gas companies, car companies, governments and us the consumer ignore this fact or accept it to some extends.
I will not preach. That is not the point of this post. What I am curious about is the following:
What is authenticity? (1)
As long as we know it is polluting and making our planet a more difficult place to live and thus, in the end it won’t matter how fast we get to work, it is authentic.
As long as we know, and this is a fact, that our planet will crumple and our societies will be destroyed within the next 85 years by the climate changes, if we don’t change our way of living, it is authentic.
As long as we know that we are driving our society off a cliff, I believe we are being authentic. But the question is, are humans willing to make a change for the better now that we know the truth?
Being authentic is not about being right or wrong. It is about knowing the facts in every detail and being open to new things and accepting them.
It is up to you what actions you will take having this knowledge. Your character is judged upon your actions because your actions communicate who you truly are.
I truthfully and honestly (being very authentic) believe that if everyone knows the facts, we will act for the better.
That the human kind deep down knows what the reasonable thing is to do and act on it.
I believe we should never try to convince anybody of what is right or what is wrong in this matter, but instead give him or her insight and share the truth.
And who knows, you might learn some as well.
If we all are authentic then we might act accordingly.
This message was brought to you in cooperation with my heart and soul.
(1) A common definition of “Authenticity” in psychology refers to the attempt to live one’s life according to the needs of one’s inner being, rather than the demands of society or one’s early conditioning.
03.04.09
Sit the talk!
This picture was taken during a workshop on Authentic Marketing. It was taken by the photografer JoeYee Tang.
It truly shows the serious business edge and at the same time the fun and play we have at the KaosPilots. I’m in my eliment…
28.03.09
Level & Layers
Recently the concept of authentic marketing that I am working on has escaladed into much more. The last month or so my friend, co-pilot and now collegue Geert Stam and I have been working on developing on the concept and it stretches much further than marketing.
The working title for now is Level & Layers and it is about giving businesses a human edge. We are working with delivering visionary insight both internally and externally in companies and hopefully show that it takes ordinary people to do amazing things.
We are working with the vision of “Finding unity between people and business”.
The name Level & Layers originate from the vision of bringing an intellectual level and the emotional layers into the process of business.
What we try to do is give an understanding of existence for a company, which will help the employees to inspire each other to create an innovating environment, which enables a natural flow of change.
This is based on the idea that work is play and there are not two worlds; work and free time, but one existing world; life.
26.03.09
Finding unity between people and business
I have found a calling!
During my education and later in my work in marketing I realized that I rarely saw any connection between my life at work and the life besides work. I did try really hard to find some sort of passion that didn’t seam like work and I changed jobs a lot, but after a while I wasn’t challenged any more and I again ended up in two worlds. One at work and one in free time.
I even went snowboarding for half a year in Italy and golfing in the Dominican Republic for 4 months as my job, but I never really could find a unity between my job and my person. I did enjoy most of my jobs in the beginning, where it was all exiting and new, but once I knew how to do stuff I would get restless and felt like my potential wasn’t put into the right use.
I never really gave up and said to my self that I just had to settle with some nice job. I kept on searching cause I could feel that it was out there, somewhere.
At a time when I was working with marketing in the entertainment business I found the KaosPilots. An education where you learn by doing and challenge your self in the real world. The program is all about entrepreneurship and innovation and I felt right at home. I’m still a KaosPilot after 8 months and that is a record since my other education.
During my life in business I have discovered that many people feel the same way. That we lack a sense of understanding why I am doing this and can’t really connect to our true passion. It is the feeling of there is something more to just doing the job I’m supposed to do and feeling stuck cause there isn’t much you can do.
Now, I’ve set out to connect people with business. To discover what it is that drives the innovative, what motivates people and how we combine the two worlds into one.
My calling is “To find unity between people and business”
23.03.09
If you still are in doubt about what I do, then please visit KaosPilots Team 2’sblog.
It features a couple of videos of us working in our class room and some more inspirational posts.
07.03.09
Where the **** have I been?
I woke up this foggy morning and I thought that I really needed to write on my blog! Cause I have no idea where the last month went…
So the following is a self-therapeutical time management empowering tool. Also know as: FUN!
I have discovered that during the last month app. 30 people went from Blok’s Blog to the Kaospilot website www.kaospilots.nl. That means that I have a lot of readers and I been letting you down!
But no more!
It is crazy how time sometimes just becomes increasingly smaller and zooooooOOOOOOMMmmm it has been a month.
My weekdays I spend at the Kaospilots. We are being trained in something called the Startup Wheel that will help us in becoming better entrepreneurs and later help others in being entrepreneurs. It is actually quite simple and at the same time very effect full.
If you are an entrepreneur or does some freelance work I suggest you take a look at this. It has recently been chosen to be the new way of educating business in 5 major schools in Denmark including Copenhagen Business School.
www.startupcompanyinc.com
Last Monday was very exiting cause we delivered our 2 months work on the marketing for a leading lawyer company called Kennedy van de Laan.
Even though I have no prejudice against lawyers since two of my best friends, Willy and Kania, are both in pursuit for justice, there where a couple of Kaospilots that did find it a little challenging. (Lawyers are the devil! Arrgghhh….!)
I loved it! It was Monday morning and the lawyers were all asking “is this gonna take long?”. When we where finished 5 hours later with the workshop they where completely fired up. We still have some more stuff we are delivering and they properly would like us back for more.
Kaospilots from Team 2 working hard.
Approximately a week ago I sent a mail to the Copenhagen Municipal with a proposal. It contained a long suggestion on how to include “The future sustainable city of the world – Nordhavnen” into the Copenhagen Climate Summit in November.
Our idea is to make a People Climate Change Summit during the political debates at Bella Center, and move the interest to Nordhavnen instead so that ordinary people like you and me can express how we all can do small things to save the environment instead of the big leaders have to make all the decisions.
We are suggesting building a fully self-surviving house (Earthships), building sustainable playgrounds (Architects 2012), homes and offices out of containers, green technology and soooo much more. A huge project! Let’s see what happens.
Visit www.nordhavnen.dk (Also in English) if this future city sounds interesting. My Copenhagen apartment is only five minutes away from this area!
At the moment I am working on two very exiting things also.
Finding team 3 for Kaospilots
And my baby: Authentic Marketing
Finding Team 3 is a big project and we are working on finding new students for next year. We are starting a press stunt to attract the world. I will expose more later but if you can’t wait, then visit:
www.kpnlteam2.wordpress.com
Authentic Marketing is starting to take of. Basically it is looking at marketing in a new perspective and focussing on the inside of a company and bring out the strengths and personality that it contains. I have been thinking about this concept for many years but now it is finally taking shape. I don’t have a website for that yet, but hoping to get that running soon.
On a more personal note I have been jamming on my new guitar. I rarely have the time, but I love it, and I don’t understand why I didn’t have this passion earlier. I’ll play you a song whenever we meet!
And something has just gone “CLICK” in my head, cause I’ve become physical. My roommate Loek set his weight lifts up in a small room in our apartment, and every mon, tue, thur and Friday morning, Nathaniel runs across the roof of the Marconiplein building and comes in through my skylight in my room, down the latter to work out! Who needs to pay 50 euros for a workout membership…
Me working out and Nathaniel on roof!
I have also started to play football since no one here plays flag football, which I miss. I’m enjoying it a lot cause I’m meeting new people and getting exercise. I like playing defence and last time our offence sucked. So in the final minutes I thought, “Fuck it” and ran all the way up in a contra. One of my teammates passed the ball in front of the goal and nonchalant as I am I kicked the ball in the net with my heel. We won 6-5!
Oh yeah! I was at Carneval!
26.01.09
Hi, I’m Blok’s guitar
Hi, my name is Stagg 2610DC, but you can call me Steve.
I just got purchased by Den Herren Nicholas Blok in the piano store. He sat there with me in his hands for an hour before the store owner kicked him out. But he wouldn’t leave without me.
So he took me with him! And he even hassle a gig bag from the music store to put me in.
now Nicholas has been spending most of his weekend on strumming and coreesing me! A bit awkward in the beginning but we have become good friends by now.
You all take care now, and I’ll sing you a song when Nicholas gets his act together!
PS. Look how hot I am!
24.01.09
Rotterdam is waiting for YOU!
(Warning! The following is written with hangover)
When I arrived back in Rotterdam I decided to like it here!
Sound very simple and it is. Earlier I had some difficulties leaving the wonderful Copenhagen and the little streets, the beautiful girls and the thick atmosphere of life but I have now decided to embrace Rotterdam.
Its diversity in people, funky underground and exciting architecture is giving the city a soul that I now am trying to discover.
Right now we have the Rotterdam film festival that is the 3rd largest in Europe. Soooo many movie and soooo little time! And of course I’m such a pushover that I go for the Oscar nominated ones instead of the Korean black/white horror movie or the Hungarian/Belarus minimalistic love story between a man and his goat.
Quick overview: In school we are working on our coaching skills and our own personal development. Furthermore we are busy with a marketing plan for a lawyer company and finding the next Kaospilots for team 3.
We are also going to write a 36 pages magazine about Kaospilots in Holland together with Ode Magazine, which is a well-established and respected media. Last but not least, I am personally very close to giving my next exciting workshop on Personal Marketing.
Other than that, I’m becoming more of a party guy on my old days. My hair is getting greyer and my moon is growing but that didn’t stop me from last Fridays party at a gay cocktail bar in Amsterdam. Saturday I went to see Coco, who is Stings daughter, in the Rotterdam equivalent to Vega: Rotown (Coco is 17 years old and f….. awesome). Concerts like this only cost 10 euros so I’m going to attend many more in the future.
Wednesday I cracked open a bottle of rum that I finished Thursday and yesterday was my housewarming. I don’t remember much but something like dancing to DJ Aligator, playing guitar for a crowd and pouring cinnamon over my roommate Loek, who turned 25. I had to explain many times, that it is a Danish tradition I that I have absolutely NO idea why we do it.
I woke up this morning to the smell of Cinnamon, flat beer and cigarette buds and said good morning to Loek and his girlfriend before rushing out of the apartment. I hope it’s clean when I get back!
