Overview
In this short Connexi clip, Herman Van de Velde reacts to a mentoring/inspiration concept, noting that while some people travel to places like Silicon Valley for inspiration, Belgium has plenty of talent and strong entrepreneurs young people can learn from. He stresses the importance of avoiding blinkers ('oogkleppen') by regularly stepping outside your company, talking to others, and having sounding boards. He shares that he participates in entrepreneur peer groups where exchanging ideas with people in similar situations generates enormous value.
Talks about
Insights & ideas
The through-line
What runs through everything Herman Van de Velde says about entrepreneurship is a distrust of the closed loop: the founder who stays inside the business, sees only the business, and slowly stops seeing anything at all. His remedy is deliberate exposure, to peers, to outside conversation, to standards set elsewhere [1]. Paired with that is a temperament rather than a technique: expect the bad periods, refuse to be flattened by them, and in whatever you do aim for the top of the field [2].
On tunnel vision and stepping outside the company
The central warning is against blinkers. "Je moet opletten dat je geen oogkleppen opzet en dat je toch op bepaalde momenten moet uit dat bedrijf, u dingen openzetten, met andere mensen babbelen, klankborden hebben" [1]. The prescription is specific about timing and posture: not a permanent state of openness, but certain moments at which you consciously leave the company, open things up and put yourself in front of a sounding board. The value is not advice from above but recognition among equals. "Met andere mensen spreken die in dezelfde situatie zitten levert u ongeloofelijk veel ideeën op" [1]. The condition that makes peer groups work is that they sit outside your own firm, which is what lets the ideas arrive at all.
On not needing Silicon Valley
He rejects the assumption that inspiration has to be imported. Belgium already holds what a young entrepreneur needs: "Ik denk dat er hier ook genoeg talent is en dat er genoeg goede ondernemers zijn waar jonge mensen iets kunnen van leren" [1]. The point is continuous with the argument about sounding boards. If the mechanism that helps you is talking to people in the same situation, the proximity of those people matters more than their glamour, and there are enough good entrepreneurs close to hand to learn from [1].
On excelling
His advice on ambition is unqualified and simply stated: "Probeert te excelleren. Probeer als je iets doet, probeer het dan goed te doen. Probeer eigenlijk de beste te zijn" [2]. The escalation inside that line is the substance of it. Doing something is not enough, doing it well is the floor, and the standard to hold yourself to is being the best.
On surviving the bad periods
He treats downturns as structural rather than exceptional. "Het leven van een onderneming is niet altijd gemakkelijk en er zullen periodes komen dat het minder goed zal zijn" [2]. Because they are certain to come, the useful preparation is attitudinal: expect them, and fight through them with a positive mindset rather than treating each one as evidence that something has gone fundamentally wrong [2].
Takeaways
- Schedule deliberate time outside your own company; without it you fit yourself with blinkers and stop seeing clearly [1].
- Use peer groups of entrepreneurs facing the same situation as sounding boards, because talking to them "levert u ongeloofelijk veel ideeën op" [1].
- You do not need to travel far for inspiration; there is enough local talent and enough good entrepreneurs for young people to learn from [1].
- Set the bar at being the best, not at merely getting the thing done: "Probeer eigenlijk de beste te zijn" [2].
- Plan on the assumption that weaker periods will come, and meet them with a positive mindset rather than surprise [2].
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