The 21th of March 2016 was the day my father, Theo passed away.

The 21th of March 2016 was the day my father, Theo passed away.

A remarkable title for a business platform like LinkedIn or a Website...and yet it isn’t that strange.

My father was partly my inspiration and partly my 'Why'. ?About the Why I wrote another article in Dutch. (English version will follow). It’s about the integration of your ‘Why’ into your LinkedIn profile. To make your personal brand more ‘human. The article received a lot of positive comments.

My father – Theo - was a French teacher for many years. So I’m definitely no stranger to knowledge transfer. Furthermore he was interested in people and in the unknown - he was eager to learn, just like me. My father, a fully-fledged ‘Amsterdammer’, was not a man lost for words. He could talk well/a lot, was a good storyteller and he loved languages. “The more languages you know, the more people you can talk to” was often heard in our house. This is how my father came into contact with my mother in Paris, France, through a ‘correspondence club’. (in the old days one would write real letters). My father was one of the best writers.

Their interests were mutual and my parents married in1959. They had three children - I was the youngest.

A picture from our last trip to Portugal in 2015, during their 56th anniversary.

An international background was handed down to me. My maternal Grandmother was born in Hoboken, Antwerp (Belgium) whilst my Grandfather on my mother’s side was born in Budapest, Hungary.

So, as I often say, I can literally “see across cultures”.

??

S.P.I.

I inherited an interest in people from my father. He, in turn, inherited this interest from his mother, my grandmother. When my mother and grandmother went on a tour once in Amsterdam they went by tram. When she came home that evening she told my father; "Your mother knows a lot of people, she talked to everybody!"

Of course my grandmother didn’t know all of these people, but she did talk to everyone she met in the street.

That habit is a chip of the old block, and we all know of the apple that doesn’t fall far from the tree – so that habit was picked up by my father and later by me. Our whole family are sincerely curious.

I call it SPI: Sincere Personal Interest.

And in that sense we’re also the networkers and connectors of the family. My father took it a step further by exploring our family tree as far back as the year 1400.

Why I’m telling this story? Because we all have a ‘Why’. Sometimes it brings you back to your childhood, sometimes other experiences are involved.

So it is my firm belief that: Everyone has a ‘Why’.

?Blah blah

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all of our LinkedIn profiles wouldn’t just be a dry summary of years and job titles. How about if they told a story – YOUR STORY….

YOUR story is unique – it’s why you do what you do. And no blah blah... or as we say in Dutch, ‘blabla’.

My father talked a lot but he was no 'blabla'. He had his story, you’ve got yours.

What’s your 'Why'? Share it with us through a comment.

Possibly this will share nice, new, unique stories. Or at least create the inspiration to write one.

Papa, merci beaucoup pour tous les bons moments!

(Dad, thanks for all the good moments)