Book Club Empire: EBBC - A Global Platform for Personal Growth

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” - Jim Rohn

The people surrounding you, especially those in your inner circle (friends and family alike), have a huge influence on you and your development as a person.

This has been but one of the many life lessons I learned over the past decade. I am writing this as a grateful person. Because of this gratitude I feel like I want to return something:

I want to take you on a journey that literally changed my life. It is my intent to show you what can happen when you spend your time with the right people.

This article describes the (inner) workings and the magic of a great organization, my personal journey inside this organization and, last but not least, what I am (and you could be) taking out of it.

For all those who know me from EBBC: My post might contain several surprising insights about me I have not shared with you yet.

My article is written to inspire, but also to entertain with a some irony about how I dealt with some embarrassing, yet very instructive lessons in pursuit of personal growth. It also was inspired by an earlier article written by Kim earlier this year

as well as by an emmy-award winning HBO series with the name of "Boardwalk Empire" - watch the intro (and then the entire series!) to get in the mood for this article ??

Somewhere along the cost of Belgium back in 2016...

...OK, wait! This will be about books - not booze! Enjoy both responsibly ??

(Not) The Next Big Thing

Back in 2012, a friend of mine and I were doing an internship in an American tech startup. Back then, we were more than confident that one day we might be launching our own "thing", one (as in every stupid millennial dream) would eventually change the world or have at least an impact on it - or something in between.

In any case: This (whatever it would become) was BIG! ????

Little did we know.

So, we did what so many other millennials would then do: We finished our studies and started our quite regular careers (in IT) - never talking about this "idea" again - at least not for a long time.??

First World Problems

Fast forward to the end of 2017. I had just quit my job as an IT consultant replacing it by a new career as loyal employee of my latest customer, when I started to feel a void in my life. I remembered this "Big Thing" that we were supposed to start and realized: It had not happened, not in five years.

But here I was having traded in a 60 hour ("my job is my life, work hard, play hard") for a 35 hour ("5-9, can't this wait until Monday?") workweek. Which ultimately left me with the first world problem of:

How do I make the most out of 25 additional hours per week - at my free disposal? ??

New Hobbies

"You should get yourself a hobby", people kept telling me. Something deep inside me, however couldn't imagine me on a tennis court, at a chess table, or (God forbid!) in one of those "old lady" book clubs. Indeed, I started some hobbies:

• I started baking. ??
• I went back to the gym. ??
• I returned to coding. ?????
• I did a bit of tinkering. ???
• I started cooking. ?????
• I tried and failed at interior design (luckily got some good advisors, later on). ???
• I tried to grow a small vegetable garden on my balcony. ??
• Plus: I had purchased and started reading a large collection of books, mostly non-fiction, most of which I would never finish ... for some reason. ??

Apparently, I was preparing to become the perfect househusband, "the dream son-in-law" or something along that line. (My future wife might have been proud of me. ??) However, it was a long shot from becoming an entrepreneur or someone who would have an impact on the world. This had to change.

Why Not - An Innovation Think Tank

So, getting back to the Big Dreams. I had just finished mentally digesting the biographies of Jeff Bezos (more on his company later) and Elon Musk (I am serious!). This got me back in the "impact" vibes again. I was determined to give this thing another try, finally. The only question I was left with, was:

How would I be able to escape the 5-9 horror and pull this off?

I surely wasn't able to do this alone. I needed support. Then it hit me - like a line from a Hollywood movie:

Extraordinary things can be only accomplished by a group of extraordinary people.

In order to get the "Big Idea" off the ground I had to bring in the best people - and I had met plenty in my life: During school, at my time at university and in my job.

Determined like Danny Ocean (from "Ocean's 11") or Nick Fury (from "Avengers") I started recruiting my personal band of superheroes: I didn't make it to 11 though, but got 10 (!) highly ambitious and skilled people - all connected by the crazy idea to make a dent in the universe (mandatory Steve Jobs reference ??).

Besides this attitude, they all had one thing in common: Knowing me.

The organization was called "Why Not?" and its basic idea was to serve as an idea incubator, an innovation think tank, a mental power lab for any crazy idea we might give into it - some of those ideas eventually resulting in the foundation of one of the next Big Things (yes, plural now!). God, I loved this idea!

We started small - in a WhatsApp group because we all love WhatsApp groups. ??

Imagine: Bringing together a group of the most skilled, ambitious and inspiring people from your life in order to make them work jointly on the hardest challenges one could ever imagine - it was almost like living the Dream. ??

Then something happened.

Or rather: Nothing happened, nothing at all. I painfully realized that I was failing very slowly, almost in slow-motion, because "Why Not?" was not moving at all. We had a few smaller discussions around some ideas or where and when to meet for what might have become a sort of workshop. This went on for months with no real result. Engagement dropped, first people started leaving the group.

The organization lacked momentum, real physical meetings (even before the Pandemic) and a common vision or ground (besides everyone knowing me). I, on the other hand, lacked so many "founder" and "moderator" skills and ultimately failed this group as a leader. ??

"You got it all wrong" or "Start fast"

After it took me five years to fail in the most painful and slow way, i.e. by doing nothing or not enough, I was really surprised what life had in store for me next. After all, my attempt to found "Why Not?" was one of my biggest "you got it all wrong" moments in my life.

So what had I missed? What was next? Was the dream of "having an impact on this world" really over already - shortly after my 30th birthday? 5-9 househusband for the rest of my life? I did what everyone might do in this situation: I got drunk at a party...

Amazonians & A Glühwein Party

Not any party of course, a friend (and former client of mine) and his girlfriend invited me to one of their legendary "Glühwein Parties" (if you have no clue what "Glühwein" is, just google it ??). I then got caught up in, what I thought was one of those small talk conversations you would hardly remember, with some of the guests. Suddenly, the topic switched to books and got unexpectedly deep - almost too deep for that time in the evening.

This was new. A guy with a slightly Belgian accent (Hello, Andries ????) started passionately talking about the key takeaways of some of the books they were currently reading in ... a book club? He had previously mentioned that he, just like the hostess, worked at Amazon (here we go, Jeff). I first thought this has got to be some sort of joke. The Glühwein must have started to mess with my head.

It turned out, he was serious. It got even more intimidating as his girlfriend joined the conversation with the same sort of passion in her eyes: "Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely - it is really a great read - you should give it a try and join our next session!" This recommendation was followed by another guest confirming "I will also be joining again." (Guess, where he was working!)

I tried to recap: "Amazonians" at a Glühwein Party were trying to convince me to join their book club? Was this some sort of conspiracy? Punishment for me not paying my Prime subscription? I checked: This book was about psychology - potentially something about self improvement? I liked that. I had tried to read some of those books myself after my grand failure. Why not approach self help literature with a group of like minded peers?

EBBC - Not the Book Club You Know

First thing I learned was this: EBBC - The Entrepreneurial Business Book Club is not just a regular book club. It was founded as a part business, part entrepreneurial network in Brussels in Belgium about four years ago (read more about its history here) and has since then has expanded into more than 12 cities worldwide (!) with more than 150 active members and a network of over 1,200 contacts or former visitors - making it a truly global organization with the focus on personal growth. Sounded like the real Next Big Thing.

If you asked its founder, Colin Verhaegen, to give you an elevator pitch what EBBC is about, he would most probably tell you something along the lines of this:

EBBC's secret recipe is self-education combined with social learning. Mix this with an ambitious, entrepreneurial and enthusiastic group of (young) professionals and you get a dangerously interesting cocktail. EBBC members have set the audacious goal to get together on a monthly basis to discuss a book or topic, dig deeper into some of the important concepts, figure out how to put them into practice, share real life experiences and invite the author or people with authority in the matter to shine some extra light. Additionally, The Entrepreneurial Business Book Club provides a platform to launch new concepts, pitch business ideas and nurture a valuable (business) network with like-minded motivated and entrepreneurial individuals.

Within two years, this group of extraordinary people had built an organization that very much reminded me of TED(x). I had attended several of those events, too. But instead of only talking the talk (this is what TED talkers usually do most of the time, of course after having accomplished something of utter Greatness), EBBC mainly focuses on walking the walk. How do they do it?

Start with Why

Let's start with: Why do they do it?

One of my most favorite motivational speaker and authors, Les Brown, once said:

"Most people have done all they are ever going to do. They raise a family, they earn a living and then they die."

Most people? EBBC members might have other plans...

The members of EBBC are rallied behind what author Simon Sinek would call a strong Why. They believe in several principles and values, most notably:

• Transformation of Information into Knowledge (a.k.a. "Connecting the Dots"): Bringing together everything you have read, also across several media and books and turning it into (applicable) knowledge for your daily professional and private life.
• Personal Growth during Life Long Learning: Quite frankly: Forget about all your fancy degrees and titles - school is not over yet and will never be - as you want to continuously grow in your life in order to become the best version of yourself.
• Peer-to-Peer Learning and Mentoring (a.k.a. "The Accountability Buddy System"): Let's do this together in a powerful network of motivated people - and, at least, finish some of those books you never finished, while we coach each other with shared wisdom and new perspectives on the topics.

However, the core promise of EBBC sums this up in the best way:

"We activate (y)our knowledge."

This is EBBC's Why.

Still feeling like "earn a living and then die"? ?? - Please don't and stay with me.

Here is some diagram showing some of the properties of your "best future self" in terms of your professional life:

EBBC brings people a step closer to becoming those persons - being transformed both by their passion and simply, necessity to survive in the future world of work. Think about it...

My EBBC Journey - "Start fast"

So back to: How do they do it?

Let me explain by taking you on my personal journey now. Back then, at my first session, it was a "fast start" with an almost vertical learning curve - as opposed to the "fail slowly" before. But let me be clear about it: I was in there for the grind this time. I like uphill battles.

Participating in a Session

A circle of chairs, some grey-haired seniors (don't get me wrong - all age groups are welcome at EBBC ??) and the question "what does the author want to tell us by...?" are usually not part of an EBBC session. But isn't EBBC a book club?

EBBC does not work like your regular local book club. Sessions are designed as interactive workshops that require you to actively participate most of the time, be it by sharing your thoughts in a smaller or larger group - all guided by a session host and mostly centered around a single (mostly non-fiction) book.

The community decides which book to read next after a book pitch at the beginning of a session, where a future session host is briefly presenting three books - one of which the community will read within the next month. The next session will be about this book.

This session might include pen and paper exercises for personal reflection, elements of design thinking to apply swarm intelligence and, of course, intense discussions to share a kaleidoscope of perspectives. Every session is different, but always fun. ??

Exhibit A - EBBC Munich: Mandatory Selfie at Session End

At the end of most sessions, there is an afterparty networking part.

In Munich, we always order pizza and maybe grab some beer. What better way to end an exhausting 9-5 workday? ????

Hosting Your Own Session

Since 2018, I had the honor to host a session three times. Let me tell you this: You don't have to practice at Toastmasters to do so. Actually, the session is not about you. It's by the community for the community. You simply act as a guide who leads the group through different aspects of the book. You can either decide on your own which aspects you pick or - I tried this once or twice - let the group decide during the session, which makes it more interesting, but also harder to prepare.

You are never alone at EBBC, not even during session preparation. People from the Core Team like Céline, Viktor or co-founder Stefaan are there to support you transforming whatever mediocre idea you had into a truly valuable session. Due to their experience (being past session hosts themselves or having supported past session hosts), they can best tell you what worked so far. And if "valuable" is not good enough for you and you would like to go for a "mind-blowing" session instead, they are also there to encourage you to implement novel bold approaches that will shake up things.

Here are some impressions from the sessions I hosted so far:

EBBC Munich - Jane McGonigal - Reality is Broken (2019)

EBBC Munich - Vanessa Van Edwards - Captivate (2019)

EBBC Online/From your Living Room - Simon Sinek - The Infinte Game (2020)

As a true and honest feedback culture, EBBC members will also give you feedback on the session, most of which has been encouraging and really inspiring to me. I was most grateful for people telling me about their key takeaways and how we managed to activate their knowledge once again.

Thank you so much! ??

Further Contribution (International Core Team)

Despite what the title of this article might suggest, the EBBC is far from being managed as an "Empire" - it is a great example of participatory leadership how the international core team works together - with Colin holding everything and everyone together.

EBBC is actually organized in so called "chapters" (pun intended? ??) which are regional smaller teams (one so called "chapter lead" + supporting members) that are in charge for organizing a session in a particular city. This is both challenging but also way easier than you would expect because if you decided to set up a chapter in your city you will also receive tons of support from the team.

But there are a lot of other things going on the core team - including activities like Social Media marketing, community building, creating new formats and event types, getting in touch with book authors, curating past session content, managing our website and (lately) YouTube channel. It never gets boring in this team!

(This is why I decided to get more involved at the beginning of 2020 and became part of the Core Team.)

EBBC Online - How to deal with a Crisis

At this point, I remember Andries telling me: "EBBC is way bigger than you think, Sven." We were operating out of Munich all the time. Little did I know ...

As the first lock-down began to take shape over Europe, EBBC was shaken by the crisis as well. How should we continue to have sessions that are mainly based on new people meeting new people with measures like social distancing in place?

In a conference call with all the local chapter leads in early 2020, Colin and Stefaan made a bold suggestion: Why not turn this around and use the crisis as an opportunity to bring together all the members of the single chapters distributed across the globe in one large online format? This was the birth of "EBBC Online" (earlier: EBBC from Your Living Room).

The format (hosted on Zoom) did exactly two things: It definitely helped people with not getting crazy locked up in their living rooms, but it also brought together the global EBBC community in ways we had never imagined - in sessions that had close to 100 participants.

Being a former consultant in the larger field of "Digitalization", I offered my support here and took over the responsibility for EBBC Online, a few months ago. We are now planning to re-design the format to be also past-Pandemic compatible. Thanks again Colin and Stefaan for entrusting me with this!

EBBC Couch Surfing

Some time between Wave 1 and Wave 2 I decided to try some EBBC couch surfing (bad pun intended, couldn't resist ??) and paid some folks in the Netherlands a visit. It was an awesome trip - and totally worth the two subsequent luckily negative Corona tests I had to endure.

Seriously, travel responsibly in those times! (Even exceptional people like these can wait to meet you during Wave 2.) But hey, you can meet them online! ??

EBBC Amsterdam x Munich x Maastricht/Heerlen

My plans for 2021? Brussels, Ghent, Helsinki, Singapore, and maybe Sidney? (Yes, there are EBBC chapters in all those cities.) Let's see...

What is Next?

Since its inception, we have tried many experiments, new even formats or even spin-offs out of EBBC. Here some of them to mention but a few:

• EBBC x TEDx: We just gathered to watch and discuss some (online) TED talks - inspiration intoxication guaranteed! Next step: Get live TED talks.
• EBBC Invites ("Author Series"): Best-selling authors partner up with us to create even more valuable sessions about topics of their expertise with interactive Q&A's (don't mix those up book promotion events!).
• EBBC Activation Workshops: Follow-up events for regular session that deepen a certain topic in a smaller group leading to even more knowledge activation.
• (Spin-Off) Fireside Chat: A smaller group of members gathering to discuss random topics about life, career and philosophy - do this around a campfire, in a bar - or in Zoom ??
• EBBC x [Topic] - "Gateway Sessions": A session that is supposed to give members access to a certain topic. We plan to launch such an event on Stoicism soon - stay tuned!

Being "pandemic-proof" EBBC is expanding to Spain and Africa next - honestly, there are only only few continents left on the map. ??

Impact

So, I started off with "Why not?" and ended up at EBBC - what a ride! I recently learned from author Christian Busch that this phenomenon is called "serendipity" (The Serendipity Mindset).

I wanted to have an impact on the world. EBBC definitely had an impact on my life. This is something I cannot say about many organizations that I would know. (If you know me, actually, I am not an "organization" type of guy, at all, usually.)

I could go on like this for pages, but the best way to get to know EBBC is experience the "magic" first hand. How? See below...

I want to close this article with a shout out to all those people who make EBBC a great place to be (some of them I have already mentioned - sorry for all, I might have forgotten!). So, thank you:

• Andries Jonniaux
• Viktor Papara
• Céline Raue
• Colin Verhaegen
• Stefaan Bonte
• Kim Bracke
• Meryl Rowlands

There is no better team in this world to pull this off!

If you are still not convinced about the idea, let me leave you with one quote from John Maxwell:

Don't ask yourself 'How long will it take?', ask yourself: 'How far can I go?'

Disclaimer

Before you ask: "This sounds too good to be true. Where is the catch?" There is none. EBBC is a non-profit organization. No one (including me in this article) is selling you anything and you are not being sold either. (For more on being sold, please watch: thesocialdilemma.com).

At the beginning of this year, the organization introduced a membership/sponsor model in order to cover operational costs and enable further expansion - as a member you become a "patron"/contributor and you are supporting a great organization, but you don't have to in order to visit the sessions.

If you would like to learn more, go to www.ebbc.global.

If you would like to join one of our sessions online or near your hometown go to: https://ebbcrocks.eventbrite.com/

Time for #somethingnew in a world that does not need #moreofthesame.

Never forget: #thestrugglebeginstoday

Cheers, Sven!

(Note: The links I am using for books and authors are not affiliate links or promotion of any kind! No, Amazon is not my sponsor. If you don't like them - please, feel free to go to BOL or somewhere else.)