How can a restless mind ?act for impact??

Lars Peter Svane’s insight on the "EO Unlimited Barcelona” Conference

Imagine a place where hundreds of restless people meet, committed to the idea of changing the world through positive impact. This is what recently happened in Barcelona, where the last global event of EO – Entrepreneurs’ Organization took place. The EO Unlimited conference has already turned into a milestone for the worldwide community of EO’ers, a pausing moment in everyday life to learn from each other’s personal experiences and get inspired by great leaders and like-minded people.

The motto of the 2023 edition of EO Unlimited “Act for Impact” carries a certain urge that strikes the core of a community of leaders whose purpose is to be disruptive. Three days hosting some of the most inspiring speakers in a journey intended to be a transformative gathering of entrepreneurial minds.

Lars Peter Svane is one of these restless minds that found the opportunity for personal and professional improvement in a network of #leaders that share the vision of impacting through purpose.

He is currently a member of the EO Chapter of Portugal, but his professional life has not always been that of an entrepreneur. Before that, Lars spent 10 years in Brussels working as an energy lobbyist and trustbusting for the European Union. Born in Copenhagen, he studied political sciences and economics, he is fluent in German, French, Dutch and his native Danish and, after giving up trying to learn Russian, he is now trying to learn Portuguese instead.

Already in his thirties, he made a career change and founded EuroBrussels - a europewide #jobsite for lobbyists, economists, policy-wonks, consultants, lawyers and world-savers. The original business idea soon evolved into the company EuroJobsites , which specialises in international experts willing to move to jobs in other European countries. Pretty soon, Lars understood that the business opportunity was in “niche job boards” which took the company to the next level, creating EuroScienceJobs , EuroEngineerJobs , EuroPharmaJobs , EuroClimateJobs and EuroLegalJobs . In 2023 he acquired a jobsite for rocket scientists and space engineers – Space-Careers.com – that is now part of the portfolio, with clients like EUMETSAT and AIRBUS .

EuroJobsites is a regular presence in industry conferences and recruitment fairs all over Europe and most of the niche job boards have tens of thousands of specialised #jobseekers following their newsletters and alerts. Designed for specific and highly trained professionals, they are by now a reference for specialised target audiences.

Attending “EO Unlimited Barcelona” created the perfect opportunity to share his life experience and to understand what made him shift towards entrepreneurship.

Being a European citizen and a firm supporter of the European Community, it seems that you were in the right place to leave your mark. Why, after 10 years working for the EU, did you decide on a career change?

I felt very strongly about creating one European market for all European people and businesses and I met many inspiring people that tried to do that in Brussels, too. I had already tried the top down work in the political world in an industry association in Brussels for 5 years and 4 more years policing the open European market, making sure subsidies didn’t ruin the newly deregulated markets for public service, energy and environment, Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the intellectual challenge and the many interesting international people I met in Brussels, but it did sometimes feel like a zero-sum game.

I had built a small jobsite that grew explosively to have tens of thousands of fans who shared that dream of a job in the EuroBrussels world. Ironically, building that tool with my co-founder Richard gave me a unique opportunity to jump from one idealistic world into another one, the startup world.

Having already tried for some ways to push for Europe to be more like one market, it felt like I had to try this unique opportunity of creating something bigger from the bottom up. I had a lingering suspicion that someone else might do the job I did for the EU just as well as myself. So, I tried something that seemed even more exciting at the time and moved to the startup world. I felt I had to try while I had the opportunity, or I might regret it for the rest of my life.

Most people wouldn’t probably have jumped from one ideal to the other. The fear of change can sometimes paralyze us. What made you overcome that?

I am pretty optimistic person, quite persistent and I am driven, so I couldn’t let the opportunity go. I also consider myself as an international person. I grew up considering Europe as my country. So, my dream of spending time creating a market for highly skilled Europeans, made sense. I can make the world a better place, while also helping European businesses benefit from the open European market, and in turn break down national stereotypes on the old continent, creating something bigger than one country. And, do it as a commercial business, not as a government institution.

In what way do you consider important to balance your professional life with your personal growth?

For me, it is important to build something - in my short life - in which I believe. Making a small difference in the world, but big enough for it to be exciting. Making a difference for the ambitious jobsite users, my colleagues, organisations and companies in exciting industries like #Climate, #Biotech and #Space that inspire me. Being able to have a stimulating professional life and pushing the world a little bit in the right direction, while having enough time to enjoy the privilege of having a wonderful wife, two young kids, as well as family in three/four countries, combined with an amazing network of friends from 20-30 countries in Brussels, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Sofia, London, Kiev and across the planet.

Listening to you brings to mind Gandhi’s statement “be the change you wish to see in the world”. How can you actively be that?

By believing in a more international labour market in Europe. OK, starting from the top with the highly skilled and more international people, helping to break down the stereotypes about different nationalities, focusing on people exploring opportunities across the continent. Hopefully, we can help opening resourceful people’s eyes for exciting possibilities in politics, climate, science, even space – to be part of making Europe and the world a more open and curious place through catalysing new inventions, science, technology, cooperation, open markets and seeing an optimistic future for the planet despite all the challenges we face. In doing so, I give my little contribution to ensuring Europe continues to be a force for the good and an ardent defender of open societies across the planet.

Please, bear with me and picture yourself at the moment of your death (let’s hope it will happen many years from now!). What would you consider to be a life well lived? In other words, what is your measure of success?

A balanced life where I managed to live out some of my dreams of creating something, while exploring the world with the people I love. I enjoy spending time with people that I get inspired from and can help inspire. Being able to enjoy life with a family in an international, open world with some like-minded people.

When you see war in Europe and close by, you realise we have lost some of the things we took for granted so recently, and we all have a responsibility to make a small contribution to help building a more positive future. If you have that feeling, you achieved your potential and then, when you close your eyes for the last time, you can look back at your life and smile.

Let us talk about the event “EO Unlimited Barcelona” . What took you to this event? Was there any trigger that made you decide to attend? Any specific speaker or topic you would like to listen to?

I had read some of the book “Scaling Up” by Verne Harnish before joining EO, and also the book “Scale” co-authored by Jeff Hoffman . As a “scaler” myself, I felt so curious… Both of these guys in the same place! I also believe in impact as a driver for business, so when I read about Wendy Van Ierschot ’s work, I became very curious too. She was going to focus on understanding the different stages of business growth and I felt I had to listen to her insights.

The attraction of meeting hundreds of other like-minded people is also just a fun way to learn. To be honest, meeting so many other entrepreneurs from big EO locations and being able to get inspired by people like Christopher Pommerening and his “LearnLife” project in an amazing place like Barcelona… made me very anxious to go, too.

I guess this may be difficult for you, but was(were) there any moment(s) that you would like to highlight?

When Dandapani Satgunasingam asked us what we would do if we knew we just had one hour left to live, I think many of the very ambitious and driven entrepreneurs in the room remembered, not only how important their loved ones are to them, but also why they came to the event.

One of the things EO does so well is to constantly remind us that business, family and personal goals are interlinked and that you cannot live a happy life without some sort of balance between the three. Starting the conference with such a thought gave us a great way of breaking down barriers between the participants.

#Impact, #purpose” and #legacy are three concepts/ideas that were addressed by several of the speakers. How important are they in growing a business as well as in your own personal growth? How does EO help you in achieving that?

Peer-to-peer forums force you to think about your business as something you do not just to make money. Holding up a mirror in front of yourself at the monthly EO forum is a very healthy exercise. When you do that with a small group of people that are also driven, that have come some of the way, already with an established start-up and wonder how to get to the next stage, that becomes a “high bandwidth” discussion. It helps to see that other “scalers” not only debate with themselves how to balance business with bigger goals, but also still have to balance that with spending some time with their families. They also need to feel they get a personal kick? out of it, while avoiding? burn out on the way. Taking the time to spend half a day with a group of other founders and “scalers” every month and sharing experiences in a safe, confident, but “high bandwidth” EO Forum makes a lot of sense to me.

That is also what I felt in Barcelona. This ability to share experiences made the event a place where I found a combination of inspiring speakers pushing us to question ourselves and other entrepreneurs going through similar challenges. The fact that these other EO’ers are not “just” dreamers but also “doers” makes those discussions far more relevant.

One final question. We were off record when you asserted that an entrepreneur needs to be resilient like a bop bag. I found the metaphor very accurate and visual. I would like to go back to that. What did you mean?

I think being an #entrepreneur is not suitable for everyone. It takes a certain type of personality. You don’t have the safety and security of a big corporate organisation or government institution. You don’t have a guarantee that you will be an important officer on a big ship sailing across the big seas. Instead, you set out in a small boat and have just enough “tunnel vision” and uber-optimism to believe you will beat all the critics and build an even bigger boat while still sailing it. So, you get to choose the direction and decide when you want a break, how much you want to see and how many people you are taking on the trip. And there is the risk the boat will tilt and you will have to swim ashore to survive. But that’s what entrepreneurs are. We are mad sailors that enjoy building something and being independent enough to try to challenge the status quo. We must wish to disrupt something, to change, to improve, to inspire the world. And if we fall, fail, sink – we are able to accept that the loss is not a catastrophe, that even falling in the water doesn’t mean you can’t swim ashore and build a new ship. Perhaps a different one with a different crew, but an entrepreneur will not give up. Being able to do that without neglecting our family and ourselves is a tough balancing act, but entrepreneurs seem to have the bop bag quality of always getting back up again whenever they fail or fall. That’s the kind of people you want to invest in, work with, be inspired by, and spend your life with, I think.

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