Thoughts by the founder of AFFEXCO.com

I need to tell you something, and this is a longer read. But it's worth reading so, don't leave yet.

I founded the global executive coaching company AFFEXCO global / AFFEXCO.com so it could become an alternative, or a surplus to existing companies.

My thoughts were as follows: this world is divided into a rich part and a poorer part, that we now call emerging economies. Chances for people to live good lives in these 2 parts differ very much. It was sheer luck for me to be born in the rich part, and I've enjoyed the benefits of it: I grew up in Amsterdam with a wonderful and diverse schooling system where there were choices for kids with all sorts of different cognitive capabilities. And each and everyone of us went to school. I grew up with a fantastic health system, accessible to all through great insurances. I grew up in a politically open environment, where there was freedom of speech and through that, very meaningful exchange of thoughts and ideas. But I was the child of a mother born and raised in Indonesia and a father born and raised in Amsterdam. Totally different cultures and my siblings and I paid a price for that.

From very early on in my life, I got interested in the differences between rich and poor countries. While growing up, I started to acknowledge how unreasonable these differences are. My friends and me, we discussed a lot around reasons for this: climate, colonialism, religion, state and private corruption, sheer culture differences, trade barriers etc. We all had and have our opinions on this. Yet I felt that all people in the world should have the same possibilities as I had. And we all know: they don't.

Growing up, I learned a lot of languages. Why? Because in languages, I read culture, there's so much lost in translation. And worst of all, one doesn't know what get's lost. My aim was to cover many cultures with them. So I have a stronger or weaker hold on English, German, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Dutch, Russian and Arabic. I started on Chinese but chose to leave that for a while. Knowledge of these gives me ample possibility to understand quite a bit of 'neighbouring' languages, like other slavic ones, other roman ones say italian, scandinavian languages like Danish and Swedish etc.

I felt more and more that I was and am a world citizen, not just a Dutch one by birth, not an inhabitant only of Norway, where I live.

I studied medicine and became a medical doctor, later on a specialist in psychiatry, more specifically child- and adolescent psychiatry. My main interest was and is: how change in communication can (re)create safety and trust, and by that, change individuals' lives for the better in the whole system that both kids and adults are a part of. And there I understood that that counts as much for adults as for kids.

My father was a carpenter who sort of against his own wish inherited a larger tools business when my uncle died suddenly. I remember him hardly ever being at home, always working in the shops, from early morning to late night. It was his and only his work, that earned the family its good life. We fought and fought when I was a teenager, we had very tough times. But he made my life possible. One of my brothers started his own business when he was around 19 yrs old and has ever since put bread on his own table and on the tables of many others. I'm very proud of my hardworking family. And in a way, I know how it is to 'be part of' a family business.

Business people need to work their heads off to earn their money. They often don't have time to be sick, no time to fuzz about. They are, in many ways, my heroes. They are the ones always setting new goals as well as being met with strong demands for change to stay in business.

So I wanted to help them, support them, be by their side, in good times and bad times. I became a certified coach, using many overlapping skills from my training as a medical doctor and a psychiatrist.

And after becoming a certified coach, I have been using my private money to build up AFFEXCO.com / AFFEXCO global, coaches and consultants. We're not at all a rich company but we don't want investors, because our main aim is not to earn as much as possible, it is to earn reasonable money by doing good to the world. Investors can change that intention. But we are always looking for sponsors, financial supporters, foundations, partners who want to and can enhance what we do, build synergy with us.

I mostly hand-picked the coaches in my team, situated around the world and will carry on with that. I need to be sure that they/we all work on the same basis: we support the UN SDGs. That means we say yes to contracts with any company, where the contracts show that the job at hand moves the company towards increased sustainability. It doesn't have to be much, every little step is a step on the way. But we say no to companies moving away from them, no matter how much we could have earned.

To be able to be an important actor globally, we need companies on every continent to support us. Contracting us, a company that never will work 'away from the UN SDGs', will in itself be a step towards more sustainability, as is easy to understand. In general, the SDGs picture a 'dream' of a perfect world for all its inhabitants. Not many of us believe that dream ever will come true. But there's absolutely no reason NOT to aim and work for it, while all making money. Business will always exist and renew itself proudly, future ROI being both financially and human.

Off late I've challenged quite a few persons, both in speech and in writing. I've pointed out that there seems to be a new hypocrisy, the sustainability hypocrisy. Companies in rich countries meet government demands for sustainability. They ascertain traceability of their supply chains and earn good money by increasing the sales price of their sustainable products. But the supplying countries, often in all parts of the world except Europe and the USA, where the market lies, pay a new price: they need to invest in necessary change while their buyers in the west won't give them a penny more than they did 10 yrs ago. We hear and we see. So I've said, this is not sustainability, this is in no way sustainable. Increasing the income gap between west and east is not sustainable thinking. Sustainability is not only on your doorstep, it's a global thing, definitely. Reducing the income gap is more sustainable. Giving children in any part of the world the possibility to go to school in stead of to work is sustainability. Better water quality, safer working environments, a far larger insurance coverage of workers around the globe, that's part of real sustainability. I've challenged them. I want a better world.

That's why my company targets businesses in any country of the world, willing to make those small steps into the right direction. By choosing AFFEXCO.com /AFFEXCO global as their coaching partner, we can grow stronger together, actually making this world and our own lives a little better. We need you as much as you might need us to get there.

Last but not least: of course we work with good European and American companies as well. We like to say that we can do 'supply chain shepherding' or 'value chain shepherding', because our coaches work in both ends of these chains, also geographically. We're located both in Europe and the USA as well as in Asia, Africa and South-America.

My dream was to establish a worldwide values based coaching company. A paid for service as I believe companies commit to services they buy and our coaches around the globe cannot live of air alone. It has been a long road so far, a very rewarding one in many ways. We hope for, need and work hard to attract more contracts, more financial supporters in order to be able to keep our fees reasonable and accessible, partners and executive coaches throughout this world. We need the support of good people around the globe to spread this message, to build our networks, you can help us with that.

My dream and the absolute wish of the fantastic coaches in our company was and is to support companies in building up, increasing revenue, changing processes and operations. To succeed creating win-win(-win) situations for all involved. We're here.

Enjoy your week end!

Ben