This time, it's personal

[edit 29/03: Guillaume, aka Guigui, aka Giyume... was there too!]

I started this blog to share some thoughts and start some discussions on the topics of leadership, entrepreneurship. It has embraced wider topics already.
I've received some feedback that some people don't like my blog. They say it's too serious. 2009 is the year in which I've learned that I can survive people not liking what I do. So far so good :)
I've received some feedback that my posts are too long. I agree. It is not the most convenient way to carry my message, plus I should really learn to synthesize my ideas more around here.I've tried to write everything (a bit) shorter.
I have NOT received ANY feedback on the fact that my blog is not personal at all, that I dont share anything about my life or almost nothing. Still, I think it is too big a limit, and my ideas and points of view cannot be understood if i do not say what I'm going through on my personal life.

I've moved in a new flat with 3 amazing people: Viviane, Abhishek, François.
International people : Brazil, India, France, but they've all lived abroad, as have I.
Crazy people: our "flat meetings" last 2 hours or more and are punctuated by the wailing of a toy hippopotamus from a McDonald's happy meal, supposedly impersonating the female hero from the hit animation movies Madagascar 1 & 2.
Beautiful people: since I've moved in, I have had total peace of mind as to the fact that we can work out any problem together, that we will grow & develop together, and that we all try to be as meaningful as we can in our daily lives.

Last saturday took place a semi-official House warming party. It was a great evening!! I had my high-school friends coming over, most of them visiting my new place for the first time. A couple of friends from 'classes prépa'. A few friends from business school showed up as well, and it was great to feel that the connection created from studying together for 3 years (and maybe, also, from working in aiesec together for 1 year :p ) was still here. Aiesec people of course, friends and friends-to-be,who I've met recently. My sister also came, who I've seen less since I moved in here, though she works in Paris too.
Thanks a lot for showing up Audrey (x2), Céline, Faïza, Irène, Maryse, Manon, Mélanie, Sophie, Abdo, Benjamin, David, François, Guillaume Pat, Tri.
They brought me the perfect gifts for my current stage of settling, among which: a Lonely planet pocket guide of NEw York City, which is gonna be soooo useful for my two weeks there this summer.... , and a cocktail shaker with a 150-recipe book.

It's not so often that I manage all those busy people at the same place & time, so that was a really unique night.

On the whole, life if pretty hectic now, with heavy work hours, yet work is (almost) always personaly rewarding . On average, one person is crashing our flat every week, so we always have the company of the usual flatmates and new, changing faces for one or two days. It's a great lifestyle so far, it's a bit the anti-habit life, as everyday something new and surprising happens. Like when we all try to find where the water main tap is, or when try to clean under the oven, in the kitchen, and find new forms of life no one suspected could exist ;)

That reminds me I have to go and cook something.

Good night world.

The Sunday Morning Factor

Have you noticed how many unusual things happen on Sunday mornings? Do you feel that there is something special about that precise time of the week, where everything seems better, simpler, where your mind is more relaxed?
Probably a lot of people just spend it sleeping, after coming home at 7 from an all-night-long hardcore party. It does happen to me from time to time!

A couple of things made this morning - and it's not even over yet! - different:
1. I got a new mobile phone last week, and I now have unrestricted, unlimited access to internet and 20 TV channels , 24/7, from anywhere as long as my mobile catches a signal.
2. some day in september 2003, soon after joining the business school I graduated from, I stepped through a door labelled "Aiesec" because I thought there might be something of interest.

Now let's look at the consequences:
1. as Thomas Friedman, world-reknown columnist & economy journalist, explains in book, "The World is Flat" (or on Amazon.com), the current trend is for increased connection of individuals to the global society & economy, and one of the things that individual can now do is "in-forming". He means that "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people-on their own-had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people". One of the consequences he describes a bit further in hte book is that every person with access to a computer and internet can be his/her own news reporter, can create his own information, comparing sources, relating events between each other, balancing perspectives coming from different places and build up his own opinion on a topic with a lot more foundation than ever before.
So I got this new mobile with internet, and as I rode the train back from my parent's place to my current flat, I was surfing on facebook (yes, they do have a mobile site). and one of the news caught my attention, it was an update about Janne Asmala.
That brings us to point 2.
2. Janne is a Finnish chap I met in 200...5 (I think?), at an Aiesec conference. It's amazing how much change in life has derived from my stepping through that door back in 2003. So in 2005 he was a student in Finland, aiming for a master in Knowledge Management. Meeting him was a striking experience for me because we were just 20 years old and he had already read an amazing lot about philosophy, the power of the mind, and education system. Within Aiesec, pushed simply by his strong inner belief, he started a move to change the education systems globally. I'm not sure how that move is now, but back then it resulted in discussion groups at several conferences, involving dozens of students from just about any country, and I'm sure it was a life changing experience for them. Witnessing this phenomenon made me understand better how a single person, just following his own path and inner conviction, can bring change and involve people into something bigger than just themselves.

So, surfing on facebook, i went to read his latest post, which led me, following the links at random, to learn about the book "Presence". As one of the amazon.com reviewed it:
"The authors' central question is "How do we individually and collectively bring about useful change in circumstances where the past, and established ways of thinking, are not good guides to the future?" If, as the authors believe, globalization, the exponentially growing impact of humans on the environment, and the overwhelming power and influence of a small number of global corporations have produced a situation in which accepted ways of thinking and acting are no longer appropriate, what are the appropriate ways of thinking and acting and how do we learn them, get them accepted and promote their widespread adoption? Is this an issue only for those in 'positions of power', or can all of us make a difference?"

I found myself looking at an excellent phrasing for a question that I have been focusing on lately: the challenge of change in environments that are not receptive to it. I think this is also a question that a lot of people are asking themselves at the moment, what with general climate change, economical slow-down (I'm an "anti-crisis"!), etc.
However this sentences poses quite a number of problems. Starting with the definitions of the words used :"useful change", and "established ways of thinking", are very much subjective. The very idea of "useful change" is extremely controversial", as differet people will see it differently. Also, what can be considered an "established way of thinking"? the average habit of the majority of the population? A statistical opinion at a given point in time?
I do not have answers for this, but I definitely intend to look into this topic. It is one of the questions that emerged from the Kitchen Discussion. But that is another story... that I keep for next time.

I hope you all make good use of your Sunday mornings. It is a time for extraordinary events, that will link your peaceful resting morning to places far away in space and time. It works if you read a book too :)
Long live Sunday mornings!

Home, Slevin, and the auto-playlist

This post was in my "drafts" folder, like 15 others, but I've decided that my blog should be consistent with my general effort to make 2009 a "result-oriented" year for me.. Therefore I'll unearth today this post started on Feb, 28th 2009. It's still more or less accurate.
In the last couple of days, a number of random events made me think about home.

First, a post on Meebo's blog. Meebo is a great online instant-messaging (IM) platform, which you should totally check out if, like me, you prefer to access everything online than to install some more software. Second, the movie « Garden State », which I just watched again, as I stumbled upon it in my dvd stack.

It's a really good movie (Zach Braff is directing, it's his first movie, you probably know him more as the young doctor named « J.D » in the series « SCRUBS »), and I liked it even more as I watched it this second time. A 26-year-old comes back from L.A. to his hometown, somewhere lost in the middle of the U.S., for family reasons an meets again with his high school friends, his parents;meets someone new, too. All his old friends have stayed exactly where they were; not really going anywhere. They are not dreaming so big, definitely not bigger than the size of the town they were born in. Having been outside for 9 years, he left a teenager and comes back a grown-up. He wonders where he belongs, and what to do with that birthplace where his former life is, but to which he cannot go back.

True fact about the movie: the soundtrack is absolutely amazing (Coldplay, back in the days they weren't even so famous; Remy Zero; the Shins; Colin Hay; Simon & garfunkel; Thievery corporation; etc etc.) And because there is no reason why should struggle to find it,it is probably the music you have been listening to since you entered this page. It's autoplay, and shuffled, for a seamless and ever-renewed blog experience!! Powered by deezer, but I'm definitely looking into Jiwa soon, as a lot of my "reference people" as regards music tell me it's quite better.

Home is where your relatives are. Home is where you come from. Home is where you will spend the rest of your life. Home is where you spent the most time (can an office be a home?). Home is where you feel safe. And although Josh Hartnet teaches us otherwise in the excellent motion picture "Lucky Number Slevin" (that link is in French), i'm going to use a word i'm trying to define in its own definition: for me, "home is where you feel 'at home' ". Somewhere you belong, somehow.
I recently moved in with 3 exceptional individuals, we are sharing a large flat in one of the most amazing cities of the world, but it could be anywhere else on the planet I guess, the feeling would be the same. I miss my previous home. The more connections I create here, the less I will miss the past. I suppose.
It's hard to say whether I'll ever feel 'at home' enough to actually settle, and never move out again. I know some of you people reading this are asking yourself the same question. But if I keep my definition, home is just a safe environment and the meaningful relations... then my home will always be traveling with me, around me, or at least stay within reach of an email of a phone call.

When was the last time you felt at home? and when was the last time you felt that you could be at home anywhere?

good night world

Working on my long term plans

A thousand trees

..."It only takes one tree to make a thousand matches,
it only takes one match to burn a thousand tress. " ....

A Thousand Trees, written & performed by the Stereophonics, in the album "Word Gets Around".

Got me thinking about responsibility, and my understanding of that word.
My paradigm about responsibility comes from one of my most impactful experiences ever. Let's rewind, step by step, back to that meaningful moment:

2008 is a year to remember for many reasons, on a global perspective.
Personally, it was the first year in which I took the time to reflect on what moments had been critical for me, in my life until now, and what they meant, why they had happened the way they did, and is there something I should do about it if I ever find the answer to all my questions.

In the course of that thiking, I remembered one of the most impactful moments of my life; one which set me out on the Sustainable Development path and were I made to myself the commitment to care about the environmental consequences of my actions.

Looking back, it could have set me on a lot of other courses.

It happened in Aiesec.
Fall 2004, I’m in my LCP term at LC INT (now IT-SudParis), and I decide to attend EuroCo, the very first edition of this pan-european conference for LCPs. So, 121 LCPs from all the cities, from Lisbon (Protugal) to Iasi (Romania), and from Milan to Stockholm. 121 students from all over the continent, ages ranging from 19 to 26. On the 3d or 4th day of the conference, after a mind-blowing Outdoor Day where I truly understood the word “team building” and the challenge of facilitating a session, we went into a different kind of simulation.
A current-state-of-the-world reproduction, on a smaller scale.

Here is exactly how it happened.
As we entered the plenary room, each LCP was given a small piece of colored paper. Soon we found that there were different colors, and not all in the same quantity.
I was in the white group, the largest of all. In fact, I think we were almost 50 people in there. We had to split into 5 10-people groups. We were advised to all sit on the ground. The pink group, with 30 people, split as well in 3 smaller groups. the blue, green, and yellow, were accordingly getting smaller and smaller. In fact, the Yellow “group” was just one girl, from the Netherlands or Denmark maybe.
Then each group was given the details of its current situation, and of the situation of others. To sum it up, the largest, white group, represented countries with the most difficult socio-economico-political situation.
- We did not have stable politics ensuring the development, roll-out, and improvement of national policies
- our people did not have permanent access to education, even for children
- we did not represent a market significant enough that foreign investments would come fortify our economy: only international grants & donations were coming in
- possibly, we would undergo civil unrest and/or war, environmental pressure from flood and earthquakes, disease epidemics…
- women were being discriminated at all stages of the society, starting from school
- etc.
you get the picture.

For each group between us and the yellow group, the situation was increasingly better, so that this girl sitting on her chair, alone, represented what I could call the modern, western society:
- higher education available for the large majority of the population
- political stability and strong diplomatic relations with other well established nations
- public service for basic survival needs (housing, water, existing healthcare system)
- economy providing at least 80% of the population with jobs
- research & education running and cooperating with peers in other countries

After we read what we had, the facilitator (Caroline Gertsch from Switzerland, if memory serves) gave us our task:
- identify what you, as a country, can OFFER to and RECEIVE from countries that would be in the groups just “above” and just “below” your own.
- for the bottom group (49 people and me), we could only look “up”
- for the top group (the girl alone), she could only look “down”

We had 25 minutes to discuss in my group of 10 people what we could find to offer to any country, to attract investment. It was probably an intense discussion, full of interesting thoughts and remarks. It may as well have been dull. I don’t remember it. But I remember the conclusion. I can let you think about it if you want. You can take 5 minutes now, to think about what you would have said in our situation.


If you don’t want to spend this time now, I give the answer now, and you can do it later, by imagining, say, the second group (pink) and thinking about what they can offer and what they can receive from countries with relatively close situations.
Basically, all we had to offer were :
- our arms & legs for working
- our natural resources, scarce or hard to mine ourselves, due to lack of know-how and equipment.
And what we could expect from other countries:
- everything…

To be more specific, the first needs identified (my memory seems weak on this point)
- support for building infrastructure
- support for stabilizing the political society
- international help on meeting basic water & food demand
- funding for child education & support for creating quality higher education

That moment has impacted me up ot today, and will continue to do so: I don’t even have a clue how many countries in our actual word are part of that huge group so much in need of help.

I think I saw more the other end of the issue: the girl at the top of this giant pyramid of needs, the only one, closest to the top, had everyone to help. And she was really alone. She had everything the others did not even know they could want and have. I do not believe that this will happen by itself if we just let time pass. The top countries had a blank page and enough ink to write their way to the stars and back. Now the planet is crowded ("hot, flat & crowded" as some would put it) and we are "consuming" the environment faster than it renews itself. (see latest studies from Science & Vie in France, or your local science magazine, about the ratio between population and 'minimum required space of earth"-per-person... well, it doesn't look good right now, and its still going down).

A famous french writer wrote "if you dont do it, who will do it? if not now, when?" (André Gide, in Les Faux Monnayeurs).

That is the sense of responsibility that I got from that cold day of october 2004, in the middle of a room full of students I never imagined meeting one week before.

Last week, at the Winter National Conference, in my closing speech I mentionned the idea of "connecting oneself" to the world, and how aiesec helps you to do that, when you go through the full @Experience.

I felt connected to the world, and I saw myself sitting at the top of it and doing nothing but eating it away and not even knowing the consequences of my way of life and my actions.

I hope I made my experience understandable for you. If not, I'd like you to leave me a comment, and we can talk about it more in detail.

It's really ironic that we make matches from trees. We have to be careful with each match.

Goodnight world.

Escapades - 2

playlist for writing this post:
The Strokes, their complete "First Impressions of Earth" album (2006). Start with the first song, "You only live once"...
as I was messing around at the same time, I had to use a bit of :
Shakira's "MTV Unplugged" (2000) towards the second part :)

Today's "Escapade" is not mine. I heard two life stories, and they both started exactly the same: a bright young graduate worked as a consultant/auditor for a global, world-renowned firm, in a glass-and-steel sky-rise in La Défense. Namely, the main Central business District in the area of Paris.
Then one day they felt like doing something else. Resigned from their jobs, from one day to the next (or almost). And started their own adventure.

1. The first one set out to create a firm selling natural, waterless car-cleaning solutions. He thought we should stop using so much water to wash car, and also he found that the existing products for washing cars without water were not so efficient.
Going back to his family home in the North of France, he started his own company. His family was soooo skeptical. SOooooooooooo skeptical! He knew nothing about the car-washing business, and had little idea about what organic components should be included.
He just carried on. After 3 years, most of his relatives are actually working in the company he founded. His mother, who was most worried about his future, is the most active and enthousiastic employees.
He offers professional washing services, his main customers are companies that manage fleets of vehicles (private industry, but also public institutions, or car rental companies). he washes a car in a couple of hours, with products using only natural ingredients and without any water addition.
Talk about a sustainable business!
It looks like he wants to focus on developing this business a bit more, but who know what he can come up with next?

2. Amaury Bironneau was also a successful, as we say, French young graduate. He had started a career in one of those big multinational firms offering lots of benefits, and interesting jobs, of course.

Still, one fine day, he got in touch with Patrice Franceschi, captain of the exploration sailship "La Boudeuse". The ship, bearing a french flag and stationned in Paris, on the river Seine, is usually at large somewhere halfway to the other side of the planet.
The boat brings its crew to meet and exchange with peoples and cultures.
So Amaury met the captain, something "clicked" and he knew that he was ready to embark on a year-trip to the other side of the world, only a few weeks later, with 20 or so people that he had never met before.
So many things happen on those kind of experiences, it is all about "expect the unexpected"... In 'developing' countries, things do not work as they are supposed to, and coastguards will ask for bribes, medicine wont be available, people wont speak your language...
Amaury was born in a "farmer" environment, his family coming from the ground, he had no pre-set mind to go sailing. He just went, because it felt like something right for him to do, and he couldnt picture himself making a career, putting his suit on & shaving every morning, going into an air-conditionned office.

The ability to make a risky decision, a committing life-choice, in order to get closer to one's true self and personal path. Now, that is what I call a leadership behavior.

I feel the same sometimes. We all want different things at different stages of our lives. At the moment, i dont want so much change that I'll go to Papua New Guinea. What happens when I do? How much time will I allow myself to prepare?
The future is gonna be such a great time! Incidentally, it is also the place where we are going to spend most of our remaining lifetime, so it better be great!!

the most AWESOME blog post ever!!

at the general request, here is a custom dedicated post to two amazing friends.
By alphabetical order:
Christine, from Mexico, teacher, globe-trotter, care giver and always cheerful, who keeps blowing our minds with her unique way to stay optimistic and love life like no one else I know
Ellen, from Germany, journalist (yet?), fine observer of the world, acute analyst of her time & surroundings, who entertains our crowd with her delightful way to recount anecdotes and tells about people so that you will know everything about them even if you never met them.

also, I agreed to write that this would be the most awesome blog post ever published :)
thanks to both of you for being here, even when you are away... well you know what I mean!