Well, Tuesdays are a good one for those (well, they’ve proven to be in the past 2 weeks anyway).

Being someone who loves a good song, sang from the heart, I’ve been going to the singer/songwriter night in Sappho on the Vijzelstraat in Amsterdam (straight across the old ABN building). Nice vibe, good music, cheap beer and great staff.

Well, my point being, last Tuesday we (together with Artun) went to Sappho again and met an awesome singer/songwriter by the name of Matthew Davies. Besides making super nice music, also a fun guy to hangout with, although I’m not entirely sure whether he was too convinced of our sanity (completely understandable, I’ll spare you the details). BUT, I’d like to put his music out there. Check it out! =)

Matthew in StumpJack Coffee in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

You can find him: here & Myspace with more songs of his making.

Also, perhaps if you’re around Amsterdam, come to Sappho next Tuesday, it’s a blast! Perhaps good to know, it’s an initiative by the Amsterdam Songwriter guild

Maybe see you round, otherwise, take care and enjoy the music!

Love & Peace,

Len

It’s a new device brought to the world by Korg. It’s called the Koassilator and it has over a 100 different musical programs, loads of beat patterns, piano’s, violins, synths and other applications. Here’s an example of the machine at work.

This one is also awesome, it’s called the Tenerion and the video below kind of shows the application of the product (when you’re a musical prodigy that is) and how awesome is it?! Her name is “Little Boots” and she seems to be pretty good at this and combines it with proper musical abilities. Big up and good luck with your career, I’m loving it!

I’m not someone who will buy and use it (I’m more a pen and paper, (Mac)book kind of guy) but I find it absolutely brilliant, it’s a machine that combines all the possibilities and virtues of making music into a box the size of a (rather large) pack of smokes. Another friend who was with me when Artun and me were watching the video, figured he still had 170 euros and that he would get ‘Stufi’ (Dutch governments contribution to university students) the 24th again (it was the 30th), took hold of my computer and ordered one straight away. (They cost 145,- euro) Brilliant action and I think for the (electronic) music-making enthusiasts among us an absolute ‘must-have’ for the new year.

I’ve found this other machine too, perhaps I’m a bit late as it was officially introduced somewhere in ’08′, but it’s pretty damn awesome non-the-less.

The ‘Surface’, brought to you by the ‘not so pragmatic’ (I’m quoting myself, sorry) people of Microsoft, but I’m really impressed by the tool they have created around the invention of Jeff Han shown first at one of the TED conventions. Watch Jeff’s video on TED here.

The Surface is a, well, table I guess, which gives the word table a whole new dimension. The table enables you to spread the world out on the table in front of you, literally. It has email application, can upload the snowboard you choose from a rack, into the table, and will than enable you to customize and share it (you can send your design to your friends through the ‘Live-application’, before you decided to order it, through the Surface.

As the Surface for its worldly introduction is aimed at high segment hospitality establishments, it has another awesome feature, the wine card (I believe they have the same for food, but I really liked the wine part). The wine glass carries an optical tag which is linked to the wine you have ordered through the Surface, this tag gives you a database of information about your wine at your disposal. When you say, well, I’d like t know where it comes from, tick,tick, there. Who’s the guy making it? Video podcast with the wine-farmer telling you about his product and the harvest and the year of harvest.

All and all, I truly believe this is very, very interesting as, the information addict I am, is always interested in background stories, further knowledge on a subject/product/issue of my interest.

What I don’t like about it though, is the ‘Windows only’ approach they took on it. Although I understand from a sales perspective, I’m not a great fan of Windows Live, and I believe I’m not the only one. Windows Live is barely alive and might therefore not be the best platform to limit the product to, for innovation of humanity kind of thing.

Well that’s all, for the Dutch people here, tomorrow Mankind is no Island will be getting some attention again. We have had an invitation from the primetime (1.5 million viewers) TV-Programme Life & Cooking to tell the story about the initiative and it’s aims and come for diner with two homeless people. Tomorrow @ 17.20 the show starts and Yussef and Edwin will be joining me to share their story about being homeless. I won’t eat because I’m joining the initiative from Avaaz to fast against the situation in Zimbabwe. You can join here.

For now, that’s all, enjoy your day!

Love & Peace,

Len

Newspaper header next day

In D.C. with carton puppets of Obama & Biden (Omar, Mr. Branson and me)

Links to some video reports:

Press conference NU.nl

Talk & Do TV (CASE presentation)

SBS Hart van Nederland

Well, it’s been a lot of fun. But now it’s back to normal life again.

Everybody thanks loads for the comments, effort put in this adventure  and the coverage given to the whole story. But now I’ll go back to being a start-up entrepreneur and final dissertation writing student.

If anyone would like to join Mankind is no Island please click here.

Hope you’ll be part of the following adventure which will be posted again, right here.

Peace and Love,

Len

Start at the beginning. When we arrived in Washington we were chucked in a van after having thanked Mr. Branson several times and said goodbye to him. Then we were brought to the Sheraton where we decided to let everything sink in a bit and than go for some food. As it was 3 at night for us already (in our heads), we were slightly (not too long of course) doubtful about what to do, but after that got into a cab and headed out for D.C. nightlife.

After having driven around a bit in a ‘yellow cab’ (go for the full experience right? ) we decided to taste the feeling on the streets and walk around a bit to end up in a bar called Tattoo Bar. A bit of a rockish kind of place, we had a laugh and a couple of drinks and did a radio interview with Giel Beelen, who (I think) is the coolest radio DJ in Holland. I think I was a bit tipsy but well, I don’t think I said too many weird things (so I hope).

At some point there was a flower salesman, and Omar decided to give the good man some flowers, as we were sure he deserved them. You should have seen the look on his face, priceless.

Once we got home I fell over and slept, thinking over and over, what a day, what a day….

When we woke up we went out into the area where we were staying. We had to ‘sniff’ some of the American lifestyle and decided to go to one of these mall things. Must say I quite looked like Australia, which made me feel quite at home, despite the -7 degrees temperature.

We were picked up at the hotel around 5 together with the Virgin staff who were staying in the same hotel and brought to the airport. The staff, who were rather startled to see us asked us about the story and started laughing to be followed by all sorts of stories that supported the image we already had of Mr. Branson being a very generous and kind man.

Once arrived at the airport we walked over to the Virgin desk where we were looked at a bit funny when we started talking about Mr. Branson the faces changed when we said we had two tickets waiting for us, reservations made by Mr. Branson, within 5 minutes we were at the security check, no waiting in line (how nice is that!) and than I was asked about the bicycle-pump and hydraulic pump grip I had on me because of my bike (that was still in Amsterdam), which was looked at funny, but I was ‘allowed’ to pass after a couple of strange looks.

Once in the plane I turned on my phone and got a message from Mr. Branson (dance dance dance!) and we decided to call him to thank him one more time for all his effort and spontaneity to our silly question.

We flew back to London where we were picked up by a private chauffeur by the name of Anthony, who was incredibly nice and helpful (thanks loads!) and brought us to another airport where another private jet was waiting for us, arranged by an anonymous new friend of ours haha, (it doesn’t stop does it?) to ship us back to Amsterdam.

I even got a really cool offer for Mankind is no Island from Rashej Patel (CEO Exact Software) to host the first event for the network. This will happen at the point where there are a hundred members on the platform, so please join.

The ‘coming back’ party was insane, and I’ll tell you all about it, later on when I’ve got the pictures!

Peace & Love,

Len

Alright, so this is my day it seems.

As I am writing this I am on my way to Washington. To Capitol Hill to be exact as Barack Obama is going to make his inauguration speech.

How come Len? Well, Omar asked me to come along to the Big Improvement Day. The Big Improvement Day is a congress with governmental and business leaders that talk about the current state of being in the world and economic markets. Discussing new strategies on sustainability (which seems the magic word in the business world at the moment), social interaction and the future of business. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the whole day.

Which brings me to my current position, high in the sky over Grasmere (UK). I’m currently sitting in Sir Richard Branson’s private jet on my way to Washington DC.

Indeed, I’m just as surprised as you are. Have no words, am spinning on my feet. But I’ll try.

The scene was as followed; Omar and me were sitting in the ‘Big Room’ at the Rai (exhibition/congress centre) in Amsterdam, when Sir Richard Branson was announced as the next speaker. As you can imagine, with a record as his and me being a new start-up entrepreneur, I was really interested in what he would have to say on the developments in business for the future. As it was, Ivo Niehe, who is one of the most famous Dutch interview ‘specialists’, was interviewing him. The conversation was quite interesting and got way more interesting (for us) when he said he was going to Washington in an hour to attend Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.

As it was a cross-media congress, it was possible to text-message questions for Sir Branson to a massive screen. And so, thinking ahead a bit, we figured Sir Branson was traveling in a private jet. Which led us to the following question: “Dear Richard, would you perhaps have space for two broke students to join you to Washington?”
Once the question appeared there was some laughter in the audience, then Ivo Niehe looked back to the screen, saw the question, and simply put it to Sir Richard.

Who started laughing, to be continued by, “Well, if you guys have your passport on you, come along.”

(Dancing, screaming, jumping around in our heads) In real life, we looked at each other in awe and stumbled, “Is he for real?!” At which Bianca from the organisation, who was apparently sitting behind us, said, “Was that you guy’s question?” “Ehm.. Yeah.. Haha”

And so she took us backstage (thank your for that Bianca), and we were on our way. First there was a lot of fuss around us. “Who are these guys?!”, “What did you guys do?!” As you can imagine, we were quite confused about the whole story ourselves and were asked for a radio interview right away by FunX. ANP was asking for pictures and we were asked to step into the press conference that was being given by Richard.

Than, we were given 200 euro’s each by the CEO of Exact Software Rajesh Patel, “He’s taking you there, I’ll get you a hotel, awesome thing to do boys, have fun!”

Than well, we were almost at the airport already. To get into a private jet. Go to Washington. See Barack Obama. Sharing a jet with one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the world for 9 hours.

Fuck I love my life.

(To be continued)

We were lucky. Really. Hill & Knowlton was willing to come and do a training in how to “sell” advice to us. Interesting training you’d say, and you’d be right. Thing is, without going into too much detail of the day, a question of politeness.

The cookie crumbled as such; our expert for the day was a 24-year experienced, ‘senior consultant’ as she positioned herself. Or maybe the company did, but she seemed to be quite content with the description. So we enter the class and here’s this need-looking woman of end/mid-40’s, I guess, immediately coming up to you (I told you it was Monday morning right?) shaking your hand and introducing herself, alright, very polite.

I sit down and stare at the wall where I see the opening slide of her PowerPoint gaping back at me saying:

“Selling’ Advice Training
Hill & Knowlton

A mistake on your opening slide after introducing yourself as a senior consultant, with 24-years of experience, is a wall lifter for me, but again, it’s Monday morning for everyone, right?

Following slides contained mistakes in spelling concerning the words; communication, issues and some others.

But ok, it’s alright, I wasn’t very interested in corporate PR anyway. What I was interested in though was the discussion that erupted the day after in class, sparked by the comment of a classmate of mine, Daphnee, saying at the feedback moment for the ‘trainers’; “Maybe you should consider a spelling check next time you want to do a presentation.” (Which I personally believed to be a very valid point. Being correct is a part of selling in my book anyway..)

The discussion that started was one about being hospitable to guests who come to give a guest lecture and are representing an internationally renowned corporation. This in itself is cool for me, but the point my lecturer was making was that correcting people with such a resume, who come to give us the ‘pleasure’ of their enlightening wisdom, was very rude. Some of my classmates agreed and I did not.

Maybe it’s me, but the acceptation of mistakes, low quality and evasive behaviour of this world is starting to piss me off, more and more. In terms of being polite and hospitable I do not have any problem giving kindness (or forgiving for that matter) to everyone, I am a great fan of Ghandi and Buddha, I get that. Yet, I believe honesty, no matter how shattering is, although it may hurt a bit, in the end ‘s always most beneficial to all parties involved.

Next to that, in terms of personal positioning/branding, you make a complete ass out of yourself when you stand somewhere talking about your over-two-decades of experience. Being a ‘senior’ within one of the biggest PR-corps known to mankind, to me, would at least entail being able to make a simple PowerPoint without mistakes, right?

Anyway, I was wondering what you think, politeness over honesty or the other way round? And how come they (seemingly) cannot be combined in the minds of a lot of people?

I actually think it is very polite when someone points out a mistake you’ve made, seeing the fact that thinking to yourself “Jesus, what an idiot” isn’t very polite and next to that it’s unhealthy to keep frustrations in.

Please let me know what you think, I’m curious.

Peace & Love to all.