Axel joins the Kollective
A warm welcome to Axel joining the YoungIMPULS project!
What makes Axel, Axel?
I feel I’m a late bloomer. I don’t know why, but the nice thing about late bloomers is they tend to flower for a longer time than those that come earlier in the year. I like to choose things for myself; sometimes that can lead to a struggle and you lose people along the way, but it also means that I feel good about myself. I’m a reflective person, I self-reflect all day, in fact my kids do the same. I like being that way, it means I connect with others, making conscious choices about how I show up.
I’m a father of two sons, born 2006 and 2005. I was relatively older becoming a father at 46 years old.
Me and my work
Before becoming a parent, I traveled the world. I love to do so by bicycle, taking cycling vacations to Thailand, New Zealand the United States spending a few weeks at a time in each country. In France, I became known as the ‘bike repair man’ by US cyclists who for some reason didn’t know how to fix their bikes. I was always the one with the greasy hands.
I love adventure and I find myself sometimes wanting to do too much, so I rein myself in by saying: “ do what you need to do and don’t get distracted ” – the problem is there is always so much life beyond the front door !
I play the bass, what I love about that is that as a bassist in the band you’re the one responsible for the ‘dance,’ blending harmony with rhythm – this reflects something about how I am in life.
My company, Fat Elephant
www.fatelephant.nl
I work intuitively and creatively giving people lots of room to be themselves and discover their own qualities. I also bring trust and I reckon most of the time you wouldn’t even notice me; it’s a bit like the bass in music, without it ‘the dance’ just wouldn’t happen. In spite of my corporate work being mostly about sales, I’m not the kind of person that buys into the ‘push, push, push!’ sales rhetoric. As with KOLIMBRI, I work in a way that is relational, even if it’s about sales, my belief is the relationship-building is fundamental.
Axel and YoungIMPULS
I love to help people to connect with Dutch community, especially working with refugees to help them find their own way; it’s not about changing themselves, rather it’s about how we can collectively find ways to live together in such a way that the Netherlands becomes our shared home. Making these connections to one another through using culture and art feels exciting.
My favorite Curiously Connected Cards
When I first saw the Cards, I felt drawn to the Butterfly – it represents something about what’s possible when chaos is allowed to be there. It’s also colourful, always light and you can’t blow it away. The butterfly folds its wings when it’s windy and stormy, then opens them up again to flutter about – so resilient for such a small being. Elephant is my second choice: you can see from my company’s name fat elephant, that I’m connected to them. They’re very social creatures. Something also about that old adage the ‘elephant in the room’ is important. Huge-bodied as they are, elephant has the capacity to break everything, yet it also reminds us that we can’t really progress unless we talk about the things that really matter, and sometimes it’s the fat elephant staring right at us.
Me and the Collective
I feel there is some direction that I can give to the Kollective around creating and bringing together creative minds. My first step though is to get to know people better, so that the Kollective feels like our mutual home. What would nourish me? Tickle my brains! I love the bandwidth of ages and perspectives that the YoungIMPULS project is already bringing me.
What helps me Thrive?
Put simply, it’s being myself and making space for one another; listening with honesty.
