A couple of weeks before I had a ski accident while being on holiday with my girlfriends, which had become a tradition ever since our time in university. We had a marvellous lunch on the slopes with a little bit too much wine…so I guess I have nobody to blame then myself. I ended up having my ligaments, knee bands and meniscus thorn, a triple trauma they call it, and ended up in a wheelchair and with crutches for a couple of months.

Funny enough, the moment I hit the snow I knew something was really off, but I wasn’t stressed. It was more some kind of realisation that the universe was trying to tell me something and I hadn’t been listening. Slooooooow down! And here you had it, now I had to.

In my role as Global HRD @ HKM I don’t think there has ever been a period that allowed you to breath, there was always something that needed urgent attendance. Setting the people agenda, opening 100 new stores a year, preparing for an IPO or sale, opening new countries, reorganisations – you name it, let alone the emotions that run high in a fashion retail business when collections fail or succeed. But too be honest I was mostly driving a very high pace and intensity myself, I really wanted the business to become a much loved brand and the HR department needed lots of love, management and innovation. But lately it had been intense to a point that wasn’t sustainable anymore. Nevertheless, head down, roll up your sleeves and the Dutch mentality of no wining, kept me going, Until that beautiful day in Austria..I had planned to go to London to attend Tony Robbins the week after the accident and visit my friends in Australia a couple of weeks later, I hadn’t been back for 5 years and longed to go. But how to deal with travelling alone being in a wheelchair and taking your 7 year old son with you as well.

At day one of Unleash the power within, the Tony event, we were challenged to walk on hot coals with your bare feet. Something that requires enormous will power. I was in a wheelchair but nevertheless decided to take the challenge on and with assistance walk the coals as well. I had all kinds of fears and mostly was concerned about the pace that I would be walking the coals with as mine would be much slower then others and surely it would hurt…

Anyway, I did it, I walked the coals and didn’t feel anything. So there it was, the moment of realisation: You can achieve anything! if you put your mind to it, focus and determination. Knowing this, would I be able to do something that I feared and desired at the same time. Being my own boss. I never thought about it before, I was following the typical HR career path and most likely the next step would be another HR Director position at another company. Would I dare to let go of my job security, deal with my ego, accept financial loss, lose my work identity and take a plunge in the unknown….do something totally out of my comfort zone. Start my own business? I guess I did.

Never could I foresee what was ahead of me…