For years I had a coaching and therapy practice. Don’t get me wrong, I did the work with pleasure. But I started to experience it increasingly as “hurrying”. You might say: it shouldn’t be difficult for a psychologist to interpret this, right? Still, this took some time. My enormous passion for the profession was undiminished, but I was clearly ready for a next step. And it came unexpectedly from a good conversation I had with a total stranger.

My adventures found their way into the conversation. I told him that I had worked in the largest prison in Suriname after completing my studies. On the property I had a small consultation room where I spoke to the male offenders. Without surveillance. Yet I have never been afraid. Naive? Perhaps. I figured fear wouldn’t help me. When I said it like that – maybe a little hypothermic – the other one shouted: “Well, you treated that in a pretty stoic way!” And BAM, that one word, stoic, took my breath away. From that moment on I have completely immersed myself in the Stoics and their philosophy. And with those stoic insights under my belt, the course really changed and the beginning of the leadership programs was born.