That’s because I have been extremely busy with a fantastic new project:
Het Nieuwe Werken Blog.

It’s an independent blog were information, experiences, knowledge and expertise around ‘The New World of Work’ is shared by more than 20 authors.

We launched it last week and it already picked up some great press on blogs suchs as Lifehacking.nl, Microsoft.nl and others.

I was also recentely interviewed by Denise Lappain of Frankwatching.com, one of Holland’s biggest independent blogs that covers digital trends, events, startups en tips & tricks.

You can read the full interview here (in dutch).

And while you’re there, please don’t forget to vote for us at the end of the article for the ’site top 50′. Thanks!

Interviewed on Frankwatching.com

What are your thoughts on this post? Share your reaction by leaving a comment!

It got 15 inspiring reactions, pretty awesome!

The thing about change, as one of the commenters pointed out, you just have to go ahead and do it.

So why do I mention my previous post again? Because last weekend I had an epiphany that led to a change in personal strategy and with this post I like to share that story.  

What was the fuss about?

For now, let’s rewind to Friday evening one week ago.

That Friday evening, I started the weekend knowing that I had to make a decision before Monday on whether I would say yes to an assignment to work as an interim manager for an American software company. It was an assignment for 12-18 months where the director asked me to run his support business in Europe.

That was a tough decision.

This was an awesome opportunity, however it was was also something I had done before while working at Microsoft. Although I was honored and tempted to say yes, I noticed that I wasn’t very excited and sure whether I really wanted to do this.

As a coach, I know that you deliver the best results when you are doing something that you just love to do. This is one of the fundamentals of finding pleasure in your work. The trick is to listen yourself and actually find out what you love to do most. Very often you make other drivers (such as money, image, etc) important factors in deciding what kind of work you want to do. However it’s important to pull these drivers out of the equation as much as possible and stay true to yourself while making decisions like these.

Crystal Clear

As you can understand, I didn’t get much sleep during that weekend while thinking about it and discussing it with my girlfriend, friends and family. Two years ago, it would have been a very logical step in my career as I had been managing support (and consultancy) teams at Microsoft for more than six years. However, the past two years running my own business have definitely changed my perspective on why you do things and what’s important to yourself. I even think that I left Microsoft to learn these lessons…

So on that Sunday morning it hit me: while I was rereading my the second right answer of my about page in my head, it became crystal clear that I have been following a path that spelled ‘Internet’ for a long time:

• Have been online since late 1992
• Started my own Internet business in 1995
• Microsoft hired me in 1997 because of my knowledge of the web
• In 2000 I became part of the Web TV team in Mountain View
• While running my own business, I just love working on websites, the content and building online strategies to support the brands
• Today, when speaking to clients, potential customers, friends, we always talk about innovation on the web, social media, how to generate traffic and optimize web pages
• People in my network specifically come to me to talk about how to optimize their online strategy, branding and results
• My work on Alexve.com brought together my passion for the web, technology and innovation. It ignited new passions for WordPress, Personal Branding, Blogging and everything surrounding that.

Steering into a new direction

After this epiphany, it became a lot easier to stay true to my path. It was then that I decided to say no to the interim assignment I mentioned. I also made a commitment to myself to adjust the direction of my current career, even moving away from my CEO work for Team vNext BV.

In the upcoming weeks, I will be focusing on opportunities to provide my services to help you and your business get the most out of the web. I will be looking for ways to combine them with my experience running a consultancy business, managing teams, being a coach and entrepreneur. I know I will have the most fun doing that! In case you are interested in partnering or already see opportunities, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks!!

P.S. If you are a regular visitor, you will probably have noticed some of the updates on the site already that reflect the change in strategy. I will share more about the site updates in the following days.

Have you changed or adjusted your personal strategy lately? I’m curious and love to hear from you via the comments on the site.

How a Tough Decision Made It Easy To Become An Internet Strategist

What are your thoughts on this post? Share your reaction by leaving a comment!