What a difference 6 months make. 4380 little hours.

Can’t believe it’s been 6 months since starting my sabbatical. It's been a life-changing period where I completely disconnected from Showpad and work in general, after +10 years scaling and building.

Today is my first day back at work, so it’s time to reflect on what I’ve done, how it has impacted me, and.. what’s next. 

I spent a lot of time with my wife and kids.

I have an amazing wife, Liesbeth, and two amazing kids, Olivia (7yo) and Lowie (6yo). My kids are big enough to have real conversations, climb (little) mountains, and truly enjoy family activities. They are still small enough to really want to spend a lot of time with their mom and dad. And that’s what I did. Preparing their lunch, bringing/picking up from school, helping with homework, having dinner, biking, adventure hunting in the sea, etc.

Yes, we did some travel and yes, it was great.  But what really mattered is that I was present. My mind was focused on my family and I wasn’t drifting away in thought. You see so much more when you are present.

We have only 18 summers with our kids… while they are kids. Treasure it like nothing else in the world.

Spent a lot of time with just myself.

I don’t like being alone. I avoid it. I hate being bored. Silence makes me nervous. I have never done ‘nothing’ in my life. It makes me feel guilty.

Yet, this is what I did for most of my sabbatical. Spending time with me, myself and I. 

For months my weekdays were completely empty. No meetings, no calls, no email.. Nothing. As an extravert (who gets energy from social interaction) and 24/7 entrepreneur this was incredibly hard in the first 6-8 weeks. I did not sleep well, had high anxiety and just wanted to get back to work..

But I powered through. Started to slow down, and did… nothing. Weeks and months of empty calendars.This gave me a lot of time to think, reflect, read and do a lot of walks. I had no place to hide. I played the movie of my life, the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s very confronting.

In the process of doing nothing I rediscovered myself. I took the time to think through my values, commitments and priorities. And asked myself a very simple question: Do I get out of life what I want? And started from there.

While I don’t have all the answers today, my sabbatical is the first big step in living a more intentional life. A life where I want to take care of others, but foremost take care of myself. 

What’s next?

I deeply care for every Showpad employee, customer, investor,.. I believe in our team, mission and future. And I know this is where I belong.

Today is my first day back in the office. I’ll be focussing on building new products on the Showpad platform, and help transform the revenue enablement category. A role in which I can build, innovate and tell our amazing story. Let's go!

The big difference with Louis before the sabbatical? I’ll be putting myself first.

Looking forward to connecting with many of you in the weeks to come.

Cheers,

Louis