May 23, 2022
This Podcast journey is now almost 1 year old and never in a
million years could I have dreamt that it would grow into what it
has become today.
We have tens of thousands of listeners from around the world,
incredible guests who have indeed achieved amazing things in their
own right and most importantly an enormous wealth of life
experience wrapped together as 3 challenges for each episode that
each guest has so kindly shared with us. Hundreds of people have
rated or reviewed the interviews and we are building up followers
on all the Podcast platforms that we are submitting our Episodes
to.
So whatever happens next, I first want you to know that I am
incredibly grateful to everyone who made this happen. From the team
at Landmark Communications to our Producer Natalie to our Project
Managers Inva and Genta to our Sponsors but also to my friends for
sharing their honest feedback with me so I don’t create an echo
chamber of incoherent noise and my family (father and mother who
have been very supportive)
Most importantly my wife Leila for letting me take this leap and
allowing me to go wild and creative bringing this together each and
every week.
So thank you to all of you - I won’t let you down.
And then there is someone that I haven’t mentioned yet. My daughter
Norah - also called Nono.
Now I can fight all cliches as much as I like and spend my time
lying to you that my daughter isn’t the center of my universe
currently but that would all be rubbish.
Doing my little bit to bring that little human into this world and
then taking on the shared responsibility to raise her is a task
that I do not take lightly.
Now one of the things I realized is that my experience, influence
and knowledge for her to become a balanced, loving, honest, healthy
individual is going to be crucial. And that - at times - frankly
scares me a bit.
Another thing I have realized is that I have been born into
privilege.
Not only because my crib was in the house of a well to do Western
European (Dutch/Belgian) family but also because I am a white,
straight man who has absolutely no idea what it is like to be
deprived of anything, to be discriminated against or to be excluded
from anything - because of my gender, race, sexuality or color of
my skin. Without having done anything of value, I tick all the
boxes and just for that, I lead a privileged life.
So the story of my daughter might be a very different one to
mine.
She is growing up in a different era as a toddler, a young girl and
as a woman.
And just for that society might have different expectations from
her and could ask for different things. She might be excluded or
yelled at or (God forbid) abused because of the fact that she is a
woman.
Even though things have evolved a lot in the right direction, we
are far from being equal which might make the journey of my
daughter a lot more challenging than mine - just because of her
gender.
Now I am going to be honest here, there might be a lot of things I
do not know. I might be completely blind to the issues she is up
against because I have not experienced any of this first hand. And
this is where I might fall short in being a good parent. I might
let her down because I cannot fully grasp how unreal or unfair such
a situation could be.
Now to make a long story short, I am determined to provide little
Nono with the best advice available so she can grow up as a strong,
independent, resilient, autonomous human being and right now I have
an opportunity to gather up on this advice and to collect notes for
her when she grows up.
I have been so fortunate to have spoken thus far to so many strong,
independent spirits who have achieved tremendous things. Many of
them are incredible women and by fishing out crucial advice that
they have given me and passing this on into notes I hope that I can
harness Nono with some valuable life lessons that she hopefully
uses should it come to it.
So without further ado, we present to you Notes to Nono. Hoping you
might know or be a Nono as well. A concerned parent, caretaker,
teacher, family member, friend or even just an interested listener
who is kind enough to pass it on.
Notes to Nono 1
So the first one that I picked are snippets from Her Royal Highness
Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands who I spoke to for Episode
19. She was a very kind, hands-on, warm person who had a clear
message. Now I had slightly rehearsed something for the end of this
interview which was a comment around a Disney Princess - which is
Nono's current career choice - and us as parents not approving of
this.
I boldly shared this with the Princess and her response was
admirable. Please enjoy these very first Royal ‘Notes to Nono’
from a very special Power-Princess.