Congratulations Sweden! You just got yourself a brand new female entrepreneur. After having learned a thing or two about the laws, rules and regulations around running your own company I must say: you have made entrepreneurship more like a (barefoot) walk in the jungle instead of the park. But regardless of all that, I am excited to hereby officially join the group of entrepreneurs in this country!

The author, speaker and organizational consultant Simon Sinek tweeted:

All success starts with one. One step. One client. One order. One sale. While dreams of greatness are great, we must remember to appreciate the joy of the start.

What became my most defining one is managing to secure my first client and it really is the most thrilling feeling! For the foreseeable future it will be my privilege to help out a large energy company with their communication needs. The purpose of their business is about our society becoming fossil free within one generation. I love to get the opportunity to be a small part of that!

I truly appreciate the joy of my start right now. I feel privileged to embark on this journey and am grateful for the support of my family. I wonder: which new people will I meet on this journey? What situations will I find myself in and what will I learn about entrepreneurship? I find this all very exciting to think about.  

Another thing I’d like to share: this brand-new company of mine also has more plans besides consultancy. My recent timeout in Spain has helped me figure out my own (as Simon Sinek calls it) Why and as you might have read in previous blog posts my Why is about living life to the fullest, awareness and compassion. Besides consultancy I have therefore decided to focus on two more things, both having to do with being a fellow traveler on other people’s paths in life. The first is offering individual counseling sessions as soon as I’m finished with my education. The second has to do with creating retreats around writing, mindfulness and inner work. Oh, and I’m also seriously contemplating writing a book. Writing this here gives me goosebumps; it’s a big (and a bit scary) thing for me to share my plans and dreams in this way.

Of course my company needs a name and I ended up finding it on my vision board. My what? In case you’re not familiar with the term, let me explain. A while ago I followed the footsteps of Ellen deGeneres and Jim Carrey and created a vision board which is a collage of images and words I cut out of magazines and that represent my wishes and goals for my work life. It was huge fun and on this board, the words Poolside Meetings emerged. Somehow it spoke to me as I vision myself having inspiring meetings by the side of a pool. I really love the vibe around a pool and I love sunny weather (so yes, I kind of live in the wrong country). The image of being poolside inspires me tremendously! So when I needed a name for my new company, it felt right somehow to call it Poolside.

So I will now have another thing to add to my list of Things I Have Done In My Life : running my own company. How cool is that? Regardless of how my journey as entrepreneur will turn out to be, I am convinced that it will teach me a lot of things about myself and life. And that really is a lot what life is about for me: constant learning and being aware of what’s happening inside me while growing as a human being.

The following words capture the way I feel right now, in this very moment:

You’ve got a new story to write. And it looks nothing like your past.

Thanks for reading my story! ♥

If you’re interested in organizations and what makes some of them great you can watch this TED Talk by Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Interested to know more about vision boards? You can read this article in the Huffington Post: The Reason Vision Boards Work and How to Make One