The Spirit of Entrepreneurship : Exploring the Essence of Entrepreneurship Through Personal Stories

After my retirement from the executive board of the retail company my grandfather started in 1887, Royal Ahold, I started a whole new exciting chapter in my entrepreneurial life by opening a shop and a restaurant in my new hometown of Hereford, England.

Ambition, perseverance, intuition, creativity, responsibility, but above all: passion. Those are the terms that help me describe entrepreneurship. Whether you are young or old, man or woman, minority or majority, healthy or disabled, it is the passion for building new ventures and finding new roads that characterizes the entrep- neur. You have to believe in yourself, your team, your product, your company and in your customers. You have to be pragmatic and rational in your approach. But it is the passion that makes you successful. In my own entrepreneurial life, I have covered experiences from working on the grocery shop floor to building the family retail company out into Europe, then the US, then other parts of the world. After my retirement from the executive board of the retail company my grandfather started in 1887, Royal Ahold, I started a whole new exciting chapter in my entrepreneurial life by opening a shop and a restaurant in my new hometown of Hereford, England. The restaurant world is a new one that gives me fun and satisfaction by engaging in new and exciting ch- lenges. Cooking is like entrepreneurship; it is only possible with… passion. So- times things get burned, but there is always a sense of fulfillment when things s- ceed in the way you want them to. It is through mistakes and setbacks that you can value your achievements.