DelVache founders

That’s it, at almost 47 years, my time has passed”. That is exactly what I thought until the end of 2019 about ever starting my own business. 

 

So, why is it that I finally decided to make the big jump to entrepreneurship? The answer is ridiculously simple and I will be very honest about it. Also, I will make clear why this could be important for you. 

 

But let me first give you some more background about me. 

 

My father was a teacher. For him, as a civil servant, one of the most important things about his career was ‘job security’. Actually, he was risk averse in everything he did. As a teacher, he knew exactly how to transmit his life philosophy to his children. 

 

Or so he thought… 

 

Because the beauty of life is that everybody is different and people develop their own personality. The rebellious teenage years probably serves this purpose. To shake off some unwanted fears or ideas that we may have accumulated, sorry, that has been hammered in your head since you were a child.  

 

But I was only a moderate rebel. Embracing risks has never been my cup of tea. Like my father, I am a prudent type. Although compared to my father’s level, I am probably a Daredevil!  Of course you have families where risk taking is part of their DNA. And you have some bloodlines that are so involved in creating companies that their children are ‘feeded’ with the entrepreneurship as soon as they can talk.

 

We like to think that entrepreneurs are always courageous people. People who, at a certain point in life, take important risks all by themselves to follow their dreams. Yes you have them out there… somewhere. 

But you also have people like me, who only needed a helping hand to feel reassured when making this important first step of starting a new business. Be it a family member or someone else you trust, having a guide on your side at that moment in your life could make the difference between ‘continue to dream about a company’ and ‘starting it’. 

 

For me, that helping hand was that of my best friend, who already owns and runs a successful business since several years.   

DelVache Founders in 1991

When my friend, Gunther, did think about starting DelVache, he had 2 options:

1. Create a new division in his existing company and put some of his employees on it. 

2. Start from scratch and invite some of his friends to join him on this new adventure. 

 

Luckily for me, Gunther likes to share joy, experiences and success. 

So, on a cold December day, he asked me if I was interested to join the ride. Passed this difficult initial decision making, I can tell you that I feel like a fish in the water now. 

 

I love everything about being an entrepreneur and I am working very hard to make it a succes. Although I would never have started without a little help, now I feel that I am on fire. 

 

Some people probably think that you should have the guts to start something on your own to make it afterwards. As some sort of an initial test for the difficulties that will come to you. 

 

But I am sure that many great entrepreneurs also needed a little push when it was their first time. 

And unfortunately, that also means that lots of capable people never had the chance to develop their own company. Only because nobody helped them to cross the first hurdle.

Founders DelVache in 2021

If you are still with me in this article, I would like to take this opportunity to make the following requests: 

Are you an entrepreneur and did you, one day, also start your company because someone helped you?

 

Then maybe it’s a good time to send this person a big thank you. 

 

Do you sometimes wonder how different your life would be if you did not get that help? 


If you are already an entrepreneur and you want to start another business, then perhaps it’s a good idea to look around you and ask yourself the question: “would it not be more fun and rewarding to share this adventure with a person I trust and that I think could be interested to become an entrepreneur?

 

Oh, and for the “get-a-friend-onboard-skeptics” out there, you are right also. We can tell from experience. 

I was not the only one to jump on the happy-friends-startup-train. Two other long time buddies joined the ride, until recently. But they decided after more than one year that it was not something they wanted to continue to do. 

Just to make clear that crossing the first hurdle is not a guarantee that you will like what you see past it…

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