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Weaned to become a classical pianist, I decided to spare my fingers, pain my parents and sign up for an academic career in psychology at the University of Amsterdam.
Five credits and a paper short of getting my bachelor's degree however, I got an offer I couldn't refuse. I joined a small but highly specialized recruitment agency where I became the apprentice and right-hand man of the managing director. Soon enough I was responsible for my very own part of the business, placing high-level individuals at high-profile corporations, in way over my head. Nevertheless, things worked out, I got promoted to manager and began hiring and training my own staff.
A couple of years in, I realized that I needed to do something that is either more versatile or allows for a more flexible lifestyle. I registered as a freelance translator and never looked back.
In 2015, I had the good fortune of founding and managing a tech startup with my best friend. We raised considerable funding, grew the company to 10 FTE, got a lot of media attention and a user-base of over 50,000 in the space of a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the app never achieved market fit and we had to close shop in 2017.
I returned to freelance translating, except this time around I decided to try out the digital nomad lifestyle. Since then, I have been travelling the world, expanding my horizon and thoroughly enjoying the bliss of freedom and exploration.
In my spare time, I compose classical music including a piece that was used in an award-winning short film by a childhood hero of mine. Whenever a piano is around, I will make sure to practice my Chopin, and I spend my late nights in bed browsing political podcasts and science lectures, mainly (quantum/theoretical) physics, cosmology and philosophy.
Some personal heroes of mine, in no particular order:
Vladimir Horowitz, Richard Feynman, Christopher Hitchens, Ricky Gervais, Freddy Mercury, Stanley Kubrick, Andrew Yang, Sam Harris, Roger Federer and Art Tatum.
Work Terms
Years of freelancing, managing small businesses and travel have left me with no internal clock whatsoever. A good workout regimen prevents this from harming my health, and the upside is that I can work 24/7, and even 24 hours straight if necessary. I do not observe office hours, am reachable day and night, responsive within minutes and willing to work whenever needed.
In return, I expect to be paid no later than 15 days after the invoice date. In order to avoid payment issues, I only work with reputable companies and will make sure to investigate you thoroughly before agreeing to do business. If you don't check out, I will require a 50% down payment as assurance that you are indeed for real.