52 .Hello, goodbye.

Christmas eve. Afternoon in my House at the Lake. Charles Aznavour from the speakers. The lake grey and a bit messy as if it it already fights the cold that according to the Meteo soon will freeze it.
It is wednesday now and I arrived from Beijing last Saturday after a 10 day visit to China. Sweet company to the Beijijng airport and sweet welcome at my arrival. Anne waited for me with a copy of my novel ONLAND. I took it in my hand and it smelled good. Worked 4 plus years on it and now it is there, and I felt like an outsider, like a parent saying hello to a grown up child. The book is no longer mine. Good. Interesting, Vulnerable position.

Of course I visited SchoutenChina. It has deleveloped well. And I had a small holiday in Sanya.
The Mangrove Tree Ressort in Yalong Bay. Riviera without nasty frills.
Christmas on every corner. Huge Reindiers and Christmas trees. Christmas roses and the Christmas Carols from the loudspeakers. They had a 2 hour tape of them and while sipping my capucino's I took the opportunity to practise them all: Last Christmas (Wham), Rudolph the
Red Nosed Reindeer, Driving home for Christmas, Thank God it is Christmas, Jingle Bells. Wasntit boring? No. No problem. Mei wenti. It was funny to practice them in 28 degrees.

Now in Holland, this very moment, Charles Aznavour is luring me into a melancholic mood and though I am strong (no other option) I experience that warm oily feeling of missing something, of a fruitless craving. Time to stand up and make my New Year Resolutions: if you do not move your self you always will be moved. If parting is dying a little it is better to say good bye yourself and leave. Nevertheless I miss "China". I will go back.

51 ONLAND, my new novel

Marcel is negotiating a multicountry licence on Coactive Coaching, just arrived from Los Angeles. Anne moved ahead to the Board of SchoutenGlobal.

Vera arrived just came back from Neurenberg where she helped starting a new Schouten&Nelissen outfit.

In januari we will meet shareholders of a famous Scandinavian Educational Company that will take a licence on our SOFTSKILLSPROGRAM.
We met the Board of New Motivations, Krakow, a company we are participating in, in order to deepen our cooperation.

Our new International site SchoutenTraining.com went into the air. John Zang prepared a new site: the Chinese version of loopbaan.nl, a great achievement, launched november 23.

In the mean time Schouten&Nelissen and all companies involved is finishing a very succesful 2008 We all are very hopeful looking forward to 2009.

SchoutenChina has found her succesful format, i.e. organization, including 5 fully fledget trainers ( a big asset). One of them, Joanne, will join the managementteam.

Henri just arrived from Hongkong building together with Eva a good framework for our Hongkong company.

In the mean time I also finished my 400 page novel: to be launched january 15 ONLAND
Onland is a dutch word refering to "land never been touched by humans, never
to be found in any map."

The content(translated from the dutch brochure of Van Gennep, my dutch publisher.

ONLAND

Harrie Schot is a eco-consultant who has neglected his own garden. On it,
behind high dikes a sloping oak is rotting. The mayor of his town forces
him to cut it down. As soon the roots of the tree are cut all kind of long forgotten and suppressed questions rise. The oak is the only tangible memory of his father, who died 30 years ago in a bizar way.

Tomorrow the last editing meeting with the editors. Then finished.

Thursday I will visit China again for the first time in 7 months, to enjoy the achievements of Chtis Jiang, the Ceo and his staff.

50. American disease

American Disease. I guess everybody knows what this means. And how it hurts when you are living in the vast third world countryside of the Unites States.
And though Obama is hailed like a newborn Jesus Christ, one may wonder if he can cure and prevent new outbreaks of this ugly illness, or sickness rather.

If the accumulation of money is your only or dominant passion you are not only personnally in danger but also endangering the lives and happiness of the innocent and less powerful people. Those in Asia for instance, living at an average income of 75 dollars a months. Gentle people, fighting for survival and the education of their children. They deserve a government that
protects them from the crocodiles.

The PRC came with a plan to reform the vast agricultural world of China Inland. Good example.

46 STRESSMANAGEMENT-3

And after you faced the pain and the world gradually changes from grey into to the sparkling blue and red: I am like a skipper in the silent heart of the hurricane. Storm around, I am aware, but it doesnt touch me, just like the American Disease hardly touches Holland, my country.

If Argentina stands for happiness, is happiness more than the absence of storm and pain?

Last Thursday I sent my the final manuscript of my novel to Van Gennep, the publisher, see next blog.

Together with Gonnie I will pick-up from the airport: Eva and her husband. We will discuss with her the establishment of a SchoutenTraining company in Hongkong. In the mean time
SchoutenBeijing is running well.

Happily enough, you Chinese friends, are able again to receive this Blog.

Off to Schiphol now.

45. She De Stressmanagement 2 Facing the Pain

I once met a 1000 year old Chinese Woman and at certain moments handpicked only by her self, she descends from her planet to visit me. So she does this night. She is sitting opposite me me, blocking the view of the lake. She is extremely agile and while her increasingly greying hair is waving likes the manes of a fiery litlle lion, she lectures me about "loss":

"Loss is destiny. But God is fair. There is Chinese word for it: SHE DE. SHE means: give it away. DE means : gain something.."

"I don't understand? Whats the use?"

"Only if you can stand giving away you can get things back. So SHE and DE are closely related to each other."

44 Stressmanagement 1 - facing the facts

stress prevention starts with facing genuine looming doom

I once wrote a book on stressmanagement. A real succes in Holland.
What do I mean by "succes"?
In the past years at least 7 persons took
me apart, each of them with the same message: "It was useful to me."
That is succes to me. I really do not know why the other 33.000
bought the book. I do not care. I care about those 7 persons and of
the sweet memory of that summer long ago, when I wrote the book.

Now my publisher issued an English translation, soon to be followed
by a Chinese one.

Last week I reread the book for the first time after several years. It
was as if I met an old friend.
Here is a paragraph I really like, because it offers the ultimate "technique"
for anyone trying to tune down unwanted stress.

Stressmanagement starts with facing the fact, i.e with facing
genuine looming doom.

" We have no absolute control over the facts. The facts are the facts, even
if means doom. I will die. You will die. The loss of a loved one. The child
that will leave us. The father who dies. The mother who becomes ill. God
leaving us. Hunger. The destruction of the earth. The fact that we are alone
within the confines of our skin.
Is happiness possible in the shadow of this doom? Peace starts by accepting
the fact of real imminent doom. Trying to avoid or fight it, makes the
suffering worse.
There is a chance of hope, of improvement. This starts after the sorrow that
follow inevitably when you are facing doom.
Perhaps hope alone is not enough. Perhaps we ultimately only find peace in
love. An old message that always remains new."

43 ISBW

Every year many many Chinese leave their cities and return to their homesteads to visit their
family. This year more than 150 million are stuck cause of failing transport. Snow. In many cities the central heating system has broken down. And its cold very cold. How do they survive? They
survive( keeping aside the 100 persons who died).
I wish them all well

In Holland: storm. A huge depression whipping the lake. My House at the Lake shaking. But it is warm inside.
Today I visited ISBW, pearl of our Group, leading knowledge provider, together with Schouten&Nelissen main player on the Dutch educational market.
The Institute has been founded 75 years ago. It grew and survived and is a splendid brand. The
most welknown educational service suppliers in Holland. 4 Years ago ISBW joined our group. At that time ISBW was declining. It had bad owners, I mean not committed owners.
I met the CEO of ISBW, Else Slegers: ambitious, warm, dedicated. I know what she wants with
ISBW: offering the best possible content to participants. Quality driven. Really a passion for
Quality. And she wants to grow. And she will. And she does, I got the firm hands of her colleagues, looked in their eyes. Young, strong, dedicated.
One of them said: "We work like mad to implement our plans, it goes well, I can not wait
till the end of the year to see the results."
ISBW houses in the buildings of the group, not in the most efficient way, and I am glad the
Board supports a relocation that fits this beautiful Institute.

What happened in the past of ISBW is this. Cause of the feverish effort of employees long ago,
it attained the top. An unbeatable Brand, so it looked like. But then the last 10 years the Crew of
ISBW got spoiled. They only needed to pick up the phone(for inbound calls and orders).
But that had a nasty price, you can imagine.
Else and her crew have succesfully changed course. ISBW now is a marketing organization with an educational product and superb quality and service. And it will be more so the coming months and years.

This history of ISBW reinforces the will of the Owners of the Schouten&Nelissen Group. We will
stay independent. We will never sell.
(The Owners: Zuiderwindlelie nv (75%) and the Employee Participation Company (PPM) (25%)
The PPM got the 25% of the shares after a Gift of the family (1992).)

Else and I enjoyed a prolonged lunch. As usual, but nevertheless suprisingly sweet, we not
only exhanged the business items but opened up to each other. Great.
One of her questions: "Jan, tell me, when were you happy?'
Screaming rain is whipping the House. Strange. While the Gods punish my poor House, I
feel content, while remembering the many many happy occasions. Why I so easily forget
them?