I’ve made a HUGE decision…
… but in the end, a very simple one. I have decided to dedicate all my focus and attention to my wife and our baby twins. As a consequence, I’ve decided to resign from Twill and Maersk with my last day being today.
Starting Twill from a simple idea to a fully-fledged company with 150 Twillers across the world, and a strong value proposition towards our customers, has been a fantastic journey. I am both proud and humbled to have been part of these first few years of the overall Twill journey, and thankful that Maersk has supported me and Twill in this development.
Also, I am grateful and full of admiration for all the Twillers that has joined our purpose of levelling the playing field of international trade – allowing small and medium sized companies full access to international trade. I know you will keep working for this purpose – full of passion and energy – and you will make a positive and visible difference in the world.
At the end, leaving Twill is based on the same considerations that all of you go through in life: how to balance a fun, purposeful, and challenging job with being a great partner, a present parent, and in general, being there for friends and family. My very personal conclusion is that these cannot co-exist for the next phase of my life. Twill is in an awesome development and needs a CEO that can drive that with every fibre in his/her body. If done correctly, Twill can become something truly extraordinary. Becoming a dad of baby-twins has made it clear that I cannot be that CEO, and if try to do both, I will end up failing both. That outcome, and the consequences of this, is unbearable to even think about and something I now action to prevent. My family needs a present husband and dad and Twill needs an all-in CEO.
As mentioned, at the end this was a simple decision – however it also made me very aware of the privilege of being able to make this decision. I know this is not to be taken for granted and we are very lucky to be able to prioritise family. At the end, this is one more reason to take this leap of faith. I love Twill and I will always do, but family always wins. I am 33 years old and not in a rush. I’m pressing pause, checking out, and focussing on starting and building our little family. We don’t know for how long we will be on family leave yet – it could be anything from 3 to 24months – I guess life will tell 🙂
Lastly, I know I am not alone with thoughts like this – and I hope this can serve as ‘inspirational input’. If you have these thoughts and the opportunity to act on them – why not do it? What is the worst thing that can happen? In life you only regret the decisions you don’t make.
My playground for the mind 