Author: Klaus F. Hepp

Hi readers and followers of my blog,

exactly 14 calender days ago I luckily walked through the “DOOR OF NO NO RETURN” into my “INDEPENDENCE” and thus left my highly exciting and successful traditional professional carreer as company employee proudly after almost exactly 4 decades behind me.

This does not mean at all, that I won´t continue to do highly professional work for companies but it just expresses that I will from now on offer all my know how, skills, professionality, experience, internationality, excellent global contact network and trustworthyness as services through my own consulting firm KFH IM & Consulting Services Ltda (https://kfhservices.com/) to my customers.

Thanks to my former employer VULKAN (https://www.vulkan.com/en/), for which I have been President of their brazilian subsidiary (Brazil | VULKAN Group) during the last 10 years until recently, and the terms of our seperation agreement, I could practically and perfectly prepare my new personal & professional future activities since the beginning of this year.

And I have used this valuable time properly for preparing the relaunch of my completely redesigned company opened originally 15 years ago in Recife, when I came back from Mexico to Brazil after 6 years as Managing Director for german automotive supplier companies there, my 2nd marriage and the birth of my 3rd son, as a pure Interim Management services provider.

On one hand I decided to enlarge the service portfolio of my company and incorporate lots of new services like go-to-market support, business development support, sales support, technology transfer support, supply chain analysis and optimisation support, mentoring and coaching and several other highly qualified services more.

But – for sure – Interim (General) Management for companies that need quick and effective help to get out of crisis situations, continues one of my classical services, which I have already successfully delivered to several well-known and recognized german industrial companies in Brazil during the period 2010-2014.

http://kfhservices.com

Shortly before my oficial retirement at VULKAN I followed the invitation of a handful of technology and market leading german industrial companies to – one after and totally independent of the other – visit their companies and factories in Germany for discussion and identification of fields of mutual interest and potential service requests from them to me, that may arise from this.

It was wonderful for me to meet personally with all these great professionals and personalities, in the majority the owners and/or CEO`s, and to exchange experiences and ideas with these fine people.

I am looking very optimistically now to most propably soon upcoming concrete agreements and contracts for me and my company as a result of these personal encounters.

Once again it confirmed – good results come out if the right people meet and talk to each other personally.

And I could take the beautiful opportunity to – once I was already over there in Germany – visit my sister, my wonderful two german sons and two former friends and colleagues from my Henkel Engineering Department times in the 90`s, which I had not seen again since more than 25 years.

Together with my sister Gudrun and her husband Herrmann

Together with my german sons (from left to right) Florian, Alexander and his lovely partner Anita

First meeting after 25 years of seperate ways with my friends and former Henkel Engineering Department colleagues Ralf Reifferscheidt (https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralf-reifferscheidt-72a03b31/) and Gerd Bösemann

In the meantime I have happily returned home to Vinhedo, São Paulo, and I am just waiting now for important decisions to be taken by my – hopefully! – future customers and business partners in Germany.

But – who really wonders about this? – I`m not just sitting around here without doing productive things.

I continue to develop my virtual community of followers in all social media further together with my friends from the excellent digital marketing agency Amplia (https://amplia.derybr.com.br/) which supports me and I participate rustlessly in important industry events, like f.e. the big South American mining industry exhibition EXPOSIBRAM 2024, where I have participated during the whole last week in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais state.

The next big event where I will participate is the Rio Oil & Gas Exhibition which happens in two weeks in Rio de Janeiro.

And several other important events will follow afterwards, some of these with my active participation as exhibitor and panel speaker.

Because – as we all know and as the Rolling Stones sing so beautifully:

“Time waits for no one”:

https://youtu.be/ecQUeHOjWSg?si=QmvK-M1jJBxqX_Wb

And don`t worry. For sure I will keep all of You closely updated on all eventual important news!

Bye bye until the next time. Hope it won`t take me as long again as this time to write the next post in this blog.

And – last not least – like always, please give me Your feedback upon this post and do not hesitate to ask me, in case You have questions, comments or doubts.

Take care and enjoy the weekend!

Here is the wonderful text from my first guest, my friend and provider of excellent digital marketing services Phelipe Santos, owner of AMPLIA Soluções e Consultoría (https://amplia.derybr.com.br/), to be published on my blog.

As Phelipe is not firm yet with the english language, I have personally translated his text:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.” Steve Jobs’ words resonate deeply in my story.

Throughout my life, there have been times when challenges seemed insurmountable and decisions seemed disconnected.

However, today, when I look back, I see how each experience, each obstacle and each victory connect, forming the path that brought me here.

This is the story of how the dots in my life connected, transforming difficulties into opportunities and guiding me in the direction that I now follow with confidence and purpose.

My name is Phelipe Santos, and today, as I reflect on this journey, I find myself in Brazil, in a small town in the interior of São Paulo called Bom Jesus dos Perdões, on a cold morning of August 12th.

It was here, with my mind focused on the invitation that Klaus made to me a few days ago, that I decided to share a little of my story with you, so that, when you look back, you can also find the points that connect your own path.

I was born in November 1992, in Itaquera/SP, but I grew up in Vargem, a small town in the Bragança region. From an early age, I accompanied my father as a street vendor selling potatoes.

I got my first official job in 2010, at a bakery in the city of Vargem. I worked at the counter, swept the floors, took customer orders at the table, washed dishes, and even prepared snacks and coffee.

In January 2013, I got my first job in the field I was passionate about: Graphic Designer at the Gazeta da Cidade newspaper, in Extrema, Minas Gerais.

That same year, I met the woman of my life, Luciana Kühn. It wasn’t easy to convince her to date me, but with patience and effort, a year later we were together. In 2016, we got married and were blessed with our daughter Laura in 2018, and our son Vitor in 2020.

Phelipe and Luciana’s Wedding

My personal and professional lives have intertwined in a unique way.

When I met Luciana, she was about to graduate in Civil Engineering, while I hadn’t even finished high school (because at 17, I dropped out of school after being diagnosed with a brain abscess that led to three surgeries and almost took my life).

It was Luciana’s strength and support that inspired me to return to school, and in 2015, I began my degree in Social Communication with a focus on Advertising and Publicity, graduating in 2018.

My college friends

The beginning of my life as an entrepreneur

My journey as an entrepreneur began in November 2016, when I tried to run my own agency/consulting firm, still without much of a clue as to what entrepreneurship really meant. I only had willpower, determination, and most importantly: the support of Luciana, who often believed in me more than I believed in myself.

Working with Laura on my lap

Between 2016 and 2022, I balanced jobs at 3 companies with my agency, until in 2022, Professor Estevão Vernalha, Advertising Director at UNIFAAT (https://www.unifaat.com.br/institucional), invited me to coordinate the art team at his advertising agency, Vitalle.

There, I learned about improvement processes, leadership, and mainly, how to apply advertising creatively. This learning opened doors that I never imagined.

With the experience and knowledge accumulated, I came to master all the technical areas related to marketing, advertising, and even business strategies.

However, the work overload made me realize the importance of balancing professional and personal life.

I started working long hours, reaching 18 hours on some days, which affected my relationship with my family. It was a wake-up call that I needed help and I started to seek balance.

I recently had the honor of being referred to Klaus by VULKAN’s Marketing Manager, Elisângela, and he quickly became a key mentor in my journey.

Under his guidance, I expanded my agency, AMPLIA, building a talented team that now meets the demands of large companies.

Today, what I sell to these companies is much more than paid traffic management. I sell a strategic vision of brand positioning that is capable of transforming their presence in the market.

And this was only possible thanks to the lessons I learned along the way.

My family’s first meeting with Klaus and Selma at our house in Extrema.

Klaus is, without a doubt, the friend and client who has invested the most in my growth, both professionally and personally.

With his mentorship, I have learned to manage not only my business, but also my life, and I am excited about the new possibilities that arise every day.

Reflection and gratitude
On my journey, I have gone through different roles and responsibilities and I have learned that each step, no matter how simple or complex it may seem, is an essential point in building our path.

It is important to remember that success is not only found in large projects, but in the attention to detail and dedication we put into each task.

Looking back, I realize how these small actions formed the solid foundation on which we built our careers.

Therefore, never underestimate the power of small decisions and daily actions; they are the dots that, in the future, will connect to form the trajectory of your success.

The pressure for immediate results can make it seem like each decision is a leap in the dark. However, my journey has shown me that it is by looking back that we understand the true impact of our choices.

The decision to balance my career at different companies with the development of my agency was difficult, but in the end, each step proved to be a crucial piece in the puzzle of my growth.

This means that strategic vision is not just about predicting the future, but about trusting the process and learning to connect the dots in retrospect. It is in the sum of each challenge overcome and each lesson learned that you build a solid and visionary leadership.

Starting my own agency was a leap of faith, fraught with uncertainty and challenges. Without much experience, I relied on my desire to learn and the trust that my wife, Luciana, placed in me.

Owners of small and large companies know what it is like to feel the weight of responsibility, but my story shows that support and belief in one’s own potential are essential.

When we look back, we can see that bold decisions, even those made with little experience, are the ones that define the future of our business.

Therefore, believe in your abilities and always be willing to learn and grow, because that is how you will transform your company into something that goes beyond expectations.

When I was invited to coordinate the art team at the Vitalle agency, I learned the importance of leading with empathy and creativity.

Each team member brings with them a set of dots that, when connected correctly, form a powerful network of talents and skills.

For team leaders, the lesson is clear: it is not just about delegating tasks, but about understanding how each person contributes to the whole.

As I reflect on my experience, I see that the true success of a team comes from the leader’s ability to identify and connect these dots, creating an environment where everyone can thrive and grow together.

Work overload almost made me lose the balance between my personal and professional life, but this was one of the most valuable dots I connected throughout my career.

Working long hours may seem necessary, but true productivity and success come when we find a healthy balance.

For all professionals, the reflection here is on the importance of taking care of yourself while pursuing your ambitions.

Looking back, I realize that balance is not just a choice, but a necessity to maintain the energy and creativity that drive long-term success.

Luciana is the “beautiful thing” that gave meaning to my journey, and it is with her that I continue to write the next chapters of our lives.

I would like to thank Klaus for inviting me to share my story on his blog. It was an honor to be able to share a little of my journey with you.

To continue following my work and the latest news from AMPLIA, follow me on Instagram @phelipeosantos and also follow @ampliamktg. I hope to see you there!

Good afternoon my dear followers of my blog and readers of my posts,

today is a really wonderful warm saturday with bright sunshine and blue sky here in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo, where I live. I have just quit the online training session about digital Marketing of the Future, where I have participated during the last 6 hours since 8am.

I like to participate in online events and I especially love to participate in online trainings about subjects which are interesting and useful for me and my new entrepreneurial activities. It`s good to “eat” brain food and to learn new exciting contents from experienced creators and developpers.

You might call me crazy for this, but I am deeply convinced that You have to be passionate and obsessive if You are getting started as an independent entrepreneur. And that`s exactly what I have become since the beginning of this year.

I admit that last year, when my CEO told me that my headquarter has decided, to retire me at the end of August 2024, I was – let`s say – impressed. And I also admit frankly that I had serious difficulties to conform myself with this decision and perspective.

On one hand I was terribly proud that I would thus be able to hand over “my” brazilian company to my sucessor in perfect state and once again – like already during the years 2021 and 2022 – with the best ever business year – in all relevant dimensions, means with regards to net sales, operating result EBIT and profit – accomplished during the meanwhile 50 years long history of our brazilian subsidiary.

But on the other hand I had massive dificulties to understand, why the hell I needed to leave this company if everything under my responsability and control was wonderful. I mean – to use an analogy – we all don`t know to many cases of highly successful soccer team coaches, who have been winning all championships, but have been made redundant by their clubs.

Finally I understood that the main reason for me to retire was that obviously that I have been to young for my company. And once I reached this conviction, it made me proud and happy. Now I really am just thankful for my headquarter`s wise decision.

I feel like a bird whose cage someone opened so that it could escape. And released birds – as we all know – do not return to their former cages…

In my new liberty I have since earlier this year started to develop systematically my own business ideas.

My first important decision was to reactivate my own consulting company KFH IM & Consulting Services Ltda (http://kfhservices.com), which I had put asleep, but never closed, 10 years ago, when I became President of Vulkan do Brasil as permanent employee. But I decided to upgrade it with an extended service portfolio and to give it a completely new professional visual identity.

For the first time since I opened my company 15 years ago in Recife, after my return to Brazil from Mexico, I am offering as well B2B as B2C services for my global customers.

My B2B service portfolio includes now general interim management, all kinds of business consulting services including business development support, sales support as well as professional trainings, speeches, presentations and also mentoring and coaching for individuals and groups of executives and managers.

As B2C services I am now offering for the first time professional and personal mentoring and coaching services for individuals.

As mentionned above, I have meanwhile approved the new visual identity of my company KFH IM & Consulting Services Ltda (kfhservices.com) and I have together with my great friends and fantastic marketing supporters from Amplia Soluções e Consultoría (https://amplia.derybr.com.br/) developped my initial brandnew branding concept.

This goes along with the development of the visual identies for all my brands, the registration of the brand rights under my name and the purchase of all relevant brand internet domain names in Brazil and in the USA.

I can proudly say that I have the best, highly qualified and extremely agile brazilian professional colaborators when it comes to my digital marketing service providers Amplia Soluções e Consultoría (https://amplia.derybr.com.br/), my law firms – general & IP protection – Sperling Advogados (https://sperling.adv.br/) and Luiz Leonardos Intellectual Property (https://llip.com/) and to my accounting service providers LCR Contadores (https://lcrcontadores.com.br/), which I have chosen and contracted already.

For my B2C professional mentoring and coaching services I have registered my own new brand S4H Services 4 Humans and for my B2C personal mentoring and coaching I have registered my own new brand ItsMyLife.

D-day is September 1st, when fully in accordance with my – then – former employer Vulkan, I will be totally free to do what and how I love to do.

Interesting remark. Vulkan did not limit me with respect to supply ANY services for competitors of Vulkan. I really found this surprising and I am open to talk to whoever is interested in my services from September 1st on.

Within the restructuring and relaunch of the new extended service portfolio for my consulting company KFH IM & Consulting Services Ltda I developped the idea to include one brandnew, unique and extremely fancy and promising business idea which – after conversation with several trustful and highly experienced friends – I finally decided to develop as a totally new, independent start-up company, which I pretend to launch to the markets durin Q1 2025 under the already registered brand name S4B Services 4 Businesses.

You can trust me – my partners and I will very positively impress You once we publicly unhide and launch our start-up until in the latest March 2025.

But my thoughts went further. I decided that the time has come to start with the creation of my own virtual community, which I will soon launch under the already registered brand name Tribo do Klaus (Klaus`s Tribe).

All this is constantly beeing developped further and – as I see it today – there will finally be three active players in my ecosystem Universo do Klaus (Klaus`s Universe), which I – for sure – also have already registered as my own new brand incl. the internet domains etc.

I always find it extremely exciting to watch videos about our universe.

Right now my partners and service providers from the different companies with all kinds of professional experiences and expertise and I are full speed determining the visual identities of all my new brands and we are finishing the technical tools and process definitions and set up`s for my community Tribo do Klaus and my ecosystem Universo do Klaus.

Last not least – since August 1st – our highly experienced and skilled friend Laura is supporting me fulltime with content creation and traffic for all my professional social media profiles and other important creative activities within my ecosystem Universo do Klaus and my virtual community Tribo do Klaus.

I hope all this excites You as well. What I truly can promise You is, that this is just the beginning. My brain is full of many more fancy business ideas and projects, which will not take longer than necessary to go live.

Universe III – fine heavy rock from one of the most popular swedish hard rock bands, founded in 2007

Enough insights 4 today. Enjoy the weekend and fill up Your batteries! See You soon back here in my blog.

Hi friends and followers of my blog,

thanks to God and to my new friends Márcia Dembinski from the VIVO Ouvidoria (Ombudsman) Team and Renan Goncalves Gastao, service technician at VIVO, my own and my familly`s hard suffering period of 3 weeks long consecutive errors, wrong order acceptance and execution, accompanied by continuous bombardment with fone calls, whatsapp messages – especially weird: “digital assistants” – and unplanned and unannounced service tecnician visits finally came to a happy end this morning.

Superman Renan Goncalves Gastão, the friendly and highly skilled and experienced VIVO technician, who solved all problems with VIVO`s installations at our house this morning.

Just to bring everybody up to the same page. VIVO is one of the few big national mobile and fix telefone, TV and internet providers here in Brazil.

During these infinite 3 weeks I have spent estimated 6 hours at the telefone with lots of different VIVO employees from all kinds of different departments, I have wasted valuable time with 2 unproductive visits to the VIVO store in our small town and my familly and I have received 5 visits at our home by VIVO service team members.

On 1 ocasion 2 teams came at the same time. On 3 ocasions a tecnician came accompanied by his supervisor. And as if this was not enough, we spent the whole last weekend without any of our 4 different TVs and 2 independent TV supplies functionning.

The only (very) good – within the bad – was, that our 2 independent internet supplies by VIVO were uninterruptedly working very nicely. This kept my whole familly “alive” during this hard time, last not least because we could at least watch streaming movies instead of TV programs.

This sounds crazy, but nevertheless I continue a great fan of VIVOs services. Simply because their mobile fone, internet and TV - if working - work very nicely. I would rather say, they are the best available around here.

What drove me crazy were the absolutely stupid internal & external VIVO communication and service planning systems and the lots of obviously “innocent” employees whose bad attention increased the problems instead of reducing them.

But my real enemy became the automated communication channels. And this criticism goes far beyond VIVO. This criticism refers to the banks, to the health insurance companies and to many other service providers whom You unavoidably need to contact for receiving information, placing service orders and similiar purposes.

But in my eyes these companies are only jointly responsibl with the “makers” of their channels, means the technology providers and implementers of the technologies. They are for my concern the real miscreants.

We all – I suppose most of my blog readers – have a very positive mindset when it comes to new technologies, digital (our great friend and inspirator Silvio Meira from the Porto Digital in beloved Recife city would call them “figital”) features and environments incl. AI and their application for all kinds of improvements of efficiency, transparency and communication in all dimensions and in many day-to-day processeses of our live.

And I definitely include myself in this affinity to technology in general.

But what irritates me very much are the many inconsistent, totally inefficient, time stealing and nerve-wracking wrong or bad implementations of all these technologies, especially when it comes to communication systems, channels and processes.

The great Charlie Chaplin`s movie Modern Times is still up to date – even in our modern digital (Silvio Meira would call it “figital”) world.

I hate wasting tons of valuable time just by listening to unwanted, many times aggressively shrill and often totally unproductive menu announcements and – when getting there finally – missing selection options in the menues for getting done what I origally intended.

Bots are really unbeatable in this respect. And – misused – AI can support them massively.

I ask myself always, whether these companies – the users and the implementers of such systems – do not check all such totally unacceptable inefficiencies and sort all logical bugs out properly before going live with them and onto us, their – too often – victims?

Are we users finally their vulnerability checkers? What a schizophrenia! The total inversion of the game. Instead of the favored ones we – the customers – thus are beeing turned into the disadvantaged ones.

Other point for my critics. But this goes into the same direction. We all normally use our online bank accounts for accessing and managing our finances. This is wonderful and gives us a lot of autonomy, comfortability and – last not least – security, in the sence of “the safest bank is the bank where You don`t need to go to”.

What highly irritates me is, that every once and a while, when I access my bank account, I note that several features, menues, routines and the general optics and arrangement have changed.

If this has been due to safety improvements, I immediately recall all my criticism. But normally this is simply not the case. For me it appears often, as if children were endlessly playing over there, doing changes just for the sake of change.

Maybe this serves – hidden cameras filming us? – only for finding out, how clever we are in figgering out how all these wonderful new features function.

I could not say it better than good old Rock`n Roll heroe Chuck Berry – To much Monkey business !!!

A few years ago – when the banks were just starting their massive digital transformations – a high ranking insider from a renowned software and project management company in Campinas mentionned to me, that his company had several hundreds of staff working on such projects for one of the biggest private banks in Brazil.

Maybe it`s just to many people working on this kind of projects. Maybe – from customer side (in this example the banks) – there is just much to much “let the children play” mentallity.

But once again my fundamental question. Who finally makes sure that we – the damned customers – are beeing heard and attended? Who from all these companies – service customers and service providers – declares responsability and takes care of our justified interests?

Maybe I – or You – should soon open a customer interest focussed system testing company for banks, health insurances and other services providers ?!

Well, I believe I could explain myself quite clearly with respect to my feeling unwell because of wrong applications and implementations of highly appreciated new state-of-the-art technologies, especially when it comes to their application for customer communication and service processes.

I would be more than happy if You decided to share Your own experiences and opinion upon this to all of us here in the answers & questions to this post.

Thanks for Your kind attention. See You soon again back here in my blog.

I hope You found this post interesting and – even better – helpful, at least for loosening Your tongue and participating in this open discussion.

Google Translate

Hi there readers and followers of my blog,

a couple of important things have happened since my last post here and I thought it necessary, to sent this short technical update quickly to You.

In combination with the end of my active phase at Vulkan and my preparations, which are in full swing, for the re-launch of my entrepreneurial self-employment, I have decided to also change the platform for my blog.

This must – and will ! – happen as soon as possible. And with this re-launch my blog will become more professional and beautiful.

I don’t want to make any firm promises now, but I should actually be able to go live with my new private & professional appearance in the social media by the end of June, at the latest.

That’s actually already all for today.

As a consolation, here’s a nice video of Amy’s “Our day will come” performance, which describes nicely my own intentions and future plans.

https://youtu.be/CxYRbzGi8Rg?si=q6J6ei6hB9Wd-NWT

Hope, You liked this. See You hopefully soon back again in my blog – in the new format on the new platform.

 Hi everybody, 

good to see You again here today. 

The immediate positive reactions from many of my globally distributed friends and network partners to my yesterday`s first post after 16 months of interruption have almost “killed” me.

To be true, I did not expect this really fantastic response, solidarity, support and tenderness of so many people at so many different places in the world, who mean so much to me. 

For this reason I felt, that I owe all of You some more background explanations about my decision and reasons to reactivate this blog.

But let me at first take You back a little further into the past and show You, how my obsession (?) with writing has originally started.

Actually my enthusiasm for writing down personal things incl. discoveries, experiences, learnings, emotions and – as well good as bad – feelings started at my sweet (?) age of about 10 years. 

At that time I was living – together with my mother, my sister, my brother and my grand-father – in a tiny village of not more than 1000 inhabitants in a rural area “in the middle of the forest” in south-western Germany.

My father had died when I was 6. My mother was striving for the economic survival of our familly and my 6 years older sister as well as my 7 years older brother were very much occupied with their own things and struggles all around the clock and therefore did not really find much free time to share with me. 

Thus my grandfather was mainly the person, with which I spent more time than with all other familly members during several years. 

I always admired the stories he told me about his own life, but for sure, most of the things he told me, seemed somehow for me, as if they had already happened centuries ago.

Just to point this out. I am talking about the end of the 60ties. These were still „cold war“ times with the damned “hot” war in Vietnam at the peak, the „students revolution“ shaking all european capitals, especially Paris and Berlin, and lots of political and cultural ruptures changing massively culture, philosophy, society and way of live in general.

I don`t remember when and how exactly this happened, but at a certain point of time I started, still a young boy, to discover the pleasure of writing diary. And I enjoyed it widely during a couple of months. 

Decades later I understood, that this most propably was a psychological phenomenon. My diary had taken over the role of a friend, whom I could tell everything, that moved me. And we all know, that to let things out – also in a figurative sense – gives us the sensation of relaxation and satisfaction.

But this great pleasure found it`s abrupt end one day, when I discovered a comentary hand written by my sister into my diary. Obviously she had found my supposedly well hidden diary and read through it. My shock and my frustration were so great, that I burned my diary and firmly decided, to never ever again start writing diary in the rest of my life.

About 25 years later this episod was already long forgotten and forgiven and my mind towards writing diary had opened again. 

Just arrived in Brazil, and seperated from my wife and children in Germany, I started writing diary again during the mid 90s. A good friend of mine later-on told me, that my diary had become my “psychiatrist”. I would not deny that, because I really enjoyed to tell my diary things, which I would hardly ever have liked to share with anybody else. And I continued writing diary during the following 8 totally crazy years. 

Freshly married again exactly 8 years later, I sent “my psychiatrist” to hell, means I quit writing diary immediately. It was simply no longer necessary because – for sure – instead of manually writing down things in a notebook, I could share and discuss them with my new wife from then on.

By the way – I took the impressive stack of diaries, which I had written during the almost endless 8 years between my 2 marriages, along with me during all my movals from Brazil to Germany (I alone), from there to Spain (I alone), from Spain to Mexico (I alone) and later-on to all the different places, where my wife and our new familly lived altogether during 6 years in Mexico and since 2009 until now in Brazil.

Tell You truth. These diaries never again interested me, I never looked them up again and – instead of having turned into a treasure – they had more and more become a real burden for me. 

The desire to get once forever rid of them grew slowly in my mind over several years and I finally burned all my diaries to ashes during my Covid house arrest at the beginning of 2020 in our barbeque station at our house in Vinhedo, Sao Paulo. Only the metal spirals of my notebooks survived, before they went to the trash bin, together with all the remaining ash.

And truly spoken –  I never felt any pain of loss and I have never missed these diaries again since then. 

But soon after my return and firm settlement in Brazil, something new has started to happen slowly over years. 

Good friends started asking me repeatedly, to write down my rich life and work experiences, so that I could share these with others, especially with younger folks, who were interested in getting to know these and to learn from them.

Although I was flattered by these requests, I never really took them serious. 

But then Covid appeared and all our live and work routines changed over night.

After several months of “home office” confinement in our house, my interest in communication with more people outside allover the world and my willingness to transfer some of my life and work experiences, started to grow continuously.

During a sleepless night I got up at a still very early morning hour, sat down in our kitchen, prepared one of my beloved indian chai teas with milk, switched my notebook on and started to look up information about blogs, an idea which had already gone through my mind for a few days at that time.

It did not take me longer than 1 hour, to find out the basics about blogs in general and to identify the most popular and easy to use platforms for blogs. 

I choose the blog website platform that I am still using here today and – as everything was almost self- explanatory – I did not loose any time for getting immediately started and created „hands on“ and „learning by doing“ my brandnew own blog, wrote my very first post and went directly live with it.

All this had happened during early wednesday morning, June 18, 2020. 

When my wife and my son joined me for having breakfast, my blog was already on the air with my first post published. 

You can find it right here in my blog, further down on this page, the same as all my – so far 83 – other posts written and published since then.

During a quite long period from then on I wrote daily posts. And I really enjoyed and loved this. Until I finally – after 3 months – became exhausted and decided, to take some “time out”. From then on I only wrote and published posts sporadically, whenever I felt like it. 

I admit, that I have made lots of learnings about blogs in general and about writing posts through all this time but I confess that – no doubt – there is still plenty of space for improvement. Maybe now I have become ripe for the next further development step.

But I never – since I got started on it – had the intention, nor the desire, to become a „super (blogger) star“, whatever this might be.  

For me this whole subject makes a hell of fun and opens a new wide window for communication and exchange of experiences with lovely and interesting friends and network contacts allover the world. 

I practise this „project“ (let‘s call it like this) purely for own intellectual and social purposes and fun !!!!.  

The most important objective for me during writing posts and communication with You is to keep and protect my authenticity, my transparency, my honesty (to myself and all others), my peacefulness and my liberalism (which also means openness to other opinions and beliefs, as long as they are not racist, discriminatory, doctrinary nor missionary) which – besides my other personal ethical and social orientations – reflect my own, personal „DNA“ and which are non-negotiable. 

One more important explanation. I take the freedom of choice, to freely describe here personal & professional experiences which I consider interesting for introduction and discussion with You. 

In a similiar situation as with my serious dificulties, to seperate „private“ from „professional“ subjects, a strong correlation exists between all my general interests and activities and my deep, intense cultural (music, literature, fine arts, cinema art, photography, architecture, history…..) enthusiasm, which shall be reflected here by my frequent mentionning and citation and publication of f.e. music videos, paintings, fotos and literature presentations and recommendations.

That`s why I give it so much importance, that You really understand my approach and intentions and why I appreciate so much Your feedback comments upon my posts and the open and friendly dialogue with You. 

I do no longer pretend to write daily posts here, but I will leave this completely open to my desire and mood, exactly according to my beloved motto (which is an alleged quote from the french king Luis XIV): “Le roy, cèst moy” (“The king am I”). 

Since my motto I just presented to You is also in French, here is a slightly older French song recommendation, that fits thematically (see https://www.songtell.com/axel-bauer/teins-la-lumi-re) very well with my today`s post:

https://youtu.be/7mpZh5JKVDM

Enjoy this wonderful weekend! See You back here soon.

Hi highly appreciated readers of my blog,

are there still any of You out there?

After the incredible time of 16 months, which has passed since the publication of my latest post here in this blog, to be exact, published during monday, december 5, 2022, I would like to resume this activity now and finally get back to all of You from today on. 

But not only plenty of time has passed since december 5, 2022. 

Lots of things have happened and changed since then – for all of us. 

The whole world has become much more “vuca”. To see a nice, short explanation for this term, which was more widely used years ago, but which – for my concern – continues very instructive, please look up this publicly available explanation: https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you.

In my own personal case, 2023 has become a somehow decisive year, full of new, partially expected & partially unexpected, challenges, experiences, surprises and learnings – as well speaking about my professional as well as about my private live. 

For good reasons, I will not go into very details with respect to all this right now, but only in the near future.

Maybe this increases Your interest to return and adhere to my blog ?!!!!!!

Jobwise, during the first half of 2023, I have managed successfully, to retake my business development activities in subSahara Africa, with personal participation in several industry (mainly mining related) exhibitions, meetings with already existing and potential new business partners and – last not least! – visits to customers – at such different places as Tanzania, Ghana, DR Congo and South Africa. 

I`ll definitely share some more detailed impressions and experiences from these travels and activities in my future posts here.

During the 2nd half of 2023, I have changed completely the focuss of my business activities and I gave full priority and attention once again to our business partners and customers in Latin America. 

Means during the months september – november 2023 I have visited our main sales & distribution partners and several key customers in Chile, Peru, Colombia and in Mexico – practically for the first time again since the outbreak of the, until then unimaginable, Covid-crisis.

By the way, Covid had paralysed me practically completely during the 2 years 2020 and 2021 and kept me – I imagine the same as the most of You – from undertaking any international travels until the beginning of the 2nd quarter of 2022.

My last year`s activities in Latin America were highly productive and I could collect lots of exciting impressions, experiences and learnings – especially during my stay at Acapulco, Mexico, – some of which I also pretend to share here with You during future posts.

I hope, this has made You curious enough, to follow my revived blog again and I am really looking forward to Your feedback, comments and questions. 

As an expression of my positive mood and feelings, nothing better than to close my first new post with my favorite song of good old Sam Cook in a nice history pictures movie version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4GLAKEjU4w

1000 tks for Your (hopefully) interested attention today and goodby until my next post, whenever I take the freedom and decision to publish it.