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Hello everybody, here's Alex Able.
Today I'm interviewing Charles, how to pronounce your family name?
Van De Put, Charles Eduard van de Put.
He's a cosmopolitan entrepreneur, a very positive guy
as far as I know and we're studying with him in city university
case business school, doing management together.
Basically, it's our first interview so we'll see how it goes.
With each of the interviews, I ask the person to put a mind map
We're going to go through it today.
You're cosmopolitan, you lived in so many countries!
It's Botswana, Namibia, UK, France, UK.
What's your passport and what can you say about all these countries?
I lived in Botswana, Namibia, UK and France.
I've got a Belgian and a Dutch passport,
that I got from my parents, because one is Belgian, one is Dutch.
Well, talking about the countries:
Botswana, where I was born is an amazing place,
I really loved the country.
People are nice, it's a beautiful country and full of opportunities
as it's Africa and it's a well developed African country.
Namibia is also a great country:
I like Ingles, may be because my sister was born there.
UK, really love the UK, the english mindset and France.
France: cuisine, it's a beautiful country.
I see, basically, Botswana, Namibia, do you have some friends there?
Do you keep in touch?
Yeah, more in Botswana, I know very few people in Namibia.
My parents have friends in Namibia and I know people from Botswana.
Botswana, how long did you live there?
I lived there for 3 years, then 2 years in Namibia.
You were 5 years old
Yep, 5 and a half.
How come you speak so good english?
I learnt the basics, it's very important if you've got the basics.
My parents have always talked in english and french to me,
so I'm used to changing between the 3 languages.
I change when we speak,
I was on Skype with my father yesterday and we'd switch.
If there is a word that I do not know in english, i'll say it in french.
This happens to me as well, when I talk to my parents,
because I'm in England all the time, so substitute russian words.
Sometimes they understand, sometimes they don't.
May be, you can tell me about some of the business opportunities
in Botswana and in Namibia?
I don't know these countries that well.
Can you tell what people do there?
I was there last year,
so I got a new inside on the country.
Namibia, I can't say much about it.
It's a beautiful country and that's for sure.
Botswana is a beautiful country, it's good for high end tourism.
It controls it's tourism a lot, so people who are there enjoy exclusive tourism.
There are very nice opportunities, if you want to build a luxury hotel
There are not that much people, they're educated.
The country doesn't have any debt, so
the only problem they have is AIDS and that's it.
So, in terms of business opportunities, a nice five star hotel
would be a good idea, if you want to start business in Botswana.
You lived in so many countries, so what's your next destination?
May be, you have thought about Asia?
What's the thing, may be China?
That's a good question!
If I had to head somewhere, it would be Hong Kong.
It's in the middle of South East Asia.
It's in the centre of it.
With Singapore with Singapore, these are the two centers.
It's in China and at the same time not in China.
Because it used to be British,
so if I had to go somewhere, Hong Kong would be an amazing place to be.
Especially, if you're doing business in Asia.
What kind business opportunities do you see there?
I like fashion and brands, I'd love to start a fashion brand.
I think and I've heard that Asian people are very brand aware.
Very luxury aware?
Very luxury and high quality awareness.
You've got huge opportunities there.
Even though luxury brands are there now, they've got 200 shops each.
If you bring in a new brand, that will represent quality and wealth
it would work.
You also wrote about new ideas, what are the best ideas
that you can share with the world?
Well, basically, one thing I'd like to say
if you're like me and you think of 73 ideas before you have breakfast,
250 during breakfast and another 2000 during the day,
just write the main ones down and keep everything in a file.
I have a file with all my ideas.
Well, I've got loads.
The ones that I'd like to develop, are
my fashion brand, I'd like to develop a project
like an international museum.
It would be a boat, with the museum inside, that boat would move
so go to Sydney, London, Paris, Hong Kong, New York.
It would be an international museum, so
each city could participate in the scheme.
Share some of its art.
Art will travel around the world
You don't have to go to New York to see one Picasso thing
it would come to you.
Just wait for it.
It will be something uniting all the countries.
For sure, ideas are good, may be you've started something yourself?
You have your own business already?
I like selling stuff, for example in France I would sell
my English homework.
I would help people and they'd pay me.
How much was that?
For a basic exercise, it was 5 euros.
Some were willing to pay, some not.
How much would coursework cost?
In university, ah you're interested!
I don't know, but I've done some French coursework
I am starting free, but when I got loads of clients
I start making them pay.
What else?
I sold cigarettes, that's not very nice.
But I had good discounts from other countries.
Now I'm getting cleaner and starting real business with a friend.
It's all about making traveling easier.
Is it the city spark thing?
Can you tell more about city spark?
It's a competition project, based in city university.
And all the city students can participate in it.
I enter it, Charles enters as well.
All the people who want to win the money
which is ££2500 for sharing their ideas.
If their idea is the best, if we pitch the idea the best way, we win.
What's your idea?
It's that idea of making traveling easier.
How is it possible?
Well, it will work with databases, which you can find
on any government site and just bring everything to build a country profile.
To build your own travel profile.
It is going to work well, if we don't win, we are going to start it on our own.
What is nice about city spark is all the workshops.
And after that it gives you a deadline.
With entrepreneurship, the hardest thing is
because you're your own boss, you can procrastinate and say
oh I'll do it next month and you never write it.
Now it's a competition, so you have to give the business plan
before some dates, or you lose
That's good as a goal, it's also great to meet lots of people.
In my school before, there were not many entrepreneurs.
A lot of people will very lazy, they said:
"i'll get a good job and then I'm done in life".
Still a lot people are like this here?
Now, as we're studying business management so
people have an interest in that.
It's amazing to see some people who have
loads of ideas.
It's fun to see that its mostly people in management
and mostly man, I've noticed.
It's not sexist.
May be women should be with children and so on?
I don't know: yesterday the talker for example
was a woman and she seemed quite brilliant.
I'm sure I'll interview her later :)
Who are the people who inspire you?
What inspires you?
What gives the motivation to do something?
You love what you do, you like the ideas and books
My ideas are my babies
I love them, Zach for example starts businesses and
sells them after.
That's something I don't think I could do.
You wouldn't sell your child, you know.
As entrepreneurs, we have Richard Branson as a common inspiration.
I read, I just surf on the internet, go on stumble upon.
This gives me lots of ideas, but I'm always thinking.
Before going to bed straight away.
I always have half an hour, when I'm thinking about things.
Even though I want to sleep, my mind is ding ding ding.
That's when I get most of my ideas.
Next to my bed I usually have pen a paper to write them down.
Do you have a moleskine where you write ideas?
I have a notepad where I write some ideas.
I can also write quotes there.
In the morning I like to put ideas in the notepad.
Let's talk about design and art.
What are you doing in design and so on?
Once I told Charles about the project, which I'm starting.
He went to his computer straight away
and went to photoshop.
To do the logo for the project.
I was really surprised, because he started,
not like most people do, bla bla bla :)
I think we'll finish it soon.
We need to check the authorization for the name.
Yes, so what I like in design and in art
is the inspiration and the spark of creativity.
When somebody talks to me about the project,
either I like it or I hate it.
So if I love it, I'd just get involved.
Some people do not like the fact that I get involved.
You saw it, we started talking and I was involved straight away.
Sometimes it inspires me and I had an idea for the
logo of Able Project, so I just drew it.
To go back to design, when I see something
or a website that isn't well designed,
I just don't feel well about it.
I love the things that are good.
That's why apple is genius, because
Steve Jobs?
the designer designs everything.
Everything is sneak and smooth and nice
That's what I like
I interviewed Daniel Moroz, who's the founder of
Waysgo website before.
What he said was that, look at you macbook
look at the way it's designed.
Everything is done in a special way.
Even the way it opens!
It didn't think of it that way before.
But when he showed me the design features and all that.
I though that yeah, it's a cool thing.
The macbook air is amazing for that.
It's like a thin slice of paper!
A lot of people want to actually work in apple
because if they are creative, they now that their creativity
will be rewarded.
I'm not sure about that,
I'd say that for creativity it's better to work
with google, if you've got a project
and it's good, the google people will help you to take it
to the stars.
I think apple is much more difficult and controlled.
They are in different markets, aren't they?
Google is a huge market itself, makes huge amounts of money.
Apple makes a lot, but it's already more targeted
and I think more corporate than Google.
We never hear about people who work in Apple.
They sign a chart, they're not saying anything.
I'd rather work in Google if I had to work.
Working is so - so, what do you think about
getting a job after university?
After university, the first thing I'll do is try to start a company.
If doesn't work, I'll have to get a job.
It's something I really do not want to do.
Unless it's a job where you've got responsibilities
and you've got a project which you need to develop.
At that moment, if you like the project, it becomes
your baby and you make it grow.
I see, there's a quote, that was in a movie
"dan in real life" and it said:
"don't plan anything, plan to be amazed".
I think that's a good thing for life.
The quote which you put on twitter is:
the best way to predict your life is to invent it.
The best way to predict future, is to invent it.
Remember that guys ;)
You also wrote that you never read the instructions.
What was this about?
I thought about that, and that's very me!
When I get the new computer or a new toy.
I would never ever read the instructions!
I would just start putting things up and press buttons
to see how it works.
If I really have a questions, I go to the instructions.
Which means, if you're playing by the rules
you won't always be creative.
If you're not, it's thinking outside of the box.
I think that's related.
But for lego or IKEA I use the instructions.
And then it helps me, because most of the time
there are pictures and I like them, that's me.
IKEA is very hard actually
to put it all together.
Me and my father, we were putting one wardrobe
together and afterwards, we were both swearing basically.
It's so hard! But lego is a good one.
Lego is a good one, but that's typically
the type of instructions I read.
If it's got pictures, I will take a look.
If it's plain text, then no.
You don't like the instructions.
You like to do what you love and you love
to do everything your own way.
Yeah, that's why people would not like me in a job.
I always generally get to the results, but never in the way
you want me to.
So, for example, writing an accountancy sheet will not be my thing.
I will write something that at the end will tell you how much you win.
I don't wanna know, what are the assets, equity and so on.
Even though it's really interesting a good for business,
I wouldn't be a good accountant, because
I wouldn't do it that way.
What I'm doing now, is that I sell on amazon
dvds and all that.
What i look at, is how much money: revenue and
profit I get.
I don't wanna calculate how much I spend on the thing
and everything else, what matters is how much profit I gain.
I'm really happy, when I get profit.
That's the only thing that matters to me.
Same for me, I build a balance sheet when I sold things.
So, I spent this much on that and people bought it for that.
You do the total of what they bought it for.
You take what it costs you and do the subtraction.
And you get the result, that's all I'm interested in.
What about your parents?
Which career do you think, which career they think
you should pursue? What's their idea?
Is it the same idea you've got, like a freelancer or entrepreneur?
Or they think that Charles should become doctor..
not doctor of course, if you are doing management.
They've always told me, I should do whatever I like.
Even though sometimes, they're like
some stuff is too freelance and too free.
You should concentrate more on work.
That would happen when I have projects during my studies
in high school.
My parents would say, that some ideas were very nice.
But you should work on your school.
Basically, school didn't interest me.
Some things were interesting, but I was more there
to learn than to pass tests and exams at the end.
That's why I guess business is really interesting to learn.
And we've got also city spark competition, which
really brings skills of good business planning.
What motivates you more? Studies, city spark?
Your own thing?
For me, it is this project, as well as city spark.
But not studies. They're kind of
they are there but nothing else.
Basically, why I studied, is because
if I have to find a job, at least I'll have a good degree
from Cass, which is worth a lot.
And I'll study for it, that's not a problem.
But the thing is that it is useful and it's
much more useful and I'm much more happy to study now
than years ago, because a few years ago
I had french lessons, I had physics lessons
but I couldn't apply that to business.
Whilst here, every course I can say
that in business, this is useful.
I can compare that to that.
Accounting, even though it's boring and even though I don't like it.
I can say that this can be useful.
If I know how to read an accounting sheet,
then I have skills for the business.
I see, you wrote about reading, I know that you read a lot.
The book you gave me by Paul Aden, very good book.
It's called "it's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be".
Very good book, you'll read it in 20 seconds.
Very inspirational as well, what other books
can you advise the people?
I'd advise the 48 laws of power by Robert Green, it's amazing.
Especially if you like history.
I'm going to tell you the books, which I brought with me here.
I had to bring a limited amount, I brought
War and Peace by Lev Tolstoj, Russian.
That book is amazing, probably my favorite.
How was the translation of it?
The translation is really nice, I like that translation
I know there are loads of versions.
If you can get the little brown book of anecdotes
they don't publish it anymore, but it's really interesting.
What is it?
It's all about anecdotes, you go to famous people
like Winston Churchill and they'll tell lots of moments
when he was witty, when his friend who was a theater
director, sent him a message:
"I'll give you two tickets, one for you and one for your
friend, if you have one. And Churchill answered,
well I won't come to the first presentation,
but I'll come to the second, if there is one."
It's all sorts of things like that. You've got
Elizabeth the 1st, you've got Alexander 2nd.
It is really interesting but nothing to do with business.
Still you need to develop not only in business terms.
It's always good history and these are good things to say
when you're in society, when you're networking.
And you see that the person is interested in Napoleon.
But if you got a cool story about him, that's useful.
What else? I saw you got more books than that!
If you want fiction, and if you like british humor, there's
Sacky, it's fun and it's short stories.
I'd say you should subscribe to Monocle, which is an
amazing magazine. I don't have shares, promise!
Not yet :D
I'll probably start a concurrent. Really?
I'd like to, if I could start a magazine, I'd actually
be interested. Do you think that people still buy magazines?
I believe, that if it's quality and you don't have too much
advert and what you say, really means something, it's good.
It's more like you read a book for a week.
A monthly book?
The economist is weekly, amazing magazine for business.
Monocle is coming out monthly, and it's really about everything.
When everybody was talking about Stross Kann, because
they know that you heard about it everywhere, and it's rumors.
It's peoples story, I didn't like and never watch news on tv.
I can go to BBC world to have a look and read financial
times from time to time.
And then, read magazines with quality articles.
We talked about Turkey when there was the Arabian
conflict and now everybody forgot about it.
But Monocle went there to see how democracy is installing.
Did I say Turkey? It's Tunisia.
Sorry, I think that it's an amazing place for opportunities.
I think that North Korea would be amazing, when it opens.
Just to send Coca Cola there. No, what you have to do is
Cuba, because America will take it's embargo off Cuba.
Cuba will become capitalist, so do business in Cuba.
Buy all the cigar factories, buy everything.
If you've got money, do business in Cuba.
How to do business, if you've got zero money?
Find something you can do, so if you're creative
you can design, if you've got computer.
You can draw logos, sell them and then develop your agency.
SBTV - one camera, which is now in the TV.
One camera which turned into 12 talented people and
now they've got better and more cameras, I think.
That's kind of a story of Justin Bieber, but in terms of TV.
I'm not a fan of Justin Bieber, don't wanna know his story.
Why? He posted videos on youtube and after that got
a phone call from Usher. That;s quite a good story.
Another impressive one is about the guy who played lady
gaga on the piano and got contacted by lady gaga.
He is really talented.
What are you favorite quotes?
Well, I didn't have time to think about that question?
I'd say that I like most of the quotes by Einstein, they
are true and amazingly accurate.
Richard Branson has a good one:"once I got an idea, I
develop the idea and then I call the accountants in".
"Not the other way round".
I don't think it's said that way, but that's basically
what it means. I'd say Einstein is a really good
person to quote.
Now we've seen Charles Boss :D
What is your quote, what's your slogan, your motto?
My quote and my motto...
A few days ago I saw this exit sign, where you've got the door.
The arrow and the man running towards the door.
Some guy just drew lines on the door, so it looked like a
wall. Then I was thinking, so basically you're running into
a wall. Then I said, that most of the people, who say
that you are going to fail and you prove them wrong.
If you want to prove them wrong, you will generally manage,
so I was thinking: If people say, that you are running
into a wall, then just break the wall.
Yeah, that's a very good quote.
Basically, we've got a tradition in here,
that, already 3 times, 3 people interviewed, which is that
you write: "you are able to.." What are you going to write?
You are Able to break the wall.
That's very nice. Very nice talking to you Charles and
now we gonna write it.