Inspiring Journey Video with Marjolein Baghuis

Video Transcription:

My name is Marjolein Baghuis and I call myself a catalyst for positive change. And, what that means is I help, especially companies, but also other type of organizations, combine sustainability with how they make money rather than having sustainability out in a corner all by itself quite isolated from how value is really created by companies. And, I do that for big and small companies.

There’s masses of people suffering in companies and there’s masses of companies not reaping the benefits of really looking at how can I build my business by building a better society. There was a moment when at this NGO there was a cycle of kind of creating new guidelines new standards and the moment came to launch them. And this was about a year after I had this meeting in Japan and I thought what’s next. What am I going to do after the launch? And, I thought. I’m going to relaunch myself, I’m going to reinvent myself and work with the people rather than be the ‘ivory tower standard setter’, which I loved working there. Don’t get me wrong, but it’s a very different role you don’t get to be as close to the real problems and have a voice and a stake in solving the disconnect in companies that I now can do for companies big and small.

I think a key thing is to think about what you’re really good at already. That might not be what you really want to be, but if you think from the perspective of okay, this is what I want to do. What are the skills I’m going to need? What skills do I already have? What extra skills do I still need to acquire? And, then being tough on yourself. It’s like training for a marathon. The marathon in and of itself is not the toughest thing, it’s getting there. So, you really have to think about: How am I got to get there? Do I need to go back to school? Do I need to meet with many people? Do I need to take an internship somewhere to acquire the skills I need to fulfill my dream?

But, don’t give up on the dream because that it doesn’t match with what you’re good at. Start from what you want to be good at and think of how to get there. Reach out to your network, find people that have done similar things or things you don’t understand and ask them about their why? Why are they doing it? Especially the people who are you don’t understand what they’re doing because that’s where the interesting stories are. That’s where you find their real inspiration and it helps fuel yours. Your inspiration will come from within. It’s not going to change your inspiration but it will help you find the right words for it and find the right stepping stones. And, asking people not just for their why are they doing this but also how they got there. The what is usually quite obvious. But, yes, start from the why.

Marjolein Baghuis is a catalyst for positive change at The Terrace, an agency working to support clients with sustainability.

Seuss Recruitment is a pharma-recruitment specialist that finds synergistic fits between life-science superheroes and forward-thinking pharma, biotech and clinical research companies using the art of match-making with a modern twist. Call us at +31 (0) 20 29 00 016 or email us TalkToUs@seussrecruitment.com to have an engaging conversation about how to transform your career or company.