Showing initiative
During my whole educational program at Sport Sciences at the Hanzehogeschool Groningen creating and making use of opportunities is the positive approach and mindset one has to have. In some situations people are looking at issues as roadblocks instead of kickers that give you airtime and a better overview of what is happening around you.
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Some key examples of situations in which I rather choose the opportunistic view are during my third year internship which I did at ‘The Kettlebell Fitnessclub’. At that time they were a fresh start-up company under the supervision of Rink Dubblinga and Laurens Groeneveld. Rink invited me to join their start-up and help them forward by creating a business advice report. At first I was a little cautious because of the lack of experience in running a business, on the other side however this was the opportunity for me to see how one should set-up a company starting from nothing. This made me decide to accept his invitation and helping them with analysing competitors and forming an overview of their market position. Resulting in different business directions The Kettlebell Fitnessclub could follow.
Some feedback given by Rink Dubblinga as you can find at ‘Feedback internship; Year 3 TheKettlebellFitnessclub Feedback Rink.pdf’
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‘Goed de technieken van de opleiding toegepast en overzichtelijk verwerkt.’
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After completing my internship at The Kettlebell Fitnessclub a nutrition minor in Rio de Maior, Portugal followed. Part of the PAL program which is another opportunity that occurred at the end of my first year. In which I choose to proceed my study in English to challenge myself a bit more and making use of the opportunity to go abroad. There were different countries to choose from each with their own benefits and their downsides of educational quality and culture. Portugal had my favour because of the cultural differences with the Netherlands. In combination with the topic nutrition this would gave me a more rounded view on how to help people change their dietary habits in comparison with the Netherlands itself or Lithuania for example.
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In line with all of the above my graduation internship followed at sportstudio MIBOSO which is also a young company. During a tour at Miboso, part of the course Small business & Entrepreneurship, Kelly Schat spoke about his desire to implement greenery usable for consumption in their indoor environment. This to tackle the importance of healthy and pure nutrition in combination with physical activity. For many this was to abstract looking at their reaction towards this idea. For me this was the time to create and take advantage of the opportunity for having a final graduation project within the topics of my interest. I heard different stories about former interns at MIBOSO, most of them concerned issues of consistency and having a different vision on the business approach. For me this was a risk to consider the outcome of my graduation project. But as said before I like to look at subjects other people see as issues as opportunities which make you grow more than choosing the easier way.
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A few months in the internship I dare to say I took a proactive approach by volunteering to open at 07:00 for MIBOSO to assure consistency of opening hours and to form myself more into a sports professional with the right discipline and work ethics instead of the student I became after years of being a student. Besides improving MIBOSO by implementing greenery which is part of my graduation project I am willing to help improve the quality of business on different aspects being business structure, time management and operational management.