2021. I was walking in Amsterdam. An Amsterdam without tourists.
The souvenir stores are open, if you make a reservation 4 hours in advance according to the rules, you can still buy your keychain with a delft blue clog. If you look out on the street, all the stores are empty except for the staff.
I walk across Dam Square, full of pigeons. The pigeons bring life. The pigeons are in charge with their freedom. The New Church has a stretched canvas that says “Welcome”.
I walk on.
I have to go to the Herengracht. I have a meeting in a stately mansion. I have to be there because a factory is being built on behalf of a well-known trading house. We are making a factory of a vitamin mix for milk (for babies). And with these traders, documents and drawings of the layout need to be reviewed. None of that can be done online. Moreover, our contact person is a Fleming, and let's face it online some cultural aspects do not come across. Even in real life the challenge of cooperating with people from Amsterdam with people from the North of the Netherlands (Frisian) and that through a Belgium manager...a misunderstanding is more than likely.
And that makes it fun.
However, this team also has to deliver a project.
I say, “I love being here.” When I arrive at the premises. I note I haven't been anywhere on location in a long time. And I ask for a tour in the building. 1 hour of meetings followed by 2 hours of viewing a set of rooms. It's out of proportion. That's what you have, when you take freedom where you see an opportunity.
Downstairs is the guest reception room, the showroom. The ceilings are high, there is a wall covered by a huge stretched canvas, for acoustics. There are oil paintings. And on the biggest painting, in the most stately room, I look at the former CEO. And what stands out? The CEO is a “she”.
A lady!
In the wig time. 17th century.
Holland's first-ever female CEO.
Her husband died, and her son was too young to handle the business. She took over. Tragically, her son then never got to the age to replace her. She carried on, a powerful woman. Did not retire either, and at a very old age still propelled the entire hard-growing business forward.
There is an unbeatable entrepreneurial spirit throughout this building.
Everything goes on here, even when family members die. And even if there is Corona. And so it shows now. Here I am, with this multi-million-dollar order. And so we are here. Business is business.
In another room, I see a painting from the bridge. The little bridge where I was just walking. A painter stood there in the middle and gave us a view of the beginning age of this business, the early trade. The development of the street, and of the canal. The mansions still under construction. It does look quiet. Silent. In the painting. And when I look outside, it is quiet also outside.
The view from the rooms outside shows the canal, houses across the street. All quiet. It is so much quieter than usual. On the street, the canal: it is like a still life.
Like a painting.
If you look inside the houses, you might see some slight movement. Also, we are inside with a few people, walking through the imposing rooms. Beautiful rooms. With ornaments. And “marble” I say out loud.
But I learnt from my host it's not marble. It's painted. Anything that you see from a distance, looks like real marble, however it is not. It was originally painted as well, and it recently has been restored as it was. It was painted, it's been re-painted. There are restorers who specialize in marble painting!
I somehow like it when people are so heavily specialized in something. You learn and wonder and realize that there is a complete world out there you did not know existed. It opens like a door to a new universe. And that's how you discover something.
In the stillness and the attention.
It was quiet in Amsterdam.