Listen to the show
This podcast is also available on Radio ARA’s website.
Radio Rotondes, in collaboration with Radio ARA #4 Mastery & Passion
“To be a truly creative person you need to put in the work, there is no shortcut”
In this episode we talk to Misch Strotz, a serial entrepreneur from Luxembourg. He shares with us his path and advises us on how to become entrepreneurs ourselves. For Misch, being creative requires hard work, dedication, but also passion and authenticity, for you to become a master at what you do. He also invites us to be curious, to have diverse passions and to question the world around us to keep growing, improving and developing.
We also present two initiatives around entrepreneurship and technology: Jonk Entrepreneuren, which fosters entrepreneurship in children, and WIDE, which offers activities to encourage women to work in the digital industry.
We close the show with a creative prompt around ideation.
Our guest: Misch Strotz
Misch Strotz is a serial entrepreneur from Luxembourg. He is an entrepreneur at heart and created his first business when he was still at university. He fell in love with social media 10 years ago, has created 2 social media platform since then, and two years ago he created Neon Marketing with some of his friends.
Neon Marketing was created to help others harness the power of social media and uncover the many secrets it still holds for most of us. They offer courses, consulting and tools to help their clients use social media at its best.
Misch is also passionate about photography, design, bitcoin and many other things. For him, being creative means being an artist in many disciplines and learning to master each of them. (photo: Neon Marketing)
2:41 — 46:03 to listen to the interview.
To learn more about Misch Strotz
Two creative spaces
Jonk Entrepreneuren
Jonk Entrepreneuren’s mission is to inspire and prepare young people to innovate, create, take initiatives and be responsible. The non-profit organization aims to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit of young people and introduce them to professional life through various educational programmes at each level of education. Any child or young person can participate in one of the programmes offered in partnership with coaches from the business world and schools and universities. All the programmes are based on practical and interactive experiences because Jonk Entrepreneuren believes in the technique of “learning by doing”. (photos: Jonk Entrepreneuren)
46:06 — 58:35 to listen to interview. The interview is in French.
WIDE
WIDE (Women in Digital Empowerment) is a non-profit organisation whose vision is “to empower women with and thanks to digital as well as to increase the number of women seizing their opportunities in the digital economy and society”. Among other things, WIDE offers coding classes, leadership and entrepreneurship programmes, classes about working in the digital economy and conferences. Some are aimed at women interested in working in the digital economy and/or who may want to switch careers; others aim to familiarize girls early on with coding and with the tech world. (photos 1 & 3: WIDE, photo 2: Emeline Petit)
58:35 — 1:09:10 to listen to interview. The interview is in French.
Creative prompt
Finding a great idea
Like Misch says, a great idea has two characteristics. On the one hand it needs to be relevant, it needs to be linked to an actual need, to find people with whom it resonates, or it needs to play into a current technological advancement. On the other hand, it needs to be an idea that excites you, something that, even when it gets hard, you will get through because you are passionate about it. So, the creative prompt for this episode is to find such an idea. Think of something you are passionate about, think of things you find are missing, problems you see in current products, etc. You don’t need to create a business out of this idea, just to prove to yourself that you can have great ideas too.
On the right you will find my own idea. I started by listing things I’m passionate about. Then I thought of things people need these days Finally, I came up with ideas that connected the two. I wrote down a few things around my favorite idea. In the end, I came up with an idea to match people based on skills they can teach each other. So for example, I would be matched with someone in India who wants to learn about Audacity and who can teach me more about product design. We can then define together how we want to meet and exchange knowledge with one another. It felt good to imagine something I can create, something that connects my love for learning and today’s need for connection and friendship.
You can always share your idea with me at email hidden; JavaScript is required.
1:09:16 – 1:10:24 to listen to the creative prompt. The creative prompt is given in French.
Mentioned during the episode
Misch’s current focus as CEO of Neon Marketing
Educational tools created by Neon Marketing
“4 kinds of people in business” is a reference to the Cash Flow Quadrant Model developed by Robert Kiyosaki in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” comes from Nietzsche who wrote in 1888: “Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens. — Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.”
Whiplash: A 2014 American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle. It depicts the relationship between an ambitious jazz drummer (Miles Teller) and an abusive perfectionist bandleader (J. K. Simmons).
Slack: Communication tool within a team
Neon Social Club: Set of ideas & resources Neon Marketing shares around technology and social media with people
Among us: Game Misch plays with his employees
Z4ubershow: Misch’s new show
“An idea is a thought. It’s a thought that holds more than you think it does when you receive it. But in that first moment there is a spark. In a comic strip, if someone gets an idea, a lightbulb goes on. It happens in an instant, just as in life.” − David Lynch
Creative Achievement Questionnaire designed by Jordan B Peterson and Shelly Carson
Neon Tools: A free marketing toolbox developed by Neon Marketing
Beeple created 1 piece of digital art every day for 5043 days
“Master doesn’t fall from the sky” comes from the German expression: “Es ist noch kein Meister vom Himmel gefallen.”
“The goal of working in tech is to make so much money from tech that you can put your kids in one of those $60k/yr preschools where the kids don’t use technology, and then retire early to work on a vineyard so that you never have to use technology again either.” − Chris Bakke’s tweet
Bob Ross: American painter and TV personality
Elon Musk’s elevator pitch to rocket scientist to incite them to join him in creating Space X: “I’m Elon Musk, I’m an internet billionaire, I founded PayPal and X.com. I sold X.com to Compaq for 165 million dollars in cash and I could spend the rest of my life on a beach drinking Mai Tais, but I decided that humanity needs to become a multi-planetary species to survive and I want to do something with my money to show that humanity can do that and I need Russian rockets and that’s why I’m calling you.”
“Step by step walk the thousand-mile road. Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over your self of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.” − Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Winners of the 2020 Mini-company competition organised by Jonk Entrepreneuren