Grew up. I am Zeeger Scholten. Son of Ilonka Jankovich (entrepreneur and investor) and Jaap Scholten (Writer). I have two little brothers, Jozsi and Otto Scholten. 

I was born in Amsterdam and grew up in Bloemendaal until I was 10 years old. We then moved to Budapest, where I went to an American International School till I was 18.

Buddhism. A significant moment happened around the age of 16. I remember laying in my bed and realizing “I am going to die and everyone I love is going to die one day”. This really hit me. After feeling sad for a few days, I started asking questions to my teachers at school; How do you live life knowing you are going to die? Why are we alive and how do I best spend this time on earth? 

Unfortunately, my teachers could not provide me with answers. By chance, my father was invited to a Buddhist gathering and last-minute took me along. The topic of that day was Death from the Buddhist perspective. Being able to talk with adults about this topic was invigorating. I returned to these meetings every week and started to meditate and chant. For the next 4 years, I followed the philosophy and practices of Nichiren Buddhism. 

Mechanical Engineering. In this pursuit of wanting to understand what life was about, I also looked toward science. For that reason, I went to study Mechanical Engineering at TU Delft. Coming from an open-minded international background, it was quite a challenge for me to re-integrate into the dutch culture, especially fraternity student life. Not really feeling in my place, I quickly finished my bachelor’s in 3 years. Mechanical Engineering and deeper conversations with friends showed me the clear limitations of science in understanding the world. I wanted to explore beyond the boundary of what we can prove through science, into personal development and spirituality. 

First company: Life Accelerator. Inspired by my mother’s entrepreneurial career, I went to study Technology Entrepreneurship at UCL in London. During my students years, I saw how many students & young professionals around me felt very lost. I also often felt lost, but my Buddhist background had given me some peace in dealing with this. I wanted to share this feeling of peace and started my first company the Life Accelerator, where we organized personal development workshops for students. We did this for a year but we did not have a strong enough business model to continue. 

Breathe. Seeing that it was hard to change the world purely on an individual level, I wanted to approach change on a more systemic level. This is why I joined Breathe, which was in between a consultancy and investment firm. Here I learned about purpose-driven governance, self-organization, and how to strategically look at organizational development. 

Third company: INJOY. During COVID, on the side, I started hosting and facilitating online conferences. This sparked the idea of starting a business again; INJOY. With no clear idea in mind, together with Andrea, we got office space and decided to focus on our state of being, and see what would emerge. It was a completely new experiment on how business could be started. We held many events and leadership programs at our space, but in the end, a vital enough business model did not emerge. Learning; a little bit of vision is required. 

Currently. After many years of starting businesses, I thought it would be nice to work for someone again and learn from people with more experience.

I am working at Fenix Leadership, where we advise investors on organization development and the human capital side of their investments. We also facilitate management teams of fast-growing companies. I currently very much enjoy working on such a strategic and personal level. 

To be continued...