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. 

Next to that, I am working with Bert Hellinger Institute to provide courses for individuals to become family or organization constellators. This helps me to keep developing my systemic perspective of the world. 

To be continued...