{"id":23185,"date":"2025-09-23T17:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalleadership.eu\/?post_type=case&p=23185"},"modified":"2025-09-26T20:03:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T18:03:40","slug":"pieter-wijffels-botswana-spain-and-veluwe","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/naturalleadership.eu\/en\/case\/pieter-wijffels-botswana-spain-and-veluwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Pieter Wijffels, Botswana Spain and Veluwe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Pieter Wijffels (48) is a venture partner at NLC Health Ventures. After six years in China and four years in the United States working for Philips, he now lives in the Netherlands with his wife and three daughters. Curiosity and the drive to keep creating new things, combined with entrepreneurship, boldness and a focus on impact, define Pieter. He sums it up in two words: Discovering Together. \u201cI am always working on new things. But I especially enjoy doing them with other people.\u201d This has been true since his youth and student years, and it still guides him today as he seeks new challenges in both his personal and professional life. Pieter has long been connected with people involved in leadership and authentic leadership, one of the FNL\u2019s core values. As the son of Herman Wijffels, one of the FNL\u2019s founders, he followed the organization from the start.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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It was only a matter of time before he joined a trail himself. That moment came at the end of his time at Philips: \u201cI no longer really knew if I wanted to stay at Philips, or what I wanted with my life. With my professional life, because privately I was very happy.\u201d That realization prompted his first trail in Botswana. Alongside his work, Pieter is active in YPO, a global network for young leaders that promotes leadership development and fosters support and connection beyond the business context. This year he will serve as chair of YPO Netherlands. The program includes an annual multi day retreat. \u201cWith that group, you go away every year for three or four days to get even more depth.\u201d His group chose to do this with FNL, first in Spain and later through the newly developed Veluwequest<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The memories of Botswana remain vivid. The days in the Okavango Delta were intense and offered a new kind of challenge. \u201cI can clearly remember floating through the delta in a mokoro. Truly incredible.\u201d Pieter goes on to describe his most impactful moment: \u201cAt one point, I had the night watch and further away a patch of grassland was on fire. We were sitting by the river when a few very large elephants crossed the river.\u201d
He recalls the red glow lighting the grassland and the elephants in the night. \u201cIn some way, that was the moment I thought: yes, everything is burning around them, but those elephants just choose their own path. They have to cross the river and they do not care that everything around them is on fire.\u201d In that moment he realised he needed to look deeper within to decide what he truly wanted. That crystallised into three core values: impact, entrepreneurship and connection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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For Pieter, that first trail was a turning point. \u201cEach time I got a higher position, a more comfortable life, but I was becoming increasingly unhappy. The trail turned everything around.\u201d His second and third trails, in Spain and in the Veluwe, were moments of reorientation: returning to the core, checking whether he was still true to his path, and adjusting where needed.
On the value of a trail, Pieter says: \u201cThrough a trail you peel away one layer, and then another new layer appears. You peel that away, and yet another layer comes. Each time you go a little deeper, and that process keeps going. I think it lasts your entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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He sees this layered process not only in himself but also in the wider the FNL community. \u201cWe are now at the point where several hundred people go on trail each year. That creates a cumulative effect. When I meet someone who has been on a trail, I notice it very quickly. We talk about it and move forward together. It has become a movement, which is impressive.\u201dAccording to Pieter, the FNL is once again at a crucial turning point. \u201cIt is time to take the next step. How do we distinguish ourselves from other parties? The FNL is the golden standard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His message is clear: The FNL must remain the leading organization, and for that, change is essential.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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