Interview with Martijn Aslander
Martijn Aslander (male, 35 years old) is prominently an exponent of the feminine economy. In the way he works and lives, he shows a preview of the new economy to be. Aslander is ahead of his time, he defies all 20th century economy models. Avert from hierarchy, control, possession and job titles. The network is central. The importance of money as a dominant factor in economic trading is declining rapidly. The pleasure in the job is criterion Number One. Life hacking is his creed.
The one who hires Aslander as a consultant or speaker doesn’t get any rates or quotes. The client decides the value of his work afterwards. Payment in kind? No problem. Incidentally, the tax office will be tried for a whole new area of problems. He does not write a consultants report. “Pure waste, nobody will read it and paper does not make anyone move”. So says Aslander. Aslander faces up to all known customs, but he’s not just doing something. All his actions and thoughts are founded with modern–day visions and theories of hundreds of scientists and experts. Aslander is really a pragmatic and no nonsense intellectual. A feminine entrepreneur and pathfinder combined.
He has never had a job or a welfare check. He is elusive and hard to place. He certainly is no loafer, but seems to be very energetic and vibrant. What does Aslander actually do for a living? He agrees it can be very useful for projection and communication to summarize one’s profession in one or a few words. On his website (www.martijnaslander.nl) he describes himself in three words: Life Hacker, Connector, Resourcerer.
”I want to move things. Develop myself and others. The largest sum of my time I spend thinking and learning. The rest of my time I spend with others. I connect people”.
This is how Aslander clarifies his life fulfillment. The resourcerer Aslander, reads, learns, and thinks. The connector Aslander has a network of 6000 interesting and highly qualified people. He connects the right people together by means of projects at adhoc basis. The life hacker Aslander proficiently combines simple technological tools and efficient modern procedures, to a way of working in which one can do more in less time. Subsequently creating time to resource and connect.
Nice profession! But what does that roll? And how about the employment terms?
“For over six years I have lived of donations – that is how I used to call it– then I discovered that this could be the path to more wealth as supposed to the path of the day to day hired consultant. Wealth in de sense of added value to both parties, in which value should been seen in a broader perspective than just money. We live in an era in which access is the keyword. Jeremy Rifkin wrote a book about it – The age of access. The possession of goods is no longer important, but more so the core use of it… It’s not about possession, but about the access one can acquire to a certain lifestyle of like-minded people, Rifkin says. I think access is going to be more important than possession in the next decennia. The better your network is, the more access you will have.”
Paper does not move people
“The network phenomenon is nothing new – it’s always been there. But there is a huge difference between the old masculine network and the network Aslander and Rifkin aim for. The old network was about acquiring access to power and formal decision making. Hierarchy was the keyword. What is your current profession? This would be the most important question in the masculine network. And then second, what do you make? Renowned is the known “Old Boys Network”. At the golf course, jobs are being divvied up and business passes on. The decisions are being made in the corridors. In the masculine network there is scraping, licking, scheming and elbowing. (Source, how do I become a rat. Joop Schrijvers). The Old Boys Network is about cronyism, jobs and assignments being passed on. In the feminine network it’s about knowledge, talents and skills. And then secondly, “how nice are you?” Formal powers and material wealth are of secondary value in the feminine network.”
The network of Martijn Aslander numbers some 6000 high potentials. Isn’t that a goldmine for headhunters?
“Not really. Most of them aren’t waiting for the kind of jobs headhunters usually have to offer. It only occasionally happens someone in my network is looking for a steady job. Mostly it would be something temporary, a steady income to finance another project they are working on.”
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