Luke Janssen
Jumping off stuffStuff about me
My work
In 2003 I quit KPMG where I had been for 8 years, since finishing my Computer Science with Management degree at Kings College, London and started TigerSpike. A mobile technology company. The good thing is that after one or two years of hardship it worked, and as of 2010, we have 50+ people accross 3 main offices (Sydney, London, and New York). I really love my work, and I mean really love it. I look forward to Mondays. The people I work with are all very smart and very cool.
What I think about work is that you have to be different. Think differently and do different things. In sailing when we do this we usually come dead last. But there is also the potential to win which is what will (hopefully) keep happening with work. I think that if you love what you do and are judged on results only (not hard work or dedication or how late you stay, but results) and if you are given a chance to achieve those results without being micro managed too much, then you flourish. Or wither. Yeah its kind of sink or swim, but I think people like that. Apart from the people who sink I guess, but they can go work for other companies 
Where I am from
This is a good question and one that I dread as it leads into a long monologue. So here goes: I was born in 1975, and when I was very young I left England (where I was born) and moved every 2 to 4 months (Kuwait, Cairo, Tanzania, Milan plus more) until I settled down for longer. As follows:
- Liberia (3 years until Samuel Doe in 1980)
- Oman (5 years – primary school)
- Hong Kong (4 years – my high school)
- Singapore (4 years – the rest of my high school)
- London (6 years – University and first 4 years of KPMG work)
- Sydney (7 years – 3 with KPMG and 4 with TigerSpike)
- New York (2008 until now)
- Music. I used to sing in a band and I play piano and guitar. To be honest music is the main thing in the world that I love. I wrote some good songs, mainly with Olly Chang and Matt Knight. We recorded some, which are around somewhere. I was 2nd trumpet in the school orchestra too, but I didn’t stay long (bitch with the white gloves 1st trumpet!!!)
- Sailing. I love sailing too. I did the Sydney to Hobart in 2004, which was the 4th worst storm they have ever had and over half the fleet turned back or turned over. It was one of the best things and one of the worst (and hardest) things I have done.
- Skydiving. Skydiving is really fun. I used to go every weekend in Sydney, and learnt in the USA. I highly recommend it. I did 150+ jumps which isn’t that much compared to most regular skydivers. I sold my parachute to start the company so haven’t been in a while
- Scuba Diving. The best diving I have done is in Cancun in ceynotes (freshwater caves) the water was so clear it was like floating in air (there is no silt so no loss of clarity). Maldives is excellent too. I go a few times a year but I’m not one of those nuts people for whom every holiday needs to be a diving holiday. I have my own fins and mask, but that’s it (I find you can always tell how much someone is into a sport by all the extra crap that they buy)
- Skiing. Since I was 4 was a family thing to go skiing so we all got pretty good. Most winters I ski in Verbier (thanks to uncle Frits’ chalet there – yes! I have an uncle Frits). Oh yeah, I also ski well on water too – I came 4th in a waterski competition in Singapore, but the dude who came third only had one leg…. so I got him disqualified for not being in the paralympic competition! Mwooohaaaaahaaa haaaaa (ok so I didn’t. I should have!)
- Flying. I fly single engine planes with propellars. I trained in the University of London Air Squadron (This is the Royal Air Force Volunteer reserve – basically the toy air force for university students) and met some good guys there, one of whom is in the RAF now, but if I had wanted to join I wouldn’t have been flying jets and bombing people to death I would have been flying a cargo plane full of rubber dogshit out of Hong Kong…. which isn’t really my thing
- Leather books and belt making. I started this because I wanted a new book to write music in, but thought that the ones they were selling were overpriced. So I bought vast amounts of leather and string and paper and other crap and made one myself. All up the whole little escapde cost over $2,000 (not by best business decision. And with the off-cuts I made belts, which my ex girlfriend and little sisters have plundered so I have none left. If I really like you, you may get a book one day, but I always end up liking them so much that I don’t want to give them away
- Rugby was the main sport that I played when I was young. Our 7s team were all good friends so we used to win everything all the time which was good. I was apparently too much of a ‘bad boy’ to be captain, but was voted best player by the team and coaches which was nice. Then I went to University and a) realised it was cold and the opposition were men, not small asian schoolboys, and b) they had the nerve to put me in the 2nd XV, so I quit. Just like the bloody boy scouts when they told me I bit my nails but I didn’t, so I burnt down the cub person’s house with him in it! (ok so I didn’t really, I just quit). In Sydney I did 2 sprint triathlons, but only because I bet someone $1,000 I would beat him. Which I did.
- Whistling - I was recently crowned mens 36th ‘International Grand Champion!” after winning the whistling competition in North Carolina in 2009 (see here). I m the best whistler on the planet!
3 Comments»
Michael Somero wrote @
I was in Louisburg Saturday with my family and we enjoyed your whistling performances.
Great job and congratulations.
if you post a video on-line please send us a link….
Luke Janssen wrote @
Thanks Michael… I think that I am getting a load of people reading this work blog… maybe I should start a whistling one!…
I would like a leather bound book for my 30th. you have a decade to save up the money and make me one