About Me — Vincent Werner. A German who grew up in Kenya and lives…
By: Vincent Werner
Tags: Biography, Life, About Me, Journey Of Life, Life Lessons

About Me — Vincent Werner

February 2020 before lockdown.

Dinosaurs and Disappointments

In primary school, I once wrote a story in a little A5 textbook. Since my dream at that time was to become an archaeologist, digging out the most amazing dinosaur fossils man has ever seen, the story was about ancient Egypt. Yes, I was quite obsessed with dinosaurs for a while.

Anyway, in that story, 3 men went on a journey to Egypt to discover the pyramids and look for… yes, of course, dinosaur fossils.

The story went something like this.

The men walked. They saw sand. It was hot. There was a secret pyramid.

I was 8.

The fact that I still remember this story now means that I really loved it. It meant something to me. And at that time, it meant so much to me that I decided to read it to my classmates and teachers in German class. You have to understand that I was not the one doing any extra work, ever. For some reason, I wanted to read it.

The teacher took some time at the end of the class to let me read my story. Everyone was sitting in a circle and staring at me. I started reading it.

The men walked. They saw sand. There was a secret pyramid. My teacher was bored after the first sentence, but my classmates were more interested. That was the first time I learned the magic of knowing your target audience.

Suddenly the unexpected happened. At some point in the middle of the story, I somehow skipped the page, or a page went missing, or something like. Whatever it was, I was suddenly not making any sense at all anymore. The story skipped to a different point, and I lost my flow.

I remember the school bell ringing to signal the end of class. As you can imagine, when the bell rings, no kid stays in the classroom. After 5 seconds, that room was empty. I was left sitting with my teacher. She looked at me and said:” You’ll finish the story next time. I never did.

I felt stupid and embarrassed that I couldn't read my own story properly. That day my writing career ended. Well, it took a looong break. Something inside me broke.

A new beginning

The next time I enjoyed writing was in Kenya. When I was 12 years old, my parents decided to take a leap of faith and leave Germany. At that time I hated school, I didn't see the point of learning stuff I didn’t enjoy. My grades were bad, and I wasn’t making an effort to improve them.

When my parents decided to leave for Kenya and asked me if I was okay with it, I didn’t think twice. But for my school, it wasn’t so easy. Suddenly the teachers felt a sense of responsibility for me. They were concerned that I wouldn't learn anything in Africa. Do they even have books?

My Sports teacher said that I would never learn English. My mum had to beg to get me into English after school curriculum, which was only for the kids who spoke good English to make them speak even better English. Welcome to the German school system, my friend.

My best friend Allan and I having a blast

Well, going to Kenya was probably the best decision my parents could have made. At least for me. The worse grade I would have in the first year was a B. The classes were in English. The environment was so different that it changed my whole perspective on life. Even though my parents split up and my mum stayed with me until I finished school, I am incredibly grateful for the journey.

I played football, got into running (400m-800m) and was Go-Karting whenever I could. And, enjoyed the Mombasa Beach life.

In my element

Back to black

After I got back in 2014, I was thrown back into the system like a wild tiger being chucked into the zoo. Worked for my neighbour in an apple juice factory, packing bottles by hand and driving the forklift, which was the best part. It was alright. I was making my first money.

After nearly two years, I had a fallout with the owner of the factory, who was the father of the neighbour I used to play with during my childhood until we moved to Kenya. My first boss was difficult and I was done with having a boss. I quit at the end of 2015. On the other hand, I have to thank him for getting me a job in Austria in the summer of 2015 in a sports hotel where I ended up working again in 2016 before moving to Amsterdam.

Back to the German system. Since I graduated high school in Kenya, I had graduated with the A-Levels. Usually the ticket to university. But not in Germany. I applied for different internships (Praktikum) dual studies between 2014–2016. Got some interviews, but in the end, they looked at my diploma like I was an Alien from Mars trying to infiltrate their system illegally. They were too scared to accept something out of the norm. Telling me to re-do my diploma in German.

At that stage, I was getting quite upset. I was living with my Dad, had little to no money and was treated like a stranger in my own country. Had broken up with my girlfriend who was studying in the UK. My friends were all doing their own thing. Either studying or working.

The only great thing was to be part of my old football club again. Training twice per week and matches on weekends.

From Apple juice to Cheese and Cannabis

Finally, in February 2016, I went to Amsterdam to do the intake test to get accepted at a Sports, Business and Management Bachelor. I had always had a passion for health and fitness and saw this as one of the only ways “out”.

I remember getting the email in April that I was accepted. Wow. What a day. At the time, I had a little Smart Cabrio that I drove all the way to the UK with 2 months after I had my license. After I opened the email, I drove to the supermarket to get a bottle of Champagne, well prosecco, to celebrate.

Me now. Just joking. You can see my Smart Car in the top right corner yellow- blueish. I was dreaming.

Fast forward to Amsterdam, I was set on starting my own business and did that last year with www.fusion-kinetic.com. I’d been waiting to do that since I started the study in 2016. We got to the Philips Innovation Awards in April 2020, but after Corona hit the planet, we were forced into stealth mode.

Oh, I almost forgot. In April 2017 I started tourguiding in Amsterdam. A time when the city was so full of tourists that even tourists were complaining about the tourists. So if you are visiting Amsterdam when all this is over and you want to know all about the history of the Dutch, let me know.

While I was starting Fusion Kinetic, I realised that I like writing. Again. So I started writing for fun and created a blog where I wrote about health, fitness and nutrition.

Soon I got obsessed with writing to persuade. Since I was doing all the communication and marketing for the start-up, I had to pull up my sleeves and learn. However, my girlfriend jumped on board and helped me a ton. (Thank you) During our Kickstarter campaign, which was a crazy idea to start so early, I was learning copywriting.

David Ogilvy, John Caples, Claude C. Hopkins, you name it. I was consuming the sales letters and adverts like an addict.

Right now, I still love it. I have to thank the pandemic for keeping me locked in to be able to focus on learning. Out of every crisis comes opportunity. We just need to keep looking forward.

Thank you for reading!