FIVE MINUTES WITH ...
Guus Franke is the CEO and founder of Axiom Partners , which recently acquired Cannock Transaction . He tells us what inspires him in fintech today .
Q . WHO WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD HERO AND WHY ?
» A difficult one . However , I think it has to be Warren Buffet . Having known from a very young age , I knew I wanted to be entrepreneurial , I learned of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway & then further realised he had dyslexia as I did . He became someone for me to aspire to be . Then my respect developed as his strategy and investment principles evolved then further demonstrated a fantastic method of only investing in industries he knows about that may look prohibitive in the current tech climate . Yet , you can ' t argue with his success .
Q . WHAT ' S THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED ?
» A fantastic CFO told me that I was too busy solving problems for other departments and colleagues . He believed ( probably rightly ) that I was distracted with this and wanted to be linear focused on my tasks . He told me , " Guus , everybody is entitled to have his problems , and so have you ". Since then , I have used this sentence many times .
Q . WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ - AND WHEN ?
» I recently finished ' Covid-19 the
Great reset ' by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret . The principles of his talk at WEF were recently publicly judged negatively by people not understanding his vision or hadn ' t even read the book . I wanted to understand more about the author ' s WEF vision their principles . But I could not make an informed judgement without reading the book .
Q . NAME ONE PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY YOU COULDN ’ T LIVE WITHOUT AND TELL US WHY ( EXCLUDING YOUR MOBILE PHONE )?
» I love " the useless box ". It has me completely addicted to the complete uselessness of a switch turning itself off after you turn it on /. It makes me laugh , and it reminds me to do something meaningful .
Q . WHO DO YOU LOOK UP TO IN TERMS OF LEADERSHIP AND MENTORSHIP ?
» I do not look up to someone . I did in the past , and every time I was disappointed . People get my respect . I learned to believe in me / myself and try to be and become the best I can be . Believe in yourself ; try to make your own history instead of walking in the path of others . You can only be
22 May 2022