I, Nash, 40, Slasher and TimeFunder !

17 years ago, when people asked me what my job was, I was a little uncomfortable with my position as a « more or less dynamic young executive » at Edenred (ex-Accor Services), and I took refuge behind my associational activities.

I used to say « I help entertainers, I help artists ! ».

I was intellectually satisfied with that and quite proud of being useful, which was vital for me, essential to that sense of personal fulfilment which I didn’t easily find, sitting in my office.

I was called an « idealist » … or dreamer. The guys who had been in the same year as me at GEM (ex-ESC Grenoble) told me I was on the wrong track…. that life was first and foremost a question of pragmatism, and next, with a bit of luck, money… and finally, thanks to the money, happiness at the end of the line.

The life of a guy with a diploma from higher education was that of a yuppy or nothing, and to feel at home with that. That was in 2001.

The towers of our petty little lives full of self-satisfaction and gross ignorance, along with their foundationless certainties, had not yet come crashing around our ears.

At the time, only a few rare, colourful and extravagant species (like Omar Sy, and above all, his side kick, Fred !) a few other friends (Julie, Fredo, and my musician and café théâtre pals !) and those I spent my time with between office downtime and nocturnal associational activity, told me I was probably « in the right »,… above all to placate me, I suppose.

My mother used to ask me « How will you pay back your student loan if you don’t get a permanent contract ? »…

Tension !

After resigning in 2004 to be in agreement with my convictions about how to be happy, and in disagreement with Accor’s policy, that a lot of CAC 40 companies tried to apply, of not sacking, but transferring (which is still on the menu, if I believe the dinosaurs who are still there 15 years later!), I found myself a contract worker in show business, always in the front row, in close contact with the promise of a tough but radiant daily schedule….

Reconversion ! Those were the days ! How lucky that the budding DTT should need neophytes like me to get started ! So I was starting over, enthusiastically, with the conviction that this was the only real choice possible for free spirits : to feel good at work and proud of what you do.

As is often said : doing what you like is freedom. But liking what you do is happiness…

So, the contract worker who was paying my rent had trouble containing the entrepreneur dormant inside… And in 2009, the demons injected in me at Grenoble caught up with me and I wanted simultaneously to procreate, undertake and go on having fun.

A thirty-something crisis a bit late (!) ; this is what happens to the guys who suddenly realize, after 10 minutes, that they don’t « really » want to spend 35 years at Price or L’Oréal….well, that took me 3 years !

So here I was, at 32, a slasher and happy. Without realizing it at the time, as the tendency then was to play it safe, to go for stability and reject anything new in the way of a career plan…

Were you going to say that it wasn’t out of necessity that I had become a « slasher » ? Oh yes : necessity is ever only material. It was vital for my mental health and morale that I shouldn’t have just a little television thing to nibble at…

Always listen to your desire to create, do, share or undertake.

Besides, it’s rare to be able to do that on your own. The people you meet are of prime importance if you want to fulfil yourself through action, giving yourself a challenge while trying to be useful.

So that’s the life that has been mine since 2009, with my wife, her projects and desire for entrepreneurial adventure.

A few years and a few hundred projects later, after over 3000 hours of programs directed, produced or thought up, for television, the web and my grandma, after nights spent founding companies, applications or communication strategies for other companies, after numerous trips abroad to meet other crazy earthlings, boredom hit me again.

In 2016, I got the itch to accompany the mother of my 3 daughters on her new disruptive trip, when she had been pushed into serial entrepreneurship by a series of unlucky encounters and exasperation with the inertia of projectless, soul-less and bland investors who run only on egofuel and the bottom line.

The two of us, with our experiences, successes, rare failures, and clear horizons in our shoulder bags, felt up to confronting the new twists at the heart of the strange plot of our times.

Our times…our time …That sounded good.

With her associate, she has found the words and the business model for emerging practices, new desires, future tendencies and innovative methods concerning collaboration, Human Resources and our relation to work. They have both answered a fundamental question that was niggling me since I left business school : who do I want to benefit from my know-how and experience ?

Is my philosophy closer to phlegmatic, British pragmatism or the timid, immobile mechanism of the Latino yoke ?

To make it simple, do I want to work with someone who asks me, « Can you do that ? » or with someone who asks me, « Do you have the right diploma and the right references to do that ? » …

You know … It’s the famous question of « legitimacy » which paralyses France from top to bottom by depriving it of the best talents who go off to succeed somewhere else… No ? Really ?

Oh, come on !

So I got into the TimeFunding adventure. And the funny thing is, I was its first guinea-pig.

If you like, I got the broken bits and pieces.

But what a pleasure !
(Yes, I’m 40, but I’m young in my head !)

Follow my example, all of you !!

Today, if anybody asks me what my job is, I don’t know what to answer, « but in a good way » : at the moment, I’m looking for some real estate for American communication agencies, I’m developing the commercial activity of an audiovisual production company, I’m writing, I’m producing films, I’m accompanying the acquisition of notoriety for a video social network application, I’m taking part in setting up the strategy of TimeFunding with its founders, besides which I’m still playing with pictures for television and I’ve recently been asked to write some texts for a play…

And of course, I’m paid for all that or I will be one day…. and even if I don’t get paid for everything, I don’t care ! I like the energy, the enthusiasm, the whirlwind activity, the people I meet. I like not knowing. I like the risk shared with those who accept me as I am, who ask me to take part in their project, their « baby ». It’s a crazy, positive and exciting feeling !

I like different generations communicating outside the silos, co-working becoming more than just a sharing out of square feet in an office, having things explained to me, explaining things myself, seeing the twinkle in the eye of the young guy who is happy to have brought people together around his project and who looks round to see the same benevolent look on the face of the incredibly experienced executive who has been won over by the said project ….

I also like to see money taken out of the equation, at least in its usual form….

But where do we find the time ? There again, it’s a question of freedom : nothing is compulsory.

I’m not a bachelor. I have 3 children. I give them every possible moment needed to help make them into well-rounded citizens of their society, I read, write, see my friends, travel, … I even have the time to take my time.

Unbelievable, isn’t it ?

I don’t claim to have found the final pass-key to happiness, but anyone who says to me today, « My job sucks », and who, a short time ago, I would have advised to quit, now gets a smile and the following phrase : « Have you thought of TimeFunding ? »….

By the way, have YOU thought about it ?