Change of route. After more than 20 years of experience at the helm of entrepreneurial projects, as CEO or investor (from Data Center Luxembourg to EuroDNS via Lu-Cix or Luxcloud), launched, in 2021, Zentrapreneur, a platform aimed at those seeking a balance between personal development and professional ambition. . In his role as coach, this son of a farmer wants to pass on the values that have accompanied his development, made up of strong choices and breakthroughs, as he recounts here.
This spring, Houwen added another string to his new bow via the launch of the Luxembourg chapter of the Conscious Business Foundation (CBF), which promotes “ethical and purpose-driven leadership.” This European expansion aims to help Luxembourg companies--particularly in the financial and technology sectors--to integrate sustainable strategies. The chapter will feature workshops, events and collaborations. In short, an opportunity for the “prophet” Houwen to continue preaching the good word...
Pierre Théobald: Your career has been marked by the creation of innovative and meaningful projects. Where did this adventure begin? What was your first contact with the professional world?
Marco Houwen: The first job was on a farm, on a setup other than the family farm. Basically, I’m a farmer. That’s what I learned and did until I was 22. It was difficult, physically and mentally, to work on a different farm. But I was 21 and I decided that it was important for me to prove to myself that I was capable of considering a life as a farmer. For a long time, my father was the driving force behind my motivation. It was a different time: 13 days of work, one day off. I started work around 5.30-6am and rarely got home before 8pm. It was a great learning experience.
What was it that drew you to digital and the many experiences you’ve had?
For family reasons, I wasn’t able to continue on the farm. But what do you do if you need to make a life for yourself and you don’t have much of an academic background? You go into sales. That’s what I did. Insurance sales. That’s where I came across something I’d never known existed: personal development. In the insurance business, it wasn’t presented to us as a way of developing ourselves, but as a way of selling better and performing better. That’s when it all started. A whole new world opened up for me. It was the early 1990s, and I immersed myself in all the books I could find on the subject. As I read, I realised that I wasn’t alone with a past or an experience like mine, and that it was possible to do something with it, in my life nonetheless.
It has become the driving force of my existence. How can I evolve? How can I become a better version of myself tomorrow? It’s still the same driving force today. When and I set up Data Center Luxembourg in 2000, we had previously met around a personal development project that we wanted to launch. But it wasn’t monetisable and the internet bubble burst. We put together a crack team and launched Data Center Luxembourg (DCL), an emerging Internet company. I said to Xavier at the time: “I’m giving five years of my life to this project.” In the end, I gave 17.
Have you ever been tempted to radically change your path?
From the outside I did, when, in 2017, I decided that I was going to stop and withdraw from the group (DCL-Group, which at the time included EuroDNS, Data Center Luxembourg, Ebrand Services). It was an almost physical need, which had nothing to do with the others. It was for me, I listened to my voice. Few people have understood this, either professionally or privately. It’s very difficult to put into words, but it wasn’t possible to do things differently. Today, I work with many different companies and I’m enjoying it. But at that point, I had to make a clean break.
I had to accept being in my authenticity.
When you think back on your early career, is there a decision you regret or would do differently if you had the chance?
I refuse to regret anything. Everything I’ve done--the good and the bad, everything I’ve experienced--has brought me to where I am today. And I’m very happy to be where I am.
What was the most important trigger or turning point in your career?
2017-2021. It was a difficult period for me and for those around me, because there was nothing but doubt. There was no control; I didn’t know where things were going or what was going to happen. I knew what I didn’t want to do any more, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. In the end, this period was very instructive, because it allowed me to let go. Let go, let go, let go, let go... I can repeat it a thousand times over, because it was the only way for me to find the path I wanted to take. I had to accept being in my authenticity.
What'have these turbulent times revealed about you?
Agility. Clearly, mental agility. Patience, too, and that’s not easy for an entrepreneur. Finally, faith. It’s something I've had the pleasure of rediscovering in my life. I don’t know how I managed without it before. It’s not religious, it’s spiritual--a belief in something greater than myself. The ability to say to myself: I’m not the one who decides. I do what I can do, but beyond that, it no longer belongs to me.
What is the achievement that makes you proudest, that gives you the most satisfaction?
Professionally? The creation of Lu-Cix, with Claude Demuth (in 2009). A lot of people told me it would be impossible and, 15 years later, it’s become something huge, an extraordinary community. Moral of the story: nothing is impossible if you’re prepared to do what it takes.
I’m human and an entrepreneur, so the ego is there all the time. But it’s no longer in charge.
Is there a point in your journey where you’ve stopped and said to yourself: “Okay, this is good, I’ve succeeded”?
In my head, I tell myself I can still do this or that... I’m not yet as successful as I want to be. I’m human and an entrepreneur, so the ego is always there. But it’s no longer in charge. So I don’t ask myself the question of success. I am where I am because that’s where I have to be.
Every career is about meeting people. Is there someone who has had a profound effect on your way of seeing things? A mentor? A reference?
The one who really unleashed the entrepreneurial beast in me was the coach and essayist Tony Robbins, one of the most successful motivational experts. I did my first internship with him in 1997. I arrived as a young man who blamed the world for everything that had happened to him, and I left there kickass. That’s what I literally said, and that’s what I did. In fact, it completely shifted the way I looked at life.
What criticism did you receive that shook you up or challenged you the most?
The biggest critic of me on Earth is myself. For a long time, I wasn’t kind to myself. Now... I’ve learnt to appreciate myself. We all have to learn. That’s extremely important. Once, in one of my companies, I was criticised for not being up to the job. And unfortunately they were right. That was very hard. It was almost at the end of this “hyper-entrepreneurial” part of my life, when this need for renewal began to be more and more present. I looked for lots of ways out of this life that was costing me so much, but they weren’t the right ways out. The right way out was to accept what was present inside me.
I am eternally grateful to my wife, who didn’t leave me during those very difficult times.
Do those around you, whether family or friends, play a role in your journey, in the choices you make? Whether in support, inspiration or even contradiction?
As we say in English: “I’m very single-minded.” In general, I advocate for compromise. But when I’ve got something on my mind that’s linked to the way I see my life, it’s hard to compromise with me. Simply because I can’t do otherwise. I’m eternally grateful to my wife, who didn't leave me during those very difficult times I mentioned earlier. She couldn’t really understand my choices, and it was painful for her too. We went from a life where the only thing was money to a life where money became something secondary, where we no longer had the same priorities as before.
Did it bring you closer together?
Yes, it did. We had to go through a lot of phases. Today, we’re very aligned. We’ve been married for 28 years. Being a couple means taking paths that aren’t exactly the same, but that gradually come together. Squaring the circle. An understanding of each other has developed between us, based on a deep understanding of ourselves. We have a great rapport.
What values do you use as a compass on a daily basis in your professional activities? The main principles?
For me, it’s a real joy. I recharge my batteries enormously. It’s also spiritual, because I believe that good business can only be spiritual. I work a lot with spiritual intelligence, the 22 abilities that we can have. Purpose is one of them, and joy is another. These abilities enable us to leave a positive impact. This is essential for me.
Have you ever made an important, major decision on a whim?
Yes. And it’s not good. But I did it.
Thinking back to 2017?
The decision to leave everything was a spur-of-the-moment one, even though I’d had it in my head for years. But there was a moment, I know exactly when it was, where it was. That’s when it was decided. My wife was next to me. I said to her: “That’s it. I’ll do this, this and this.” And I did.
The beauty of my job is that I learn as much as the people I work with.
By helping others transform themselves, what have you learned about yourself in the process?
The beauty of my job is that I learn as much as the people I work with. There’s not a coaching session, not a workshop, where I don’t come away amazed at the people I have the honour of working with. I really became what I am today from the moment I accepted the fact that I’m doing this first for myself, and then for others. It may be difficult to integrate, but those who understand this mindset really do. I can only create value for someone if it creates value for me. There’s nothing selfish about that, on the contrary it’s this exchange that creates the real value for my clients.
If you had the chance to chat with him, what would you say to the 20-25 year old Marco Houwen?
“Believe in yourself. You can believe in yourself…” Some people are born with it, I’ve always envied them. Now it’s my turn to do things because I believe in myself. If someone had told me that five years ago...
And that young man you were at the age of 25, what would he think of you now?
“Finally! It took you a long time to get there!”
If you could relive one moment in your career--just one--what would it be?
Setting up a company, selling shares in a company, signing unimaginable contracts... There were many moments with positive emotions and joy. But honestly, I wouldn’t want to live like that forever. That’s not what life is about. Life is about ups and downs, it’s a journey. It’s not a moment. Knowing me, I’d be bored by the second replay. What’s lived is lived.
If your career were a film, novel or song, what would the title be?
“In spite of myself,” and it would be a film that I would create myself. I’ve reached a point in my life where I’ve found a calm, a capacity to love myself, to see life as rosy. If someone had told me that I would say that one day! I’ve always been someone capable of imagining 500 ways in which things could go wrong, with 500 solutions for each problem. And then there was this evolution, this “in spite of myself,” in spite of the ego that ran my life for so long. I’m not saying that today there are no problems, but I’ve never been so happy before. I like to quote this phrase from a book I had in my hands during my coaching training: “Nothing has meaning until we give it meaning.”
This article was originally published in .