Evert is the driver of YH, CFO of V company. He's less than 60 years old but keeps a good figure and a young heart. As YH's assistant, I have lots of chances to sit in his car, and he's always quite generous to give me a ride.
"Let me give you a ride, free of charges, as a friend." Evert always says.
We talk a lot in the car. One of our favourate topics is how lucky we are to work for a boss like YH.
" I am so blessed to have a boss like YH. He's always calm under pressure, unlike other people, he seems like a father with everything under control while the other merely shouting and complaining like a child."
Evert is a good colleague as well as a good friend and it's my fortunate to meet him in the Netherlands. He has many merits that people like and respect.
First of all, he is professional in what he does. He always demonstrate the high standard of doing things and he always knows the baselines. He has expressed not only once about how proud he feels to work for Chinese. He says he's working for a Chinese company, not a Dutch company. And every time when Dutch colleagues want to ask for information or news about Chinese managements, he will be alert and response he doesn't know or you may ask Chinese managements themselves. He feels responsible to keep confidentiality for their bosses about when they go, who they meet or when to return. He demonstrates the high standards as a professional driver. As a colleague and friend, he's someone you could give the keys of your house when you're abroad, as well as someone you can make an urgent call in the middle of the night.
Second, besides professionalism, another merit that touches me is his ways of thinking. If I would pick a word to describe his character, "positive" will be the perfect choice. Evert always stays positive to his life, his career, his family and people around him. You will never hear him complain, not even in some circumstances when I think he's treated inappropriately. For example, when we first came to Netherlands in late 2015, Evert always got mid-night phone calls, either to send/pick up someone in the airport or require him to race with time to get to someplace. I argued that those who gave orders should really have a better planning and show more respect to others. Evert just shrugged his shoulder and said:
" As a driver, my responsibility is to send people to the requested place by requested time safely. It's not my responsibility to ask other questions. People must have some reasons to request me to do that, follow the order and drive safe, there's the only thing I should think about. "
It seems that the word "Negative" has no place in his dictionary, even when he encounters some sad things in his life. When I learned about the news about his daughter, I thought it must be quite a hit for him. But he's still positive to the choice of his daughter. He replied my wechat message calmly, took a few days off to organize the funeral and returned as usual. You could see he's sad but well controlled and positive to move on. And even in such circumstances, he is sensitive to people around him. The first day when he returned to work, he said to YH:
" You don't need to comfort me, I respect my daughter's choice, I did my jobs and now let's work as normal. "
Third, he has the courage to choose what he thinks right. I think most people would be surprised when they know Evert worked for investment banks before he turned to profeesional driver. For most people, i-bankers represent money, social status, first class flight and five star hotel, but Evert just chose what he liked, i.e. to drive.
In fact, his wechat name is security_driver. And for a long time, his wechat introduction is, I drive.
How many people dare to choose what they love? Very few. Evert is one of the minority.
Last but not the least, he has the magic to let people like him. He's not the kind of butterflies among the flowers. He is true and open to people with warm smiles and firm hand shakes. You know he's the guy you could turn to when in trouble. And he's good at staying good friendship with his ex-wifes. Amazing! He even wrote a post card to his ex-wife starting as below:
" My dearest ex-wife... "
He has more than one ex-wife, so he thinks it would make her smile when she understands she's " his dearest ex-wife ". What a genius! There're reasons why people like him.
26/2/2017 Dinner with Evert, the Driver
I have been thinking about to write something for you, Evert. Because in terms of age, you seems like my father, while in terms of relation, your are my friend. It's difficult not to mention you in my memory in the Netherlands, especially because saying "Goedemorgen" and "Goedenavond" to you almost everyday and traveling around so many places in your car. You know I always enjoy chatting with you in your car, discussing the movie like "big fish", the culture difference between the Chinese and the Dutch, as well as how lucky we are to work for YH.
I will always remember the good days with you in the Netherlands. May you live the life of your dreams! Take care!
26/2/2017 Dinner with Evert, the Driver
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