Janroe is my site name and a short form of my actual name. I work and live in Thailand with my family. I prefer my flip phone over the fb, twit and what-have-you social medias.
I spent most of my teen years in the east-coast US. I enjoyed my part-time work mowing lawns, putting up fences, painting houses, and ushering in theatres; it afforded me my own car for doing errands for the family, driving to school, cruising around, going to parties and exploring the countryside.
My European student years saw engineering, dentistry, teaching English part-time and starting a small business. Then a degree in management and organisation, specialised in organisational change, and writing a book. That's quite bunch of things, but it also took me a while. I miss my long bike rides on near perfect bike paths through endless fields, cool forest patches, farmer's villages, making stops at local cafe's, and feeling the North Sea breeze.
I then worked for a single employer with longer term assignments in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand, plus some African countries, assisting government and private organisations in organisational development, in support for private small business growth.
Creating websites is my work-related hobby starting out in 1996, with, among others, the creation of the first online information and advice website for private small and medium enterprises, based in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Working with bureaucracies and changing the way they function takes a toll. Moving around every three to five years was enjoyable, but I wondered what it would be like to plant a tree of my own, tend to it if needed, and see how it grows..
There was only one way to do that: make a drastic change; leave my job, settle down, start a business. Developing roots has balanced things, and self-employed "self-determination" has been supremely liberating. As expected, the change reduced my income, while beyond expectations it improved my quality of life. I feel quite privileged. Three knocks on wood, on the house post right next to me.
For the past twelve years I have been directing a company engaged in manufacturing and professional services. Lately I'm delegating more responsibilities to the company's management and personnel.
That leaves me with more spare time, among others spent on analyzing some social issues. In 2015 we chose a location and in July 2016 we planted another 1,800 deciduous and bamboo trees.