“Give away everything you know, and more will come back to you”
Paul Arden
When I was 12 years old I started to juggle seriously. With the self-confidence I gained from my juggling, I was able to overcome many obstacles that every teenager struggles with to varying extents: self-expression, friendships, setting life goals. Juggling has given me a path in life. It has allowed me to dine with royalty and travel to all 7 continents and get paid for something I love to do.
Performing for PaxChristi back in 1999
After graduating from the Delft University of Technology with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, juggling has become my fulltime profession. It has given me so much, and now I use my juggling to give back.
Regardless of where I am in the world, I have witnessed how juggling breaks the language barrier and taps into the universal language of laughter. As a teenager I started my career by street performing. There is no formal education for street performing and it’s through the older professionals that I got the much-needed tips to how to survive and grow. That’s was nearly 20 years ago!
Although I can never properly repay the performers that helped me, I can pass my experience on to the next generation around the world. I remember the gratitude from the first producer I offered my services to. PaxChristi used to organize a week-long vacation for groups of children that grew up during the wartime in Bosnia.
Their aim was to take those children out of that depressing post war environment and get them over to The Netherlands to relax and inspire them to rebuild their country.
Even as a 14-year old with just his weekly allowance to spend, I remember how I felt seeing the smiles from those children. It meant more to me that tips from my street performing!
Since then I have made it my goal to give back – whenever and wherever I can.
The initiatives I have supported range from shows for charities and minority groups, to donating copies of my juggling book and DVDs to Youth Education Program. And I’m just getting started.
At the charities tab is a list of some of the projects I support. If you think your project could benefit from my input, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Teaching a workshop at the Taiwan Circus School after having performed my show in Taipei earlier that week:
“When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”
Maya Angelou
Juggling has brought many great things into my life. Now also does it provide for my livelihood, it has also brought all over the world, allowed me to experience different cultures and meet people from all parts of life; some of them have become good friends.
With goal to inspire others in 2013 I made a series of instructional juggling videos that now have become one of the most popular juggling tutorials on the internet, with combined well over 1 million views.
If you want to learn how to juggle please take a look at my YouTube channel and watch the embedded video below.
