MAY ALONG THE NEELIE-LAT

How successful are you?

My old love Marie Claire has turned twenty-five and they celebrate it with a bow to great women who wear the pants and who hold their own. The crown jewel in this is of course ‘our’ Neelie Kroes (in the corner and twenty lines of punishment if you ever call her Neelie Smit) who gives her wise advice in this Marie Claire in the hope that you will achieve as much as she has.

I share her lessons and for convenience, I measure myself against the Kroes standard. And you must promise to buy this anniversary edition.

Lesson 1. Never give up

Not letting your head hang is Neelie's motto. I believe I don't really do that either. When I struggled to find a job in TV (my study of Film and Television Studies was still very unknown) I even applied at a facilities company for the position of cable puller. Thank goodness I was advised there to keep looking, because I think I would have been neither the best cable puller nor would there have been other jobs that suited me better.

Lesson 2. Be financially independent

I completely agree. My mother always hammered on going to study. “They can never take that away from you.” We all find it quite normal that we can enroll at the UvA, but in my mother's time, studying was really reserved for a very small group.

Aside from your intellectual capital, it is very important that you can take care of yourself. How terrible if you have to stay with your husband not out of love, but because you don't have enough money? Or that you have to ask for permission to buy a pair of shoes.

Lesson 3. Complete your education

Applause for Neelie. Also on behalf of my mother. After my internship, I had an uncontrollable urge to ditch my thesis and start working immediately. But now I am glad that instead of the label ‘failed student’, I can use the title of doctorandus. By the way, I never do that because I don't find it that fancy to flaunt it. But if it has to be, then it can.

Lesson 4. Embrace innovation

Neelie embraces digitalization. It is partly thanks to Neelie that our Josselin met Queen Máxima. Because Joss was working on a book that encourages technical studies for girls, Neelie wrote the foreword and when you say Neelie, you whisper Máxima...

I was a complete fool when it came to new media. And look here. Online is my middle name, I am addicted to Instagram and can still tell my peers a lot about Facebook techniques and handy iPhone facts.

5. Dress well

That's why I already love Neelie. Often the nose is haughtily raised when you say you work in fashion. Where people can freely talk for hours about wine and football, fashion is equated with stupidity and you have the intellect of a birdbath.

Dressing well shows respect for others, Neelie says. And it tells who you are. I completely agree. Clothing is your career canvas. It gives you the opportunity to tell who you are and where you want to go. “Moreover, I just find clothing fun.” Applause for Neelie the Great.

6. Work abroad for a while

Assignment from Neelie. I interned in Singapore and learned so much there (for example, that you shouldn't complain and are on standby six days a week, but also that you can party just fine during the week). Furthermore, I “work” abroad during fashion weeks. Although for ourselves, a different environment is really the perfect source of inspiration.

7. Find a role model

And according to Neelie, it doesn't have to be a career tiger. It can also be your neighbor who always has everything incredibly well organized at home. My role models are Tina Brown (formerly of Vanity Fair and now of The Daily Beast), Rozemarijn de Witte (the creator of LINDA.) and my best friend Anna because everything always runs so smoothly in her life, she can make a joke out of anything and always cooks as if you are eating in a star restaurant.

8. Age is extraordinarily relative

Neelie recently met Shimon Peres (the former president of Israel) and he said: ‘If your dreams are less than your achievements, then you are old.’

I think that's a beautiful lesson. Dream big. And surround yourself with young people, that's a tip from me. That keeps you on your toes.