Find my passion
Hi, my name is Frank. It took me 2 overpaid jobs, 3 failed startups, 7 years of non meaningful work and 34 years of my life, to pursue my real passion.
Let me tell you my story.
Do you know what your real passion is? I struggled to answer this question for years and years.
After thinking about my life so far, I realised that my most meaningful time of my life was during my twenties, when I worked in the bar of a golfclub to pay for my student life.
I worked hard, long days, on worn out sneakers, for little money, but it was more than fun. And there was something special here. But what?
Yeah that was it!
When I thought about it for a while, I had this eureka moment.
My real passion is to let people smile :-).
Not by telling jokes, I always struggle to tell a joke in the right order, but by making someone feel WAUW by going that extra mile.
My feeling said this sounded plausible. But what now? How could I again make people feel WAUW? And even more people than before?
And then…
Tuscany
It was in May 2018. I was looking to make a trip to Tuscany. Not a standard trip in an average hotel for the mass tourist, located on a busy boulevard, full with expensive souvenir shops and restaurants with so-called local food. But personal and authentic. Among the locals with respect for their traditions, culture and food and with cool places to ‘sleep, eat and do’.
I tried to work my way through numerous blogs, booking sites, 7 reasons to visit Tuscany and more of these kinds of sites.
Sometimes I found something cool, but then it was already full. Then I found something cool, but really in the middle of nowhere. Then I found that special Italian restaurant via a blog, but there were no places to stay nearby. Then again that fun activity I wanted to do did not match the availability of the B&B I had found…
Completely lost
After weeks of struggling through hundreds of booking sites, blogs, fora, I was completely lost.
I thought: why is it so hard to combine ‘sleep, eat and do’ in one cool trip?
Wouldn’t there be someone like me who has figured this out before? And even better someone who has been there already and who is excited about it. Where I just have to say: Yes I want that too.
But unfortunately I couldn’t find this explorer.
So I finally decided to put together that trip myself. After 3 months and a lot of struggle I created that authentic trip I was looking for. The good thing was, it was almost exactly as we had imagined. We came back home and we told our friends enthusiastic stories about our trip.
Something special happened
Many friends, who were tired of struggling through hundreds of booking sites, blogs and fora, asked to share our tips and were interested in making our trip.
So now I was for them the explorer which I couldn’t find myself a couple of months ago.
When talking about this with my friends, I discovered that almost everyone can be divided into 2 groups. Either you are an Explorer who likes to spend days looking for that hidden gem or special place and likes to inspire others. Or you are a Fan of special trips, where you prefer to get inspired by someone else, in stead of spending days looking for something special yourself.
What would happen if the Explorers could easily share their special trips, while the Fans could easily book them?
Would this be my chance to pursue my passion, to make people feel WAUW?
An idea was born
Then came the corona virus and the world changed (forever).
Economies worldwide collapsed.
I lost my job.
Global tourism came to a complete standstill.
Lucky me.
Time had come to follow my heart.
In May 2020, 2 years later, Frank launched Thanks for the Trip. A platform that brings Explorers and Fans of special trips together. Thanks for the Trip is registered with the Chamber of Commerce under number 75524163.