Hannah Knight (GBI) Area Sales Manager, VELUX Great Britain & Ireland
I felt extremely courageous after skydiving!
It was something that I wanted to do and had booked for my 40th Birthday. Then just a few days before, I had to go up a scaffold onsite to roof level. I don’t think I’d ever been that high up and I was terrified! (I even made the kids hug me before we left the house on the day, in case I didn’t return!).
All the way to the field I was shaking, my stomach was in knots, and I was talking at 10,000 words a minute. I was lucky enough to have the experience captured on video and my face as I was leaving the plain clearly shows the fear…… you also don’t need to be an expert lip reader to work out what I’m saying!
I was so glad I didn’t back out, the exhilaration I felt was beyond anything I could imagine, I genuinely felt alive! And I would definitely do it again.
Maike Weller Head of Administration, VELUX Germany
One of the bravest things I did was to ride as the only woman together with a group of 40 men who were unknown to me, on a motorbike which was not mine, over the Alpine passes for 2 days – in the rain, in the cold, with snow in high altitudes. I was scared shitless, but I really wanted it! I was and I still am immensely proud of it!
Brave greetings from Hamburg
Vania Contreras Marketing Research Analyst, Region Southern Europe
In 2019, the company I used to work for in México closed and I decided to make a big move in my career. I have always wanted to live abroad but because of different reasons I couldn’t do it. So, I took the courage and decided to do a Master in Europe. I ended up choosing France as there was the opportunity to learn another language besides Spanish and English. Nevertheless, I never thought of the barrier it could bring on a daily basis.
It was scary as it was the first time I was going to live away from my parents’ house and away from my country, but I did it. Then COVID arrived in the middle of the master, so I had to choose between going back to my country or continue my desire to have an international experience.
After challenges such as language, cultural things and missing my family, I found a job in VELUX which allowed me to stay and accomplish my goal of being in a very international environment with people of different nationalities that I could now call friends.
Now it’s close to 4 years I’ve been here in France, and I can say it has brought me a lot of learnings about myself and others.
And lastly – just decided to bring my dog from México to continue this international path with me.
Nuno Andrade Sales Rep, Iberia
1994, I was 19, going to the beach driving just behind a loaded truck on a very steep hill. Suddenly the truck lose its brakes, hits a curb sideways and tumbles, goes off the road, crashes against a pile of dirt and stops. Somehow as the cabin crushed, something pinned the accelerator to the floor, so the scenario was:
Overturned truck, crashed cabin, spewing black smoke and the doors wouldn’t open. I crawled into the cabin. The driver had his legs pinned in between the dashboard, seat and steering wheel. Bloody forehead, pain in his legs but he was OK.
As I tried to get him out, we started to see flames outside and diesel dripping from the tank. I tell him I need some kind of lever to get him free! He points towards a metal bar behind the passenger seat. So we try and try, but pulling him with one hand and leveraging the metal bar with the other, I wasn’t strong enough. I came out again to breathe, while four guys pick me up and rush me away from the truck. I´m screaming that I need a big metal bar, they keep asking me if I´m OK, they won´t let me move to get back, they thought I was the driver.
So, I scream that the guy is still inside! We look around, but nothing looks like the right tool, the wet patch of diesel is much closer, and more and more grass is burning around the cabin. I really need to take him out, so I go back in, but the difficulty of having enough leverage is the same, and the guy was even weaker to free himself now. I screamed for help, I really screamed! Then all of a sudden, one other guy comes in, so I leverage while he pulls the driver – 4-5 attempts later he´s free!
When I think about it, I don´t think it was courage. It was reacting to a situation.