About Paul
I'm Paul Bartelink. I have been an entrepreneur for more than twenty years, working in environments where people need to make choices, solve problems and build something.
One question has been a recurring theme throughout my work:
Why does something work extremely well for one person or situation, but not for another?
Over the years, I have helped aspiring entrepreneurs take their first steps and supported established entrepreneurs with practical and strategic questions around their business or personal situation.
I have also always been fascinated by why people think, learn, work and respond so differently.
Those worlds come together in Your Next Step Up.
How I work
My role is not to decide what you should do. I help you look more clearly, ask questions, create structure, explore possibilities and identify a logical next step.
My strength lies primarily in seeing connections and possibilities.
- Listening.
- Asking questions.
- Challenging assumptions.
- Reducing complexity.
- Creating structure.
- Turning thinking into action.
From projects to people
In my professional work, I spend a great deal of time working with projects, technology, collaboration and decision-making. But ultimately, systems, businesses and projects only work when the people behind them can work with them.
That is why I am interested not only in what someone does. I want to understand how someone thinks, why something does or does not work, and what kind of environment helps that person function well. That curiosity also lies at the heart of Your Next Step Up and the book “How My Mind Works”.
Not a conventional coach
I do not see myself as someone standing on the sidelines telling you how to run your life or your business. My role is better described as Creator of Solutions.
Your Next Step Up
For me, Your Next Step Up brings several worlds together:
- entrepreneurship;
- curiosity about how people function;
- learning and development;
- structure and problem-solving;
- actually taking the next step.
Sometimes that step begins with insight. Sometimes with a choice. And sometimes simply by finally getting started.
I wrote a book
Some children think faster, deeper, broader, or simply differently. They see connections that others don’t yet see, ask questions with no easy answers, or get stuck precisely because their minds are already a few steps ahead. Through stories, exploratory questions, and small activities, the book invites children to explore how their own minds work.No scoring. No right or wrong. No pigeonholing. Because understanding who you are and how you think doesn’t have to be the end goal.
It can actually be just the beginning.
For me, the curiosity behind *How My Mind Works* doesn’t stop with children. Even as adults, we continue to discover how we think, make choices, learn, collaborate, and give direction to our lives or our entrepreneurial endeavors.
You’ll find that same curiosity reflected in *Your Next Step Up*: don’t start with how others think you should do things, but first clarify what you see, what suits you, and what next step emerges from that. Your Next Step Up: niet beginnen met hoe het volgens anderen zou moeten, maar eerst helder krijgen wat je ziet, wat bij je past en welke volgende stap daaruit ontstaat.
What is your next step?
Maybe you want to start a business. Maybe you have already started and are looking for more direction. Or perhaps you first want to better understand what truly suits you.
You do not need to have everything figured out. You just need somewhere to begin.