Name: Daniel Maneveld

Title: CEO

Organisation: JustFound & LingoPure

Good day, My names Daniel and I am an entrepreneur from South Africa living in Vietnam. Currently I am heading two businesses, LingoPure which is in online Education in Vietnam, and JustFound which is a Technology & Media business from Singapore.

I have 4 pets and have been to 21 countries so far.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Daniel's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

Learning how to balance life so I can be healthy and thus install healthy work place habits for staff and other founders/management.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

When I moved to Vietnam at the end of 2018 I worked a few jobs. 1 of them was a day job for a series A backed startup in Medical travel based out of Ho Chi Minh City.

It's there I learnt a lot about starting your own business and what it takes to make it work. After leaving the business I launched my first business.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I start my days with family time. Just soaking up the love in the morning.

Lately I have been journaling and exercising as soon as I wake up to get my body and mind going after a long day.

After this I usually clean my home as both my companies are fully remote.

9am I start working on urgent work and/or admin tasks I need to do to make sure medium to long term goals are being achieved.

My mornings are very structured.

At around 1PM I take a rest for 2 hours as it is extremely hot and life's great with a siesta.

From 3pm I continue working however this is usually more freestyle work, such as design, brain storming, working on presentations etc...

From 6-7:30pm I relax with family and after that I work again from 7:30pm - 10pm as I am one of the educators for the online Education business and we focus on B2B, so our students are mostly adults studying when they get home from work.

From 10-11pm I relax and unwind, go to sleep, then repeat.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

As founders we work extremely quickly and treat every task is a sprint. However for all the other members of a business that is not realistic or healthy for medium to long term work culture.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Lateral thinking by Bono - Changed my life and how I approached problems. A mentor once told me as a founder learn to love problems and solving them.

This book helps to learn lateral thinking skills which are vital to problem solving.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Find mentors!

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

To give back. At our Online center when anyone signs up we give an educational package to poor children from surrounding towns.

Life has lots to give if you are hungry to take it, however one thing I've learnt is the happiest feeling is when you share success with others and inspire them to find their own.

One day we will all be gone, but doesn't mean our impact will.