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Patrick van Rhienen: “Ik kom er wel op een andere manier dan school.”

Patrick van Rhienen is not the poster child for studying and going to school. Yet he has become a hard-working and successful entrepreneur. Patrick shows that if you have the right attitude, you really will get there. And he does, with his successful company SUNS that designs and sells garden furniture, among other things. SUNS was also present at MASTERS EXPO last November. MASTERS spoke to the entrepreneur about his wheelbarrow and success.Text: Noa Verseveldt
Online Editor: Patrick Stoffer

What was your very first job?

"I started at Leen Bakker, which was a part of company Blokker Holding. I started in the company as an assistant to an assistant. My father was also an entrepreneur himself and had the company Jardin Garden Furniture. He was a purveyor to Leen Bakker and Blokker. Arie Bakker was a friend of my father's. I am an example of an entrepreneur where school and I were not a good match. I always exclaimed, "I'll get there another way." I did have the right work ethic, so Arie Bakker said 'let him come along'."

How did you end up in your current job?

"When I started at Leen Bakker, my father said: 'if you can choose, choose procurement'. By chance there was a vacancy in purchasing. Rene de Hond, purchasing director at the time, had a good relationship with my father and I was allowed to go on a purchasing trip to Asia. Never before had a purchasing assistant gone along. We then went to four countries: Indonesia, China, Taiwan and Singapore. I wanted to convince Rene de Hond that he should take me to Asia more often. I then started making visit reports, measuring the garden furniture and taking pictures of the products. I had created a complete booklet on that trip. Rene told this to Arie Bakker and in the first year I was allowed to go to Asia 4 times. The next year six times and in the end I traveled to Asia eight times a year. I left Blokker Holding at the end of 2008 and in 2009 I made my first own collection in Asia. I immediately started doing business with Leen Bakker, Blokker, Sligro and Karwei, among others, and that's basically how it all started."

In that, who was your wheelbarrow?

"My real wheelbarrow of course was my father, without my father's working relationships I would never have ended up at Leen Bakker. If my father was not in that industry, they would never have hired me at Leen Bakker. I didn't have a high education, just an MAVO diploma and MEAO certificates. But in the business of entrepreneurship and purchasing, my mentors were really Rene de Hond and Arie Bakker."

What is your greatest passion in your profession?

"Yes, the love of garden furniture. It was in my DNA, of course, because of my father. He was one of the first with plastic garden furniture and when I was young I didn't find it very interesting. But by chance there was a vacancy in the purchasing department, so I started purchasing garden furniture."

What has been the biggest learning moment in your career?

"Because you didn't really have any training, you don't learn to work together within a project group. Arie Bakker wanted me to study alongside my work, but I didn't have a stop. Which resulted in working six days a week. When I was 25 I got overworked and sat at home for three months with burnout. That has been the biggest learning moment in my career, though. Learning to delegate and work with a team. Not wanting to do everything myself, but to do it together with your team. I also know now when things get too much for me that I can step back instead of always going on and on."

What advice would you give your 18-year-old self?

"I am very happy with how it went and I would do it all over again in no time. I don't have anything I regret or would have done differently. Maybe just thinking big, if you want something you just have to go for it full force. You shouldn't be afraid of failure, you should pursue your dreams. Education or no education, if you do that you will get there."

Have you been a wheelbarrow for anyone?

"Yes, what I have a soft spot for are young people who haven't had the opportunities like me or who don't have a wheelbarrow. I like the challenge of motivating those young people and giving them a chance. Some of them started in the warehouse and moved on in the company. Then I come back to that attitude, if you have the right attitude you will get there. I'm actually doing the same thing Leen Bakker did with me."