Maarten van der Weijden

About Maarten van der Weijden

As a young boy, Maarten challenged himself by setting out obstacle courses which he tried to complete as quickly as possible. Maarten experienced at a young age that investing time and making a great effort leads to success. These positive experiences helped him when he started to swim more often and began to break Dutch records.In 2001, Maarten was diagnosed with cancer (leukaemia) and his chances for recovery were very small. At this point, Maarten had little control over his life and he depended on the medical specialists to become better. Because of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplantation, Maarten was lucky to recover and started to swim again.By training hard and thinking a lot about his tactics, Maarten improved himself as a professional swimmer and became Olympic Champion at the Olympic Games of Beijing (Open Water Swimming, 10km). Maarten soon realized he had achieved his personal best in sports, retired from swimming and started looking for new goals. These days, Maarten is a successful motivational speaker and finance manager at Unilever and he wrote his own biography (Better, 2009).Maartens motivational speakings are personal and sincere. He has done over 250 speakings in the Netherlands and abroad (among United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Thailand and Indonesia), but Maartens story still remains authentic. Preceding a presentation, Maarten always wants to know more about his audience (their age, background, composition, …) to make sure his story is in line with their interests.Main goal of Maarten his motivational speakings is to challenge his audience to think about their own chances and possibilities and to motivate them to improve themselves. Because of his experiences within the business world, Maarten is able to make a connection between this world and sports and dealing with misfortune. His story isnt a slick presentation, supported by a flashy PowerPoint, but its a pure story which makes you think about your own life and future.