Eddie de Jong

For as long as I can remember, I have been passionate about training. Although I did not follow a career in teaching, I have always taught friends at school, colleagues at work and the staff working for me.

I still remember helping a friend before a math test at school and him getting a higher score than I did! It really made his day, if not his year; although I must admit that I was rather pissed off about it at the time :-)

After working for a corporate as Technical Manager for many years, I bought and ran a small franchised computer training school that offered individual training, mainly on Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. It was during this time that I really felt myself coming alive.

I realised then that although I had always loved my job, this was my real passion. On a daily basis, I could see how people who were afraid of using a computer begin to understand and grow with their new-found knowledge. Assuring people that they are not stupid, that they can do this once they try and then seeing it happen gives me a high that I cannot describe.

I have many success stories from this time but one that stands out in my mind is the one about the 80 year old man that had never switched on or even owned a computer. Having an inquisitive mind and wanting to know more, he was curious about the internet, and decided to do a course to learn more. We started with the basics of Windows followed by Internet explorer. Gerhard came in for 1 hour every morning 5 times a week. After 3 weeks he was flying around the internet and having a blast discovering what it was all about. At the end of the course he told me that although the internet was interesting and contained a lot of information, he was quite happy with his newspapers and magazines and would not be pursuing gaining knowledge via the internet actively.

Writing books on various aspect of Excel is for me an extension of teaching and helping people.