With our format, Beyond Tech, we offer insights into the lives, activities, and personal missions of our employees. At our company, people come first… no filter, true story.
550 kilometers, 12 days alone in a kayak, from Neuburg on the Danube to Vienna. What originally started as a personal break quickly developed into an inspiring learning journey with surprisingly many parallels to current professional challenges. In this edition of Beyond Tech, Benedikt Geier, People Lead Development Data Management & Cloud Systems, reports on a very special kayak trip with a clear mission #onamissiontothefuture.
🧭 The goal – to find direction
I want to paddle to Vienna.
A clear vision provides orientation and direction. Without it, we move aimlessly, are steered by chance, or unconsciously follow the goals of others. A strong vision can be both ambitious and courageous – and yes, it can also remain blurry at the beginning. Because it’s in the nature of things that we don’t initially know exactly how we will achieve our goal. What’s decisive is the will to even start the journey.
🧰 Preparation and expertise – setting yourself up for success
The foundation of my journey: solid equipment, careful planning in advance, and my previous paddling experience. Without these three elements, I probably wouldn’t have dared to even start the journey. The chances of actually reaching Vienna would have been much lower.
🤝 #smellsliketeamspirit
Even though I paddled most of the route alone, I was never really alone. I had great support – from my team, my family, and complete strangers. Whether it was operating the first locks (thanks Fedor and Christian), providing food and an extremely useful rearview mirror 😄 (thanks Thomas), or the water bottle gifted by two fishermen on the shore – people along the route repeatedly helped me. And yes – occasionally I was also able to help others.
But what carried me the most was my support team at home. They kept everything running without me for two weeks, offered me emotional support – and thus enabled me to simply start paddling in the first place.
📈 A willingness to learn and grow
If you capsize in Neuburg, it’s rarely more than 50 meters to the shore and the greatest risk of collision probably comes from swans. If you capsize in Vienna, the distance to the rescuing shore has increased to up to 300 meters, and the water flow has even increased eightfold. Passing freighters are up to 190 meters long. Added to this are further challenges such as underwater groynes, cable ferries, gusts of wind, or the suction and wave action of passing ships.
Apart from the name, the Danube in Vienna has little in common with the Danube in Neuburg. This also brought self-doubt, as my skills at the start of the journey would hardly have been sufficient to paddle safely and confidently in Vienna as well. Is the difference between courage and recklessness ultimately only dependent on the outcome? No – because most of these changes happen gradually and offer enough opportunities to learn and grow. A little childlike naivety – trusting exactly that – is certainly also an advantage. 😊
💪 Staying focused on the goal
Motivation is sometimes a fleeting phenomenon. Exhaustion, short nights in the wet tent, back pain, damage to the boat, or bad weather were constant companions on my journey and at the same time guaranteed emotional lows. In such moments, routines, discipline, and the focus on the next small step helped me. When I then considered the overall goal (“Vienna”), the inner resistance sometimes seemed overwhelming. But if I only asked myself whether I felt capable of completing the next stage, the resistance suddenly shrank to a surmountable level.
You don’t have to feel capable of covering the entire distance every day. But even if I only paddled one kilometer on those days, I was at least one kilometer closer to my goal than the day before. And who knows – maybe the next high is just around the next bend in the river.
Conclusion
Today I look back on this journey with great gratitude and humility. Gratitude for the opportunity to experience something like this. For the countless impressions, encounters, challenges, and for the opportunity to grow from them.
More than ever, I am convinced: the same elements that led to the success of this journey are also crucial in the change-driven context at efs. With a clear vision, solid expertise, willingness to learn, and a strong team at our backs, we will continue to have the courage to venture into the unknown – and grow from it. As Henry Ford already put it 100 years ago:
Whoever does what he already can, always remains what he already is.
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