Ynzo (52): 'At a depth of 12 meters it hit me...'

Ynzo (52 years old) was my colleague for many years, and is the kind of colleague you really like but never really speak. Not because he or me were not into it, on the contrary, but simply because it never happened. That's how it goes sometimes. When he responds under one of my posts that he wants to share a life-changing moment with me, I am honored because I think highly of him. I am also very curious, what would he like to share?

Besides curiosity, we share more, as is evident from our 2-hour conversation that should have taken place much earlier. We both appear to be introverted extroverts, we both have secondary reactions, we write everything that touches and fascinates us in a notebook that we carry with us old school, both of us cannot stand injustice at all and are always busy with soul searching. Not because we have to, but because we always want to know more including about ourselves.

After two hours it is time for his life-changing moment. For this we go back 20 years in time. He is then 32 and traveling with his girlfriend. At a certain point they are stranded in Quito (Ecuador) and have to bridge time while waiting for paper tickets that Fedex has to deliver from the Netherlands. In those days that could take a while... As they are close to the Galapagos Islands, of which the ocean around it was declared a marine reserve in 198, Ynzo and his girlfriend decide that they want to use the waiting time to travel to these beautiful islands. That turns out not to be easy, no one cooperates, it doesn't seem to work, but sometimes fate helps. A woman at the ticket office suddenly starts furiously stamping tickets and before they know it they have two tickets for far too low a price. They look at each other and think 'now or never, get on that plane as quickly as possible before they change their minds'.

A short flight later they disembark in Darwin's paradise. They do a beautiful deep dive there. If they have to go up again, for safety reasons they must 'hang' halfway up, after which going further up is physically safe again. That takes a few minutes. Ynzo hangs there, hears only his own breathing and looks around at a depth of 12 meters. Then he sees a swarm of millions of fish coming towards him. He is an advanced diver and has seen a lot in his diving history, but this was unbelievable for him. Millions of beautifully colored fish swam around him. And then it happened. He felt a deep realization that this is the result of treating nature with respect. That this is the result if you protect animal species and their nature. Only then nature can be so rich. He realized that if one takes action, as they did for the Galapagos Islands, it will pay off. He realized: action has meaning, action has utility.

Since then he has been shaking up others. For 10 years, he put his heart and soul into Tony Chocolonely, the chocolate brand that he made known out of a deeper passion to fight injustice. Based on the involvement he felt under water, Ynzo gives Ted Talks and many lectures at home and abroad. He touches people and wakes them up from compassion and connection with you, me and nature.

Although I have lost him as a colleague, I have found a soulmate. One who also wants to wear my necklace. Let's listen to Ynzo and the millions of fish in the sea around the Galapagos Islands. Not because we can, but because we have to.