The Cool Projects I Worked For (Part 2 – Foreign Media Representation) – Rodric Leerling

In my original business plan, foreign media representation was given a pivotal role. It was after all my home ground: back in 1988 I chose to become an ad sales guy and specialize as ‘foreign media rep’. Over the years I met and visited many print publishers and there are always magazines that needed a reliable media rep. I later decided to specialize in the B2B sector and build my portfolio likewise. But boy, has the market changed drastically in a short time….

Meet the ‘no-yellow-referee’ – Rodric Leerling

The rookie ref confided to me during half time he’d rather not issue yellow cards. At least, he hadn’t done so in his last 20 or so (lower youth) games and he seemed convinced it didn’t fit his refereeing style.

Back to Knee One – Rodric Leerling

Four and a half months and I’m back to ‘knee one’. The physical situation is similar to when it started in May: a swollen, stiff knee. The latest injection with double dosis steroid worked exactly four weeks.

Medical diagnosis is not always as logic as you think – Rodric Leerling

My insurance company was one of the first to show compassion with my knee injury. “How long did you say you have had this knee injury? Wow, almost three months without a clear diagnosis. Let’s try a 2nd opinion before you see yet another specialist.”

I felt mentally supported after seeing 3 GP’s, the orthopedist (more of his assistant). Swallowing three different anti-inflammatory drugs, getting injected with cortisone and being X-rayed and MRI-ed.
The sport medical doctor was the one to give me the obvious word: you have stressed yourself too much as referee in futsal and field football. After such a hectic season the knee can’t cope any longer and blows up. Layman’s talk.

Well, none of that. He studied both the X-ray and MRI scan in my presence. Read the accompanying GP letter with their procedures so far. Checked my swollen knee and just nodded. His verdict was shockingly direct: this is clearly not a sports related injury. At least, it’s not the way a knee reacts to being overly stressed – even after a total inner-meniscus removal (40 years ago) and a heavy season where I pushed hard to get promoted. No mechanical cause to be found, just like the orthopedist told me.

He simply would have given the same advice: go and see the reumatologist. He will probably ask for a puncture and examine the excess fluid. Maybe he has a an idea what causes the knee (and possibly other body parts) to react so vehemently. He wished me luck and said to be sorry not to be able to help any further.

And just when I wanted to hit the ‘publish’ key, the reumatologist called me if I wanted to fill a last-minute opening in his agenda. Sure, let’s do it! Seeing him in 60 minutes. To be continued.

The orthopedist finally showed his face and left again – Rodric Leerling

The student doctor invited me in and left me again sitting in a small room. He had to consult his superior and left me waiting. Consulting the actual specialist who hadn’t shown his face yet despite my third visit to his assistant.

But just before the student left me, I suggested the orthopedist to come and see me this time. Which he did. But the questions he asked made me wonder if he really grasped the situation. He couldn’t find any mechanical cause to the swelling. Neither on the X-ray, nor on the MRI could he find anything that could be the root of the swelling. His job was done. He was going to refer me to a rheumatologist to see if he could find the cause of the inflammation. Goodluck and have a nice day.

It felt like a cold shower. After eight weeks of blood tests, x-rays and various medication, I was back to square one. At home, I had the urge to call my GP, and ask his opinion as he mentioned (non-classic) rheuma as possible cause, but he was on hols. I instead called my insurance company what to do. They suggested to have a sports medical consult, in the same hospital. I only needed a referral from the orthopedist or my GP. The latter being on hols, I called the orthopedist’s assistant. To my big surprise, he refused to refer me to his colleagues at the sports unit. No explanation, sorry we can’t be of help.

So now we wait for another week till my GP is back. Ask for a referral and a ‘2nd opinion’. That’s 12 weeks since the knee started swelling. I have given it a proper rest, I would say, but still no changes. Oh, and the rheumatologist can see me late September. Maybe I should give them a call as well.

 

When Your Doctor Says You Should See Another One – Rodric Leerling

After weeks of taking different meds to kill the sudden burst of pain and reduce my knee swelling, the first diagnosis by my GP has been drawn. There are fractions of cartilage around the knee that should be ‘cleaned up’.

Why and how this ‘cartilage delivery’ works is not clear, but the X-ray results showed it clearly. The loose fractions around the knee are causing the body to react and produce moisture to encapsulate the danger. An orthopedist has been asked to examine me further and probably come up with a surgery proposal to do a ‘clean up’.

I can’t wait as this has been dragging on now for seven weeks already. The moisture in my knee prevented the GP to track the cause of the pain and swelling, as it basically formed a medical ‘cover-up’. Only after weeks of meds and eventually a reduced swollen knee, the injury could be diagnosed and the X-ray picture requested.

So much for the Dutch medical ‘1st line care’: patients should be seeing their GP as much as possible ‘in the 1st line’ and only when really necessary visit a specialist in hospital, called the ‘2nd line care’. This is believed to lead to a reduction in medical costs. But in my case, this has so far lead to 8 weeks of limping, a painful and swollen knee, 4 GP visits and 3 different medications, before finally an X-ray was requested and steps to surgery taken. Who knows how long this ‘2nd line of doctoring’ again will take. Keep you posted.

 

“Did the Futsal Secretary Kill my Promotion Chances?” – Rodric Leerling

It was an important futsal night last Friday. On the roster a real futsal champions game. I checked the tables and realized the home team being nr.1 could become champion with just a draw, whereas for their opponent, nr.2 of the table, only a win would suffice. And on top of that my 3rd assessor’s report would be drafted based on this game.

I had ordered two chairs for penalty times and moved both sub benches five meters from the middle line and told both teams that they were facing the player sub area so don’t mess around! The indoor futsal hall was slowly filling with spectators.

I even requested a linesman to help me out. This is only required at next level games, but I didn’t want to take chances. The guy who was planned to be my secretary offered to take on this role while a former player was told to handle the scoreboard and clock. When I saw his sullen face, I suddenly realized I knew him as I had cautioned him in the past for dissent. A bad omen. OK, so this is how you start and stop the clock. And give me the last minute ok?

The game was tense from both sides but I hardly made any errors and was in full control. No cautions needed, so the chairs stayed empty. The shit hit the fan at the end of 1st half when the secretary forgot to give me ‘my last minute’. And shortly after, at the start of the 2nd half, he now forgot to start the clock and only after me shouting across the hall he did with 10 secs delay. Everything went fine and the home team was hitting home fast to become champion and get promoted to 1st class.

But my lousy secretary wasn’t paying attention again and he forgot to stop the clock at the last minute. Being fully concentrated, I noticed this immediately and started shouting across the hall to stop ‘the bloody thing’. And just when I looked up and then to my secretary, a home player took revenge (at least that I was told later) and tackled a guest player exactly at the same time. I only saw him drop and scream of pain, but didn’t see what caused it. I was still yelling at my lousy secretary, running across the hall and suddenly realized I missed a massive foul.

Spectators and players were yelling and screaming for justice. Why no cards ref? Come on, at least yellow? I quickly decided a free kick which seemed the minimum to everyone around me, but I didn’t know what else to do. I just ran the last 50 secs of the game with a deep feeling of frustration. The home team had won fairly easy and were celebrating their earned promotion. The away team realized they had just lost against a much better team.

Handshakes from both teams but I was still dazed and confused. I told the linesman that I was very upset about the stand-in secretary letting me down so badly. But he didn’t seem to care as the champagne bottles were popping and he just thanked me for a good game and walked away. Would the assessor have recorded what happened (from my perspective)? If not, I’m toast and can forget the hard worked promotion. All for nothing.

“Did You See What Google Said About You?” – Rodric Leerling

If you didn’t know already – we are living in a reputation economy. And Google has become the new background check. Everyone is googling, all the time – to find information, opinions, background info, but also checking out people. Did you know that 80% of people will google you before they decide to meet you? Asking themselves: Who is the person I’m meeting? What makes him or her tick? What does he or she do outside their job? Where are they heading for in life?

Questions that Google can easily answer by showing what’s being posted online. On all social media channels, just recently or maybe some time back. If nothing fresh is being posted, this keeps popping up and you might not like it. Basically, you are who Google says you are. My question to you: is your online reputation in line with you are?

The index (10 hits each page) is based on available online content and is taken from websites and blogs, but also articles, news and social media posts. And this picture drawn on Google page 1 will determine whether people choose to do business with you, or go elsewhere. You might never know why you missed the much needed investment, got skipped for the new job or that board position you pitched for. It’s just inevitable: Google has become the first stage of the background check and the first elimination point.

My advice would be to start producing new, or re-purposing older, content. This will help to get your ‘online-me’ in sync with your ‘offline-me’. Uploading good content (including photos and videos) improves your chances of being found online. And remember that in order to rank on search engines, you need to have fresh content that is relevant to your audience. Google not only indexes your page based on keywords, but also the relevancy of a page’s semantic relevance and back links to credible websites.

Key to all this: a strong online reputation will help generate more business opportunities. And who doesn’t want that?

“So sad to hear you are leaving us, Britons! – Rodric Leerling

Today March 29, Great Britain officially announced, following the outcome of their referendum, to leave the European Union. The Brexit shockwaves of this badly under-estimated popular vote are still being felt here on the Continent.

Although I understand the anti-European emotions fed by too much power being absorbed by ‘Brussels’ and too many countries on the east joining in a short time, it still is such a grotesk and dramatic decision. And as we know now, the arguments to vote for ‘leave’ were mostly based on false financial information and exaggerated immigration stories.

So sad to realize that people who were in favour of remaining didn’t think it was necessary to campaign. It wouldn’t go that far, would it? Neither did the ‘leave’ campaign team expect this outcome. The older generation and those fearing to lose their jobs to Eastern Europeans, massively went to the polls and by absence of enough ‘stay’ votes, they as minority voted to leave. The young generation were in favour of the EU but took things for granted, and are still in shock of what the older generation did to their future.

It’s too late now and negotiations are starting today to fix a divorce deal. But will it be ‘a deal’ or ‘no deal’? Big political question the coming months in London. Contributions still need to be paid. And the EU is still offering a parachute to cancel the exit process during the two year negotiations. I have no illusions though, as this is pretty final. So sad to see you go, just when we needed you badly in counter balancing the traditional power brokers on our eastern and southern borders.

All the best dear friends. Goodbye and farewell. We will be in touch!

“I decided to, whatever people say, always stick to my approach” – Rodric Leerling

It felt like another satisfying game last weekend. A pretty good U17 match under nice Spring weather conditions. But not everyone would agree. As usual.

Once on the pitch, the home coach shook my hand and asked me if I hadn’t reffed them before this season. I confirmed but wasn’t sure which game exactly. He suddenly seemed to realize something and took his AR apart and started a secret looking conversation. Was he telling his club AR how to support me?

Maybe he remembered my stubborn way of reffing, not blindly following the (often biased) AR signals. So what would his advice be, exactly? I didn’t want to eavesdrop, but guessed he had just two options: either be very honest especially on off-sides, and thus gaining my confidence. Or wave the flag from kick-off on anything that looked suspicious. Again, I’m just guessing, but I assume he took the first option, for at least 60 minutes, right until the away team scored the well deserved equalizer (1-1). His flag was up and I heard shouts of “hands ref!” As I hadn’t seen anything, I signaled him to drop the flag. And he should know why, as the instructions were clear: no signals from the AR for fouls, especially in the box.

The home team soon after started wiping the floor with their opponents, scoring four more goals and I decided to call it a day after the official 80 minutes and score 1-5. The away team was complimenting me with a “terrific game”. The home coach, though, walked towards me clearly hesitating whether he would shake my hand. I didn’t wait for his decision, but just reached out to him, leaving him no choice. He started to say something about fouls I missed, but I immediately ‘overruled’ him saying I thought it was a great game, despite his teaming losing big time. He shouldn’t complain. He nodded and wished me a good weekend. See you around coach!