Crushed Velvet Kisses


Welcome to my corner of the Universe says Jan Leonard Borgh. A little repository for my ramblings and stories, all from life in the great city of rock'n'roll dreams... and memories!


For Those Who Love To Live

The story about the Poet & the Post Moderns is meant to be read sequentially, by date. Published so far:

Chapter 1—May 21, 2010—An overwhelming feeling of not belonging

Chapter 2—July 28, 2010—Alone, but not lonely

Chapter 3—February 17, 2011—Trailblazing

Chapter 4—February 18, 2011—Dancing madly backwards

Chapter 5—June 30, 2011—Verisimilitude

Chapter 6—Jan 8, 2012—Love junkies, losers and libertines

Chapter 7—February 10, 2012—Mercy Beat

Talk to me!

7th June 2010

I’m not like everybody else…

Back in the real world…

After six days of peace, love and rock’n’roll debauchery I am back in the so called real world of finance and IT. How do you combine these two extremes you may wonder? Well, there is no easy answer but I can tell you this; for me it’s all about honesty! Who are you, and why are you who you are? The following slice of life may give you an indication to how this works.

If you walk into a financial meeting in the City of London, and decide not to play according to the rules (and boy, these rules are harder than tennis or golf) you begin on the minus side. The first thing you have to do is to try to get back to the equilibrium. Try to figure out who of the attendees have the slightest interest in music or fashion, and focus on them. You are of course wearing a good, tight suit, tie or no tie, your turquoise rings, earrings and as usual you hair is a mess. A little soul patch on your lower lip is good because most of these guys (usually guys, with women the story is totally different) like Springsteen. Most of the time they ignore you until you actually speak, and when you do, make sure you have something really worthwhile to say. In my case it has mostly been presentations of some concept or other or a very visual demonstration. This is where the all those hours on stage comes in handy, because I know how to handle an audience, and this is for all intents and purposes nothing more than an audience, albeit not there to see you, but all the same an audience.  As bankers and financial people usually like to talk about money and golf and cars, you can drop a line or two about when you met McCartney and his BMW, or when a friend of your got lost in Stockholm while driving Bruce Springsteen to a gig. Make it a natural part of your speech. Of course it’s essential that your presentation is good, and that the demo goes well. What happens next is usually that the CEO or CFO or whatever comes up to you during the break and tells you about the time that his company hired Huey Lewis & The News to play at their annual convention in Boca Raton! Here it is essential to listen to them talk and not talk too much about yourself. That comes later. You are now as close to mates with these guys as possible. You might even get asked to play their next convention.  

This might sound simple and may not always work. I have been told over and over again that I could never make a career in financial London or financial anywhere for that matter, because I don’t fit in, but still I end up discussing Paul Weller with the MD, or vintage Gibson guitars with the Sales Director of equities. Go figure!

The moral of this story is: be who you are! Be honest and true to yourself. This is probably quite easy if you are like everybody else in the club (I’m mostly talking visually because what’s going on in people’s minds we don’t know), but if you, like me, stubbornly insists on being true to your rock’n’roll self ALL the time it’s a little harder. You have to work that extra bit. But it can be done.

 “I’m not like everybody else” – Ray Davies circa 1965

  1. janneborgh posted this