I once burned out on accounting work, and was entirely fed up with office work.

So I started to work as a painter. It gave me back my peace of mind. It is the Zen of painting. Wax on, wax off, Daniel san.

I can at times be too hasty. Especially after my burn out, I was completely stressed out, couldn’t focus. With painting, I learned to relax and focus on the job and take all the necessary time for a job.

80% of the work is preparation, sanding, cleaning, mixing paint.

It often helped me to clear my head. It was sometimes more meditation than work.

And painting barges, well, barges are rather big ships, and in winter we do the maintenance on the ships, and that includes painting the outside and inside. Often that means a few weeks of painting. It trains you to do the same basic work day in day out, and if you keep it up and don’t loose your patience, in time, you get where you wanted to go.