He has made a choice that has been simmering within him for a long time. The decision is life-changing. It means that Danish-French Jean-Philippe Loyau now lives three to four days a week in Paris in a 21-square-meter apartment on the sixth floor without an elevator, while his pregnant girlfriend stays in their apartment in Frederiksberg.

 
Because he hasn't started a business in Denmark, but in Paris, where he is behind Philie And The Jar, which makes jars with dinner meals that the city's career people can take home to their families.

Jean-Philippe Loyau is not paying himself a salary yet, he can no longer take his girlfriend out to eat, he drives a Toyota Aygo. There are very concrete sacrifices in the adventure he is pursuing, but Jean-Philippe Loyau is at peace with it:

“I am not complaining about the situation, and I don't feel guilty about the decision. I've probably been a bit too conflict-averse for a number of years, and that's something I've worked a lot on. It's important to have clarity. When I met my girlfriend two years ago, I told her right away:

"I have a dream, and you should know that there will come a day when I pursue it.”

It's in the French DNA
In his adult life, Jean-Philippe Loyau has built the solid foundation that now enables him to reach for the dream of building a business. After high school, at the age of 18, he underwent a two-year long, soldier-like preparatory course at St Louis de Gonzague - with classes from 8-5 every day, oral exams two evenings a week, and a test every Saturday afternoon for four hours. It was the ticket to a university degree at the prestigious EDHEC Business School, in finance, economics, and management. His career began with four years at Deloitte in M&A, and for the past nearly five years, he has been with Implement Consulting Group in strategy.

The shift is significant now, from having been in an advisory role for many years, to now having to create something from scratch himself. But the entrepreneurial gene is in his French DNA. His father's family is from Beaucourt, south of Alsace, and belonged to the Protestant minority. Long ago, the family started a brass company, producing everything from pots to clocks. At one point, they were asked by a couple of their cousins if they wanted to invest in a startup company that was going to produce cars. The cousins belonged to the odd part of the family, and since the established part of the family didn't want to touch anything that didn't have a future, they politely declined to become co-owners of Peugeot.

The family business ceased in the late 1960s. The story of the company, which was co-founders of French social capitalism, has been passed down in the family with pride and has given Jean-Philippe Loyau an ambition to follow suit. He has always heard about his great-grandmother, who was a "Japy" - the family name for the great French industrial dynasty - and was very committed to doing good, now that she had the means, for example by supporting people coming out of prison and soldiers in World War I. 

“I've often thought that we need to create something again. I've asked myself: What are my higher goals? What do I want to be remembered for?”

Every time he has asked himself, the answers have been clear. He dreams of creating a great workplace that not only makes money but also gives back to the employees and society. The perhaps most important life truth Jean-Philippe Loyau has realized in recent years is the importance of responding to his drive and not hesitating to make decisions. 

“Making decisions is a common trait for people who are successful and happy in life. I believe in making decisions rather than overthinking. If I, as an entrepreneur, had started by doing a thorough analysis of the market, competitors, and potential customers in an enormous and constantly changing food industry, I could have made a nice consulting report, but then I wouldn't be here, already well underway. Making decisions is crucial, and I've learned that it's what makes me happy. I have a girlfriend, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm about to have a child, the timing is completely off, but I believe something good will come out of it.”

When one of Jean-Philippe Loyau's friends in France heard that he had ventured out as an entrepreneur, his first remark to him was:

“Oh, so you've started too? You're not going to sleep well for a while.”

It turned out to be quite the opposite.

“I've never slept as well as I do now. Because I've made peace with myself. If my business succeeds, it's fantastic. If it doesn't, that's also cool because I'm going to learn a lot no matter what, and I won't regret it. Therefore, I feel no pressure.”

Jean-Philippe in The Lawyer

MAN IN THE SHIRT

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood” - quote Theodore Roosevelt in Paris, 1910. In the portrait series “Man in the Shirt,” BARONS meets business people who have put themselves on the line. Where do they find courage? What is the most important thing they have learned along the way? And what can the rest of us learn from them?