Most people climb the ladder for 40 years — only to find it was leaning against the wrong building.
Best years gone. Pension waiting. NO DEAL, if you ask me.
The old deal drains you, isolates you, owns you. I stepped off it in 2022. Built something else instead — on land, with people, in businesses that fund a life worth running.
Not someday. Not after retirement. Right now.
I'm Dennis.
Dutch. Based full-time at Zomerlicht, a 7.5-acre park in Overijssel, the Netherlands. Father of two daughters, 6.5 and 9.5. Partner to Asha, who planted the seed for all of this.
From 1999 I worked in retail and menswear. From 2017 I ran Yura Agency, a branding studio for tech brands. In 2014 and 2015 I lived in China, working as a concept developer for a Chinese tech and retail investor. I sold Yura Agency in January 2026.
On paper, it looked like a life. Underneath it, I was on autopilot.
Fed, housed, moving — and quietly starving for the things that actually matter.
Love. Purpose. Freedom. Trust.
I didn't know myself at all.
WHAT I BUILT
In May 2022, we bought a 7.5-acre recreational park and adjacent farm with four families.
The goal: a conscious community village and retreat centre.
Instantly we were running four businesses at once — a campsite, a restaurant, a development project, and a retreat centre — on the busiest weekend of the year. We converted a farm into a fifteen-bed retreat centre with two kitchens and a yoga hall in 3.5 months. We received six death threats when we terminated the lease on tennants. The first family left and that made the bank to call our financing into question. A second family left. Winter arrived with almost no revenue.
Asha and I asked each other, more than once: is this still our dream?
The answer was always yes.
The plan was revised. Today the bank is paid off. We developed the short-stay lodges and cabins, and we already sold half of the plots of our co-living.
This isn't theory. It's a working prototype.
THE PROJECTS
Zomerlicht
The recreational park in Overijssel - The Netherlands. Home base. The proof that a different life is possible, standing on real ground.
Innerlicht
The retreat centre, built from the converted farm. Two halls. Weekly retreats and events. The most established part of everything we run.
Slowville
Short-stay cabins and lodges on the park. Completely developed.
Co-living
Not-so-tiny houses for people who want land, community, and shared ownership - not a weekend visit.
Truflo
Inner journey guidance for entrepreneurs who've built the outer life and are asking why it still feels empty.
Noai
Building and development. Early stage.
The secret of change is focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.