How Peter R de Vries inspired me

When doing things on my computer that don’t require my full attention I would usually play something in the background. Music, Netflix, sometimes YouTube. When I was 16, without knowing what to expect, I moved onto another series: ‘Peter R de Vries: Crime reporter’. Each of his episodes started with the following statement: ‘The program that investigates, exposes, indicts, defends and tonight…’. And while I agree with that statement I believe there is a significant bullet point he failed to mention. “Inspires”.

• Solving cold cases. Picking up where others gave up and making the case/project feel like your own is a skill best mastered by a rare combination of driven and beyond loyal people. This is a rare skill and while some people have it in them, this mentality sits at the core essence of someone’s personality and can’t be easily taught at a later age. This is a superpower.

• Looking for different angles. There are many different ways of looking at a situation, by only exploring one angle you miss out on a lot of information and opportunities. Look for other angles.

• When exploring angles, you often end up having to make some level of assumptions. The data often doesn’t exist yet or would require a significant amount of time to gather. But be aware of your assumptions and don’t allow them to influence your way of reviewing that angle when you have exact data.

• In a broken system hard work does not necessarily pay off. So be wary of what you are trying to achieve. If doing hard work satisfies you, then maybe you don’t need the system to recognize it. Sometimes your hard work is part of a bigger goal.

• The personality trait of ‘bite and don’t let go’ can lead to some amazing successes. In school I was taught this is a bad personality trait… This proves how a small number of people are capable of making things happen for the better.

• Peter didn’t solve every cold-case he ever investigated. In fact, only if he solved a small fraction of them. it was still worth it. If you aim high enough a partial success can still be of significant impact.

Peter’s story came to a brutal end but hopefully his legacy will live on in the next generations.