what we do and what we are, things are not completely aligned. Chrystèle likes to call herself a “deviant legal partner”. It is a self-diagnosis resulting from studies and research that she did to better understand how it works. Convinced that this notion of positive deviance from the management sciences was as much a key to personal understanding as it was a solution proposal, she started out as an independent consultant serving small-business entrepreneurs, individuals or founders of start-ups.
If you want and know how to have opinions on much more than what is in your field of responsibility within a corporation, this, as I suggested above, can be tricky. The freelancer doesn’t have that problem.
4.2.2. Her first entrepreneurial experience
As an independent consultant, you have more freedom to advise, defend a point of view and decide with whom you finally want to interact. For an empathetic Chrystèle, always listening actively, with a broad smile, being independent was the first step to manage her paradoxes and finally live better.
Someone who thought for a long time that she lacked sufficient references to find her inner balance and in her relationship with others, ended up living better. “I have my own ideas, and they are no less than those of a great thinker”. Many would tell me that Chrystèle shows false humility or pretension with such a statement. Either that is not the case or there are two and many of us in this world who are like her. To want to share with others because “Without others, nothing has any flavor”, and still have self-esteem and the will to give or receive meaning, what could be more relevant to be fulfilled in life. This is all the more estimable as this type of profile takes as much pleasure in being fulfilled as seeing others do the same.
I feel that if Chrystèle’s profile wasn’t built in a day, this experience as an independent was a cornerstone that would lead her towards the creation of a start-up.
4.2.3. FULL’STREET, the launch
During the entire interview, there is a notion about her that I found very structuring. Chrystèle told me about her memory lapses. For a long time, she was complicated by her ability to move on, to unburden her memory, especially when in front of people incapable of questioning themselves. What spontaneously applies to people, bad memories, uninteresting content, applies all the more so in moments of decision-making. By way of illustration, originally the current entrepreneurial project that she and her partner and companion were carrying out was to create a network of distribution boutiques … and this was to become a digital platform that I will describe to you shortly. We can’t even talk about a pivotal point, but about a change of project trajectory. Chrystèle lives fully in the present moment and makes choices in the present. This approach allows her to circumvent obstacles and to deal with the surprises that every professional encounters and is full of.
FULL’STREET is a “WorkTech” that provides professional services to entrepreneurs to simulate and then launch the creation of their company. This solution seems to me to echo Chrystèle’s propensity to offload what weighs heavy. With this platform, entrepreneurs can free up time to work on their strengths; those who are truly involved in creating value in business. There is no business virtue in wrestling with administrative complexities or fumbling around for the right resources.
With FULL’STREET, Chrystèle has moved from the security paradigm to that of risk-taking because “the unknown is tamed and I reveal myself in reality, the spontaneous”. But this is a risk-taker who remains cautious: “To launch FULL’STREET, I did not generate any debt”. She finds it heroic, as well as insane, that the entrepreneurs who are least able to exercise entrepreneurship are proportionately those who generate the most debt before they even earn anything.
Beyond risk-taking, what she likes above all is to wear the same hat for creative, strategic and managerial roles: thus covering the entire timeline of the company’s existence.
Today, more than ever, Chrystèle’s adventure continues. Her network, especially in the media and the entrepreneurial ecosystem was built patiently. Chrystèle seized and activated during her career history all the opportunities of encounters and this constitutes, it must be said, a precious asset for the development of such a company. Human capital is at the heart of her method as well as her objective. So many individuals who have, over time, participated in the empirical construction of her career and led her to where she had dared, alone, to imagine finding herself.
All the best!
Question 4: what does Mrs. Chrystèle Sanon’s journey inspire in you?
Figure 4.1. Mrs. Chrystèle Sanon
5
Mr. Christophe Vattier, the Lucky Rebel!
Christophe is not unknown to me. He is one of those entrepreneurs whose paths I crossed as head of a start-up support structure. At the time, I already found him a colorful character. Far from being an exuberant person, Christophe is a communicator in the very positive sense of the word. He knows how to share his passions and how to train. He is one of those rare people to whom I would gladly give the leader’s pin, a natural leader first, and who has since become a pragmatic one.
You will tell me that such a positive introduction to the subject will no doubt make the tale of his career more objective. Not in the least, I assume my subjectivity towards him, because it is his journey and not mine, and I admit that what I am about to reveal to you about him, I myself discovered during this interview.
Furthermore, Mr. Vattier this time, for the object of the work, revealed a little more to the world, and probably also to himself.
5.1. Context
You will read about Christophe’s background, a life where nothing was predestined for entrepreneurship. I’m not saying anything because when you have a classic childhood, you might think you’ll have a classic life. But that doesn’t take into account what everyone carries inside. Christophe carried himself and carried a passion to move the boundaries of discovery in himself, the Other and life, without concession and with great benevolence.
5.1.1. Origins
“I was born at midnight, pumpkin time”. This little phrase marks his character. He could have told me he was born at midnight, but he references the time. That’s just like Christophe, always giving meaning to what he says. At the time of writing, Christophe Vattier is 47 years old. He was born into a middle-class family in a small village in France, with a sister 13 years his senior.
“My birth, desired by my parents, was experienced as a gift from heaven”. His parents always made him feel it by giving him special attention. It built him up beyond the luck he says he’s always had for a very long time. A sign of destiny? … “I can try anything and I’ll always manage, that’s what I’ve always believed in”.
