The mind — Tom de Bruin

Origin I.

Born Utrecht, raised on the dune line.

13 December 1999, Utrecht. School at Bonhoeffer College in Castricum from 2012 to 2018 — VWO, Natuur Techniek & Gezondheid, electives Cambridge English and Music. I was already trading and organising as a kid. Marktplaats was my first sandbox.

The dune coast at Castricum became the second home. Surf school at 18, a board under my arm before a backpack. By the time I went to Utrecht for my bachelor's, I'd already started teaching surf at Ozlines — that ran for the whole seven years that followed.

Wiring II.

Highly gifted, highly sensitive.

My head is constantly making connections, analyses, associations. New topics land quickly, patterns show up almost on their own, I'm usually a few layers ahead — what does this mean, where is this heading.

That has its cost. I filter with difficulty, feel a lot, can get lost in conversations or crowds when everything arrives at once. So freedom, rest and variety aren't a luxury — they're how I function well. I need to move and to think out loud. I work best with inspiring people in the room.

16P · ENFP-A
74% extraverted · 81% intuitive · 63% feeling · 53% prospecting · 67% assertive. — 16personalities · jun '24

Profile III.

The Insights profile says "Motiverende Inspirator."

Insights Discovery — done October 2025 — placed me at type 46: a creative visionary who generates more ideas in a day than most teams in a month. Strengths it named: seeing possibilities and alternatives, reading people, being inventive in groups, articulate, resilient, optimistic.

It also named the costs honestly: I can see the world through rose glasses, I can have so many ideas it tips into chaos, I prefer variety over routine and I sometimes know the answer before the question is finished. I work better when someone next to me loves the detail of finishing.

Numbers IV.

The cognitive test that almost looks contradictory.

Accenture's cognitive assessment, June 2024 — ten skills against a population baseline. The numbers tell a specific story.

perseverance

94^th

collaboration

92^nd

memory

83^rd

analytical

69^th

planning

68^th

adaptation

18^th

↑ perseverance + ↓ adaptation = I commit hard. once I'm in, I'm in.

Contradictions V.

The real ones — worth knowing before working with me.

The contradictions aren't a marketing flourish. They're real, and most of them are tradeoffs other people will run into.

A fast head that sees patterns before you've finished the brief.

but

A finisher's discipline that came from seven years of surf rosters, not from school.

Highly sensitive — I read rooms, costs and incentives almost involuntarily.

and

Commercially sharp — Marktplaats, Vinted, recruitment, deal-making since I was a teenager.

I love ideas, possibilities, the moment a project opens up.

but

I score in the 18th percentile on adaptation. I commit harder than I switch.

Trained engineer (CoSEM, 8.3) at TU Delft.

but

Don't feel like one. Curious, creative, connective — the engineering is the language, not the identity.

North VI.

What I'm actually looking for.

A fixed career path is not the goal. The goal is inspiring people, freedom, adventure and projects I really believe in. When something excites me I go in fully — presence, energy, enthusiasm.

I love building. Making complex things simple. Visualising. Combining strategy with intuition. Connecting people. Creating momentum. And above all — projects with substance: not just clever, actually about something.

Concretely, the kinds of rooms I want to spend my next years in: energy transition and infrastructure with real public stakes; AI innovation work that doesn't drown in slides; outdoor brands and ventures with a soul; founders building something they'd stake a year on. I'm useful where the brief is fuzzy, the stakeholders are many, and the next concrete step is missing.