Peru 4U

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  Click images to enlarge

The story of Peru 4U

Here is a short version of the story of how I, Jos B. Rikhof, orginator of Peru 4U, got involved:

After a career in business as a financial and EDP manager I decided to start my own executive interim management business. I have done this very intensely for 7 years. In the meantime I graduated as an MBA (executive part-time study). Interim management was very rewarding but with a very important downside: not one single minute for myself.

Why a sabbatical?

In 2001, when I was 45, my wife Gerry and I decided to enjoy a sabbatical. Objective was to clear up my mind in order to redesign our future. I thought the 45 year's period where other people (bosses, contractors, intermediates, educational structures) had determined my life and agenda, had to come to an end.

Why Peru?

Part of the sabbatical was a 10 weeks trip to Peru. I wanted to experience a very different country and culture to clear up my mind and find new inspiration. I took with me the 18 (then) years old, adopted son of my friends, from Peruvian origin, named Carlos. Thus he had the opportunity to see his homeland back again for the first time and could start searching for his roots.

Where to go in Peru? (no plan!)

We landed in Guaquil Ecuador and the next day we went by bus to the North of Peru Mancora) and went zigzagging from the north to the south of Peru through Chiclayo, Chachapoyas, Leimebamba, Celendin, Cajamarca, Trujillo, Hunancayo, Pucallpa, Huancayo, Ayacucho, Cuzco, Puno, Copacabana, Arequipa, back to Lima.

The route to Cajamarca was recommended by a hippy, I met in Mancora and he was very knowledgeable about Peru. Took me a cup of coffee and a beer. Trujillo was determined by a student we met in the bus from Guaquil to Mancora

The trigger for Peru 4U

When I was in Pucallpa, I met Gilbert. He was adopted by Alaskan parents. 38 years old. Gilbert took me to Charley, a 70 years old US citizen who had a lodge in the jungle. Charley was an interesting man, traded everything during his life (diamonds, arms, women), kind of criminal mind (" never loose your own money") and he lived in the jungle with 2 beautiful Indian women ( deal with the chief of the tribe)

I asked Charley: "were would you invest USD 100K nowadays in Peru?" He answered: in gold, real estate or tourism. "In tourism" triggered me because I worked for huge travel companies as an interim manager in the past and I always thought: I can do this better. During my sabbatical I redefined my criteria for the future: more flexibility, more free time, more entrepreneurship and the idea of building up a travel service company from scratch, fitted in.

The start of Peru 4U; miscarriage?

So how are we going to do this? One thing was sure to mind: the internet has the future. The trend is that more people will buy their travel services through the internet and so it had to be an internet company and an internet company only.

I made conceptual plans with Gilbert to set up an internet travel service company for Peru. Gilbert "worked" for 7 months to gather all the information, visit resources all over Peru, did tours and excursions. However later it appeared that he enjoyed 7 months of vacation of my money (addresses were false or non existing anymore, etc.). The funny thing was that Gilbert was kind of proud of his work and estimated that his contribution added value to the whole venture. Interesting learning point was how people from different cultures can have different perceptions on how to add value.

It seemed to be the end of Peru 4U but a real entrepreneur never gives up.

At the start, I bought myself a meter of internet books and started to build the website and the front office of Peru4U. Those activities made me come into contact with a lot of resources in Peru. After some bleeding noses I found reliable and committed resources in Peru.

The website of Peru 4U

Biggest challenge was to create and build a professional website that is on the first page of the major search engines. After 7 versions of the website I have reached this goal. We are number 1 in Google and doing very well in other Search engines. I have build the website myself because I believe that it belongs to the core activities/ assets of Peru 4U, an internet company only. It took me more than a year, 14 hours per day hard work, to come this far.

My wife often complained: "we see you less than when you were an interim manager". Now, when the vision came through, she is one of the important ambassadors of Peru 4U.

We now have a very reliable, proven organization, running like a Swiss watch and we are very successful. Peru 4U is growing very fast thanks to highly committed people, exceeding customer expectations and "we do what we promise to do". Customers come from all over the world.
Plans are developing Bolivia4U, Argentina4U, Chile4U and Ecuador4U.

What happened with Carlos?

The trip had a large impact on the course of life of Carlos. He went back to Bolivia and Peru very shortly after we came back. He found his wife in Peru and in the mean time Carlos has become a father!. He lives in Arequipa and makes his living by selling real Alpaca woolen clothes via…….the internet.

Conclusion

The story of Peru 4U is a story with high serendipity content. Peru4U is standing firm. It is the result of a decision we made in 2001 and of a vision that originated in the jungle of Pucallpa.

Do not tell Charley that he had such an influence on Peru4U. He will probably send me a big bill to settle his debts. :-)