My Founder Story: The (Un)Known Path
- Natasha De Jonghe
- Mar 8
- 3 min read
Written by: Natasha De Jonghe
Finding your way isn’t about ticking boxes or following a script. It’s about noticing what feels true, questioning what doesn’t, and shaping a way forward that reflects your values and the community around you. From early on, we’re steered to choose a path: doctor, lawyer, engineer. Pick one. Stick to it. That’s how success is measured.
What if I was to tell you success doesn't need to be measured that way?
What Success Truly Looks Like?
Success means many things to everyone whether it is material success (earning loads of money), winning a trophy or being happy where you are currently. The key thing to take is away only you can dictate what success looks like in your life not anyone else!
With myself, I knew what I wasn’t. I wasn’t here to climb ladders or fit into a plan someone else had written. I wanted to create, to build, to bring things together. I didn’t yet have the words, but something in me was already writing a different story.
It began with a quiet feeling. Not loud or fearful, but steady, insistent. I followed it. I didn’t know where it would lead but I knew it mattered. It became my compass to help me recognise what was overlooked whether it was resources, time, skills, potential, and once I say it, I couldn’t turn away. Items with life left in them. People with talent and energy, disconnected from each other.
The feeling got louder, and the words came to me. What if we built a system from what already exists, one that creates space for people to thrive, live well, and make choices that shape their own future?
My Founder Journey: The Beginning of RE(YOU)S
RE(YOU)S CIC was born from those very words! Not from a business plan, but from a values-led response to disconnection and waste. From the beginning, RE(YOU)S has been about connection, circulation, and shared action. At its centre is a circular system where resources flow thoughtfully, powered by tokens and guided by choice. And at its foundation is one simple truth: what we overlook can be exactly what brings us together.
My route going into social entrepreneurship is not the typical route. It's not taught at school, it doesn’t come with a clear script or traditional markers of “success.” However, it offers a powerful way to build differently and impact your community for the better:
Be involved in something which has people and purpose at the centre instead of profit |
To create systems that reflect value through action |
Put into action your desire to support your local community |
Play a role in improving the outcomes of your local community (i.e., health, youth or tackling food inequality) |
Privilege to actually see the impact your work is having every day |
For some of us (including myself), social entrepreneurship feels less like a choice and more like something that has always been here, waiting to be recognised. I've learnt so many lessons along the way but the most important lesson I learnt was you don’t have to have it figured out at 18, or even 28. The path can reveal itself later, and still be yours entirely (whatever that path may be).
My Advice to You
Along my journey, I’ve noticed this:
The future rarely unfolds in a straight line.
Impact doesn’t come from titles, but from moments of action.
Curiosity often carries more weight than certainty.
The work that matters most sometimes doesn’t yet have a name.
I wasn’t drawn to commercial ventures. I was building something rooted, human, and lasting.
Eventually, I found the language: Social entrepreneur. Social enterprise. Circular economy. However, the clarity came long before the labels.
Maybe that’s the same for you. Maybe you’ve felt it too, the sense that what you notice, what you act on, already shapes something new.
If so, then perhaps you too are already uncovering your path that has always been there.
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