Who am I? What do I think? What do I do? How do I understand my existence? Answers to these questions await discovery with every click, with every link and on every page of this website. However, I hope that this "About Me" section can condense the information to better answer the general question: Who is Robert MacKenzie?

I am confident about who I am, but don't yet know, who I will become. I was raised on my family's farm (mother's side) in southern Ontario near the village of McGregor, where I lived until the divorce of my parents at the age of 14. My sister and I moved with my mother nearer to the 'big' city of Windsor, while my father continued to live on the farm, although himself no farmer. Despite the very difficult time, good family relationships were maintained and even blossomed, which shows the strength and integrity of my amazing family.

Upon my graduation from high school (Sandwich Secondary School in LaSalle, ON) I began an Electrical Engineering Degree at the University of Windsor. At this time my father moved to Toronto. Learning and good grades were simple for me throughout my life. Please don't mistake simple with easy. There was also much work involved. Learning & life-long learning has always been and still is major driving force in my life. Before I graduated from university, both of my parents remarried, extending my family with "step- relatives".

As a child I had no or little fear (still a trend in my life), which allowed me to be adventurous. Sometimes a little too adventurous! However, the yearning for adventure during my university had manifested itself in the form of Engineering Internships, which I principally always performed for 4 months in the semester break away from home. It was important for me to know life in other places (e.g. Toronto, North Carolina USA), and to test my abilities and self-dependence. Despite a very intense experience abroad in the USA, I wanted more! After my graduation I managed to find an international internship in Germany.

Since this experience in Germany represents a major turning point in my life, it is described elsewhere in more detail. However, five years have passed since my arrival and this period has helped me to shape myself into the person, who I am today. But yet, who am I?

By formal education I am an engineer. I admire science in general, logic, processes, problems, but mostly solutions. Technology is fascinating and I like to invent. In fact, I enjoy expressing my creativity through my technical side, but also in other areas. Perhaps as a compliment to my personality, perhaps as a contrast (I find both thoughts equally exciting) is also my need to create in traditionally artistic ways. This website should plainly demonstrate my passion for writing, but I also have a natural talent for languages and drama. Even music and drawing seem to be gifts of mine, but unfortunately still unproven gifts, to which I have never devoted enough time.

My passions in life are many, but revolve around one, perhaps too global theme: Life itself. Life is my origin and my goal. Assuming that I have only one life, it is going to be a great one! Therefore, there is no time to waste. Hence my love of learning. The more I know, the more I can do, the more freedom of personal choice I have, the more well informed decisions can be made instead of resorting to ignorance, and the more knowledge & experiences I can share with others. On a more concrete level, I read, write, learn, teach, travel, cook and perform sport with intensity and joy. Language builds a foundation of how I do all of these things and I'm proud that I know three languages very well. By the way, one goal in life is to learn five languages well.

I must say that I am blessed with good genes (again, I have an amazing family), because in addition to my intellectual side, I'm quite a good athlete. How good? It doesn't matter, but I have enough trophies and medals to satisfy my ego for a while. On the subject of ego and confidence, I always feel it important to first demonstrate, but also communicated that I despise arrogance. This is often confusing for some, because I seem so confident. Yes, I am confident. I am proud of myself and I know that I'm good at many things. This is a result of knowing my strengths well, but I avoid arrogance by genuinely not comparing myself to others. Read this page again, listen to me speak, see the way I act - I never say, nor see the need to be better than somebody else. Quite honestly, I find it more rewarding to continually try and better myself, rather than to worry about how I measure to others.

While I don't wish to measure myself to others, I do love and seek interaction with others. Therefore, with the development of myself as a driving force for my life, I place the development of others on an equal plateau. Particularly fascinating for me are the subjects of leadership (especially personal leadership) and intercultural competence. Unfortunately I have the impression that far too many people only explore these topics very superficially. For example, in seeking leadership many first seek the famed "skills" of a leader, without first diving deep into themselves to know if they even want to lead, why they want to lead, to which goal they will lead, with which personal values they wish to lead or without a defendable personal definition of what leadership means to them. I believe if you don't know what you value, you will also be unclear if your actions are worthwhile or make sense to you. Knowing the sense behind an action is the ultimate source of motivation for that action.

I have personally spent much time on the reflection or discovery of my personal values. Since I consciously know, by which values I choose to live, I find it simpler to live my life as a man of integrity and I don't compromise my values. Again, please don't mistake simple with easy - peace is a simple idea, but realizing this idea is anything but easy. For me, my integrity builds the foundation of my happiness and success in my life, because I strive to ensure that what I think, what I say and what I do are in harmony. Mahatma Gandhi has a similar quote for his definition of happiness.

So, to conclude this summary of "Robert MacKenzie in a Nutshell" I can honestly say: Robert MacKenzie is happy. I love the challenge of life. I love risk and the reward it can bring. "I am confident about who I am, but don't yet know, who I will become." The next phase of my life will involve risks and challenges, but I know that a greater happiness could be the reward. The following quote serves as a good closing and summary of my current thoughts about my future:

"...
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
..."

T.S. Elliott (1888-1965)
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

All the best,
Rob