René van der Gijp has the idea that Wilfred Genee is not satisfied enough with Today Inside alone. “But that’s not it at all René. I am very happy with our program.”
Wilfred Genee is a hard worker by Hilversum standards. In addition to the daily Today Inside, he also does the football program Veronica Offside and a radio program on BNR. Why is all that? It is a constant feeling of unrest, the presenter explains in the podcast Go-getters.
Living in the future
How exactly does that work? Wilfred explains that he wanted to become a football presenter from the age of 12. “The funny thing is of course: because I was always working towards something from the age of 12, I always lived in the future for a long time, so I never really appreciated the things I did.”
He continues: “I was able to cover Maradona’s farewell match in Buenos Aires in front of 60,000 crying people and I just thought: next week I’m going to do that, I’m going to do this. Then I wasn’t in the moment. Then I wasn’t in the moment enough. And that commentary position went back and forth.”
Not satisfied enough
That variety ensures that you are always working on the next thing, says Wilfred. “Every week I competed in Italy, in Germany, in France, in England. And too often I thought: oh then I have that match next week, that match.”
That feeling of restlessness is sometimes confused with boredom, he continues. “René always thinks that I am not satisfied enough with our program. I say: ‘But that’s not it at all, René. I am very happy with our program. I also really enjoy doing fun things on the side, because I’m quite restless.’”
In bed all day
René is a lazy person, Wilfred continues. “René just lies on the couch all day, gets out of bed at 12 o’clock, because he usually watches TV until 5 o’clock at night. So he can’t imagine anything about that. It has nothing to do with my appreciation for our program, but more with the unrest I feel within myself.”
Now Wilfred is trying to channel that. “The only thing I try to do is not to look too far ahead at what I want to achieve, but rather what I do, that I enjoy it a little more and that I am more present.”