A Memoir of John Helstowski

Written by : Ludy Irsan, Head of Radio Stream – GDC Indonesia

“Good Morning John !” I greet him with enthusiasm. “What’s good about it” He replied. Ever since I always greet Big John with “Morning John!” only 🙂

I will surely miss that. I will also miss that loud voice in the office corner. That sound he made when he laugh at your jokes. All the life stories he told over and over but you will never get bored of. The way he threaten to beat us with his walking stick which he never did (we eventually always laugh at it, not even scare anymore) 🙂

I’m one of the unfortunate person who have very short moment, only 4 years to work and learn from him. I see him leaders among leaders, war generals, a role model and the most important thing : a father to his team. He deeply cares about his team, the level of affection that you will get from your own father. He stands in front of you to take all the coming bullets.  He will shout at you when you made a mistake, but he will never shout at you in front of other people. He will take responsibility of your mistakes, as a father take a responsibility of his misbehaved children. He is the type of Leader who rate his success as the success of his team. He often told us : “Treat your team as your children. You would love to see your children to be succeed right ?”  List of successful names such as : Rudiantara (Minister of ICT, Republic of Indonesia), Dian Siswarini (CEO of XL Axiata), Danny Buldansyah (VP of H3I), who once were his apprentice, prove the quality his Leadership and Mentoring ability.

I once had a trip with John. It was a long haul flight, Jakarta to Lisbon, which took around 14 hours of flight. John sat beside me in economy class, even though he has the exceptional approval to take the business class. I questioned this to him, and he replied : “If everyone need to suffer, I need to suffer as well”. Even though that I know he feels very uncomfortable flying coach (of course you all aware that John is very big) and even need seat belt extension. This is the type of leadership that we can only imagine and see in Hollywood movies.

For me personally, John had given a lot of opportunities for me. To grow to what I have become now. He given me trust, empowerment which makes me learns a lots of new things. His life lesson change the way I see things, the way I see life itself. So he was a mentor for me in life not only work.

Rest in Peace Pak John. May your soul rest peacefully in heaven. You are gone but not forgotten. Your life lesson, your legacy, will stays with us.

Till we meet again Pak.

Ludy