Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Arjan Van Buul. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Arjan, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
I hope that I have treated everybody fair and that I never made money at somebody’s expense and that everybody got ahead by associating with our business.
Arjan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I came to America when I was 19 years old from Holland and went to Flight School in Ohio. A year later I started an aviation business with a small airplane.
One night, on a cargo trip, I got stuck in a snowstorm and was forced to stay overnight at the Dulles airport. This is where I drank my first Samuel Adams and it gave me a reason to stay in America.
My pilot career turned more into a hobby than a job over time as I met many interesting people from whom I learned new things and I started an environmental remediation business.
The traveling part of my job became difficult due to getting married and having triplets. I decided to start a golf course renovation company in the Atlanta area. This was about 20 years ago and around the same time I started brewing beer at home.
Sometimes I would still go out on environmental cleanup projects, but the bureaucracy was interfering with my work ethic. Fortunately I met a miner, Bill Enstrom, who taught me everything about the lead shot mining business.
The mining business became my passion and with many ups and downs, in particular my gold mine in Alaska, Windmill Enterprises LLC became a nationwide leader in the shot reclamation business with an annual reclamation of 1.5 million pounds of lead.
Due to the seasonal nature of the work, I started to work on my vision of building a place that combines the best of Europe and America. The place when finished will have a beer brewery, grill, vineyard and trout fishing pond.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Most of my experience comes from my biggest failures. The best failure was my gold mine in Alaska. I bought a 40 acre claim with living accommodations and all the mining equipment. This mine got me 6 ounces of gold and close to being broke. It made me realize not to worry about money, I think it was greed that made me fall for this trap.
As soon as I got a job I made more realistic plans and learned to keep my feet on the ground
Contact Info:
- Website: Windmillenterprisesllc.com
- Facebook: windmill enterprises llc lead reclamation
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/jQGp59WokZA
Image Credits
Nothing