Charles Van Kessler

What Charles talked about

Charles Van Kessler discussed his childhood in the Netherlands, where his family was taken during a Nazi raid, and the eight years he spent in an orphanage marked by abuse, followed by two years living alone on the streets of Amsterdam before he immigrated to the United States at 22. He described the lasting impact of that period, including nightmares that continue to this day, and the mindset he developed of refusing to complain about hardship and relying on prayer and persistent effort to move forward.

He talked about building a liquid vitamin formula after struggling to find a supplement that actually absorbed into the body, a process that involved years of self-education and working with doctors, and that led to founding his own vitamin company, whose first customer was Regis Philbin. He also discussed a promise he made as a child to give back if his circumstances ever improved, which led him to start the charity Passion for Kids, funded in part by the company, and he gave examples of direct assistance the charity has provided to families in crisis.

Find Charles elsewhere

The show

The Total Entrepreneur is a weekly conversation with founders, researchers, and health experts about what actually moves entrepreneurial performance across mind, body, spirit, and business.