// CEDRIC "FLY" DE VLIEGER
The story behind BACKBONE.
Twenty years in the Special Units. Today the outside view without a stake.
// THE STORY
It did not start with the strongest kid.
Bullied as a child.
Gave up at fourteen, halfway through a hundred-kilometre march.
// Strength was not a gift. It became a choice.
Ten years later: selected as the youngest operator ever in the Belgian Special Units (DSU).
What made the difference: how I decided under pressure and worked as part of a team.
// Selection measures one thing: how reliable you are within the team.
Ten years of high-stakes operations, where everyone takes ownership and communication stays short and clear.
With fewer resources than elsewhere. And still no turnover.
// High performance is holding the standard when the margin for error is zero.
Thirteen days after my appointment, the terror period broke out. No run-up, no learning time.
Leading complex interventions with incomplete information and conditions that kept shifting.
// Uncertainty never disappears. Leaders build teams that keep deciding well inside it.
Injuries ended my operational career. Everything I had become, I could no longer do.
I rebuilt myself, and wrote a book about it: Kracht is een Keuze.
// No genetic luck. A method.
The same principles, translated to organizations with their own pressure, uncertainty and change.
Military jargon stays out of your meeting. The standard that worked there comes along.
// The collective above the individual.
// WHAT YOU HIRE ME FOR
Three ways to work together.
// NEXT STEP
Ready to talk?
Tell me briefly where your team or your event stands. I respond personally.
Book a conversation