Life can be wonderful thing, full of gifts and blessings.

Unknown treasures are often discovered only when given the time to find them.

My good fortune in Brussels was a gift of such time combined with a delightful soul as a tour guide.

I had a free evening following an individual appointment. My meeting was with Jean-Francois Nivart, CEO of intoPIX. We met on the campus of Université Catholique de Louvain, where intoPIX was started based on technology developed at the school.

intoPIX is a high-tech company that has image compression and security technology used in the digital cinema industry. They have built a team to further develop and market this technology with hardware manufacturers that sell digital cinema projectors around the world.

Jean Francois and I discussed how the business is growing, the role the university plays, and the process of taking an idea to market. These are all things that I work on in my job and also in my role as an advisor to NCSU's college of management. It was great to see how this is done in Europe and to explore how we might collaborate in the future.

It could have all ended there and been a very successful meeting. Aah, but that is actually where the real fun began. Because I had the evening free and because Jean Francois is such a great guy he asked me to his house for dinner...

We didn't go straight home though, we drove through the Belgian countryside and visited Durbuy, which was once given the title of the world's smallest city. Jean Francois's grandfather was the mayor at the time.

We later enjoyed La Chouffe beer and a spaghetti dinner at his home. Jean Francois lives in an amazing house from the 19th century. He spent several years renovating it and I just loved it.

I especially liked the heater/stove that he uses as the primary heating source. They burn wood in it for about four hours per day and the stones store the heat and slowly release it.

At the end of the evening Jean Francois drove me back to Brussels…over an hour away. It was great act of kindness and sharing that I’ll always cherish.