Time for reflection: Body, mind and purpose

Time flies when you are having fun! I realized, I have not created any content for my blog in almost two years. With more time on my hands, due to COVID-19 and less traveling, I have doubled-down on building better habits and routines for myself. I often reflect on where I am, and where I want to be. Who do I want to become? Even more so with COVID-19 when I, the extreme extrovert, were left with …. me. As a true consultant, there is always a framework for ‘being the best version of yourself’ – and I have borrowed this from the firm. It consists of three areas: body, mind and purpose. I have committed to creating a mini series of posts on some of the topics, and how I continue to work on improving myself. My first post in this series will be around Sleep & recovery.

“I have doubled-down on building better habits and routines for myself”

Body – Sleep & recovery: Process of restoration and renewal for the mind and body which is crucial for mood, energy and cognitive abilities.

Last year I bought a ring to track my sleep. I was intrigued by the features of this smart little device. It measures my heart rate, heart rate variability, temperature deviations, type of sleep and so much more. Here is a snapshot of my sleep the past 12 months:

Ugh, September was not a good month. Sleep deprivation messed with my ability to focus and concentrate, and I felt it. I did not need a device to tell me that. Still, I probably would not have paid too much attention to it or reflected on my progress, if I had not documented it. I have a nice average of seven hours of sleep per night, and I feel like I am the best version of myself with more than seven hours of sleep. According to researchers, a full night of high quality sleep help increase one’s ability to learn and retain memories.

When we talk about sleep, there are really only two types of sleep: 1) Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, also called “dream sleep, which produces brain-wave activity similar to when the brain is awake. 2) Non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep, during which the brain produces steady, rhythmic waves that differ from both the REM phase and the waking brain. Below is a snapshot of my sleep, which is divided into awake time, REM, light and deep sleep. I got a 7h 57 min of sleep, which was divided into 1h 50 min of REM sleep and 2h 50 min of deep sleep. Pretty decent!

My resting heart rate tells me, whether I have been good or bad. A high resting heart rate indicates I ate my dinner too late, drank alcohol or perhaps a lack of exercise during the day. It makes me conscious of my behaviour in the late PM. Another thing I worked on is to track and improve my REM sleep. I have done all sorts of things which includes lowering the room temperature, sleeping with a mask, not drinking alcohol, and eating magnesium before going to bed, etc. It is a fun hobby for me to look at the data and see how I can improve it.

Did you know:

  • Sleep is a time of memory consolidation, brain and neurochemical cleaning, and cognitive maintenance
  • 40% of people get less than 7 hours of sleep per night (people need on avg. 7 – 9 hours of sleep)
  • 30% of adults have a hard time falling asleep, and about 10% meet the diagnostic criteria for chronic insomnia
  • A 30 min nap can reverse the hormonal impact of a night of poor sleep
  • Pulling an all-nighter results in cognitive impairment equal to 0.1% blood alcohol level – equal to being legally drunk

The key to a good night’s sleep is to practice a good sleep hygiene. Here is my recipe for a good night’s sleep, which seem obvious at first hand, but is hard to follow:

  • Stick to a schedule of sleeping and waking times every day
  • Avoid heavy meals, caffeine and alcohol at night
  • Dim artificial lights, turn off all your screens 1 hr before going to bed
  • Keep your room temperature low at night (e.g., 16-19 degrees Celsius)
  • Make sure your room is pitch black (e.g., dark curtains)
  • … other minor tips and tricks:
  • Use a silk eye mask and ear plugs
  • Restrict apps from 11pm-7am (screen time > downtime and app limits)
  • Meditate for 10-15 min before going to bed
  • Download the app Flux for your phone and laptop
  • Get a wake-up light alarm clock (e.g., Philips wake-up light)

Furthermore, I highly recommend Matthew Walker’s book “Why we Sleep”. It gave me a good understanding of the wide-ranging negative effects of sleep deprivation, and it made me prioritize counting sheep. If you are living a busy life and want to have my key take aways, feel free to comment below, and I will get them straight to your inbox.

My 2017-2018 Global Shaper curatorship in review

A year has passed since I was elected curator of the Global Shapers Hub in Copenhagen. This year was without a doubt one of the riches years in terms of encounters with beautiful, passionate and driven people.

Our Global Shapers Copenhagen hub grew with 11 new, bright and talented people from Copenhagen, Harare, Medellin and Oxford. Together we hosted an Unleash Lab shaper meetup, gathered 20+ Global Shapers and Young Global Leaders (YGLs) from all over the world, and we held a Nordic Retreat for 20+ shapers from the Oslo and Helsinki hub. We supported smaller organizations in the Danish society, such as Enable for Life, and we have found new areas/projects that we will continue to pursue, Kids of Holiday, Impact Investing and SoMe free day.

When I look back at my pictures from 2017-2018, I mostly see photos of shapers from all around the world. I feel so fortunate to have meet so many strong and determined individuals, who all want to make a positive change in this world.

First, I went to Kiev for a Ukraine Discovery Tour, and what an amazing and unforgettable experience. Well done Olha, Olga, Max, Darius and team! Not only did we hear about and experience the thriving IT startup environment, THE ANTONOV 225 (worlds biggest plane), we also got an insight into the violent revolution that happened at Maidan just a few years ago. It was inspirational to see the young population and their devotion to the nation to help it thrive and shine even brighter.

Second, UNLEASH was held in Copenhagen, and it lured lots of Shapers to the beautiful city of the little Mermaid and the freetown of Christiania. The family was gathered again, at rooftops, billboards, and any smartphone/360 camera (Binit and Nicholas)!

Third, the Annual Curators Meeting in Geneva at World Economic Forum’s headquarters. We were divided into tribes, and Schwabs Minions were my favorites! Again, an intense, meaningful program with amazing people from more than 100+ countries gathered in one place!

Fourth, Shape Europe in Milan, where our dear Milano shapers had created a four-day program on Sustainability. Here, the focus was on how we could turn ideas into actions, and people from Al Gore climate reality training came to train us. Besides from saving the world, we also had plenty of time to eat delicious Italian food, get to know each other and the city (nightlife).

Fifth, Yerevan. Where do I even begin? This was one of my highlights as a shaper. The hospitality in Armenia is out of this world. Thank you so much for hosting me! Beautiful country and landscape, and the music was ridiculously good. The deep conversations and thoughts shared were priceless, and it was an experience that changed my perception of my passport privilege.

Countless meetups over the year, thanks to Global Shapers Manama in Bahrain for hosting and showing us around in your beautiful city! Thank you Javad for hosting a conference in Oslo and gathering all us shapers in Europe. Thanks for an amazing NYE in Sri Lanka Javier, Dani, Anja, Emi and Alex.

Thanks Renard being such a superstar, so Giovanni and I end up in one of the biggest newspapers in Malaysia. Thanks for the meaningful conversations, crashing our workshop in Copenhagen and the adventure in Munich, David! Thanks for putting up with my last minute spontaneous meetups and long talks about presentation techniques and everything between heaven and earth Balázs! Simon, thank you for checking in with me to see if I am still alive, happy and crazy – I really appreciate it – and of course all our fun adventures (four countries in one year?) Taejin, my favorite Korean! Thanks for showing me around in Seoul and taking me to various puppy cafes, for the gangnam style dances at WEFs HQ and introducing me to drones! Thanks to all the wonderful shapers that came to Copenhagen to say hi. You are always welcome to visit me, and I would be happy to take you on a tour around the city!

Moving forward, I set the intention to create many more new memories with all of you guys, shaper or not! I am looking forward to Shape NA in Sacramento in August, and I am sure the new year is going to be just as amazing as this one. Now, I will hand over the baton to my dear Christina. Hope you will have an amazing year as the new curator at the Global Shapers Copenhagen hub. I know that the hub is in very good hands with you!

Life is all about creating new memories with people that you love. What are you waiting for?

Post South Korea thoughts

Woo, what a journey, what a joyride!

I spent the last 10 days in my birth country Korea, where I was invited to speak at Korea’s most prestigious conference, Asian Leadership Conference, together with my friends from MIT Bootcamps Andrew Ngui, Ning Shirakawa and Sungwon Yang! Not only did I get a chance to inspire people and talk about Relationship Building, I also got to stay at my (Danish) family’s house, meet shaper friends and visit the orphanage, where I spent the first 2.5 months of my life!

I decided to extend my stay with one week, as Chosun Ilbo, Korea’s biggest newspaper, wanted to feature my story and help me find my birth family! As some of you may know, I have tried to find my birth parents without any luck. With more than 10m views, I hope my story will reach my birth parents.

These days have been truly mind-boggling, and I am so grateful for my life, my family and friends! Thanks for all your support!

Navigating the World with New Opportunities

I am super excited to announce that I am going to be a speaker at the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul! I am very grateful for the opportunity that was provided by Andrew Ngui and the MIT Bootcamp community. The conference brings global leaders and minds together to discuss issues that affect people in Asia. Together with Sungwon Yang and Ning Shirakawa, we will be sharing personal stories and best practice frameworks on entrepreneurship. The theme is “Globalization in crisis – Navigating the World with New Opportunities”, and I sincerely hope that we can inspire the people and help build a new strong generation on entrepreneurs, dreamers and doers in SK.

More details about the event can be found here: http://www.alcchosun.com/ – See you in SK peeps!

Lessons Learned from being a Digital Nomad for 21+ months

After traveling 21 months as a digital nomad in 30+ countries on five different continents, I am now returning back to Copenhagen. Looking forward to reconnecting with my family and friends in Denmark and welcoming overseas friends to Denmark!

It has been an amazing journey, I want to say thanks to all the wonderful people I have met on my way. Thank you for inspiring me, thank you for being there for me, thank you for making me a better person.

I tried to jot down some key lessons from my travels:

  • Passport privilege: Being able to travel, live and work almost anywhere in the world is truly a gift. It is something you might take for granted until you meet someone who cannot travel as freely as you. I am especially thinking of my friends in Bangladesh. I spent a couple of months in Bangladesh in 2016, and I had this discussion with my Bangladeshi friends. With a Danish passport, I can travel to 156 countries without a visa, whereas a Bangladeshi passport grants travel visa-free to 35 countries. Freedom of mobility is limited to the passport. As grateful I am for the opportunity to travel, as frustrated I am for the ones who do not have the same possibilities.
  • Minimalistic lifestyle: I really do not need that many things in my life. Living with the bare necessities gives me more freedom. Essentially, everything that I can fit into my hand luggage is all I need. (Unless you go to Burning Man, then you need a tent, food, bike, tutu skirts, sleeping pads, food, rebars, sleeping bags, LED lights, food…)
  • Relationships come and go: Traveling around the world means meeting new people and parting with them. It is all about enjoying the time together, creating new memories and most importantly being present. Even though everyone is moving in different directions, I strongly believe in “See you soon” rather than “Goodbye”.
  • Disconnect to reconnect: Bye bye world. I spent 10 days on a silent meditation retreat in the mountains of Nepal. I did not have a eureka moment, but I found an inner calmness that I carry with me every day and remember in stressful times. I can highly recommend pulling the plug for a couple of days if your current situation allows you to do so.
  • Intuition is a superpower: My gut feeling is always right. I need to listen more to it.
  • Global Shapers Community: I love you guys! 

For the lazy ones:

  • Be present
  • Be grateful for what you got
  • Be love

As a millennial, I grew up in an electronics-filled and increasingly online and socially networked world. It is truly amazing, and I see Facebook, LinkedIn etc. as great tools to keep in touch with everyone. However, for the next couple of months, I will minimize my screen time, and be less responsive on various social media channels. Why? Well, there are two reasons. First, new career move, second, living more in the moment.

A Van with a Plan

To be honest, I spend most of my time sitting in front of a computer screen. I can easily sit there for 13 hours straight, only to leave for food and, ahem, other necessities. I do not mind, I actually kind of like it. Though I felt that I needed to use my two hands and my civil engineering degree. Two years ago, I started with my creative Mondays. Every Monday, I would do something totally unrelated to work and my studies. Activities such as dancing, painting (the colorful background photo is my creation), writing with my non-dominant hand, woodburning, and volunteering were on the agenda. All of these projects were fun and meaningful to me, but I was seeking a bigger challenge. I wanted to create and build something with my own two hands.

This year I have traveled quite a lot and every time I needed to find accommodation, food and be dependent on public transport. Finding accommodation and being dependent on public transport is always a hassle to spend time and energy on. How can you solve that problem? You talk to a friend and you decide to build a camper van togther. Total self-reliance. YES!

How do you build a bad ass camper van?

You partner up with a friend, ask YouTube and Google for advice and then you build it together. The van conversion was inspired by the Barefoot Theory, and my friend planned out the whole footprint of the van. We built everything from scratch and one month in, we drove to Tüv Nord to get the van registered and approved as a camper van. SUCCESS!

What did I learn from this process?

  • YouTube is your best friend and everything is possible. You can literally find everything you need on YouTube. From “How to Sew a Zipper in a Mattress”, “How to lay click-on flooring” to “How to Install Gas Pipes in a Kitchen”. All the problems you encounter are not foreign at all – others have experienced just the same as you. I must admit, it is somewhat a trial and error process. Especially, when you have carved out a hole in the kitchen that you definitely should not have. Re-iterate, re-iterate and there you go! I can now add a bunch of new skills to my resume. Able to master a spatula; can paint to perfection; can design, tailor and pick the perfect fabric to your furniture; and the list goes on.
  • Establishing routines is GOLD: Waking up and going to bed at the same time work wonders. Every morning, I woke up at 7:30, and went out for a run. At 8:00, I was ready to get breakfast, and at 9:00 my friend and I were in the garage working on the van. We would finish around 23:00 in the evening. I would read for half an hour and then go to bed before 00:00.
  • Audible (audio books) is brilliant: The radio plays the same music over and over again, and I think Despacito aired four times on average per day on various radio channels. I quickly shifted to audiobooks, and I really enjoyed the “double learning”.
  • 5.4 square meters is all you need: In the van, you have a kitchen, living room, bedroom, shower, toilet, heater, fan, 5x solar panels, battery, 60+30L water tanks, cabinets, and gas tank. All my bare necessities could fit in the space. I even took my penny board!

& & 

See you later folks!

My daily reminders

1) Give up on the unhealthy lifestyle
– Eat healthy and exercise
2) Give up on the short-term mindset
– Set long-term goals and make good habits
3) Give up your excuses
– Own your life and be responsible for it
4) Give up the fixed mindset
– Acquire new knowledge and learn new skills
5) Give up multi-tasking
– Be present and fully committed to one task
6) Give up saying yes to things that do not support your goals
– Sacrifice instant gratification, say no to others, yes to YOU!
7) Give up on toxic people
8) Give up your need to be liked
9) Give up dependency on social media
– Direct time towards things that enrich your life

(Inspired by Zdravko Cvijetic)

Startup life vs. consulting

I want to live in a world where freedom of choice is uninhibited and people have equal opportunities to realize their dreams.

How do I make sure that I advance towards my promise and the above-mentioned vision? I believe there are three options: Consulting, a startup or joining a startup. There are benefits and drawbacks to all options. First, I thought a lot about consulting. In this field, I will be able to work on different projects and for different companies. There are clear work procedures and structured, and I will be among talented colleagues. When I look into the startup world, I know I will have more responsibility, and I will be able to have an octopus role (widespread area of different tasks).

Several of my friends who were consultants left their job to build their own businesses. I guess it is not a surprising move, as consultants, as well as entrepreneurs, share same similar traits:

  • Leadership: Consultants manage different teams to achieve a common goal. Entrepreneurs must lead and motivate others in order to deliver a certain vision.
  • Interpersonal and communication: All my friends who are consultants are excellent communicators. If one wants to be a successful entrepreneur, it is vital to be competent in all types of communication in order to sell one’s vision to others.
  • Negotiation: People with consulting experience generally have strong negotiation skills as they deal with different clients with different goals, requirements, and personalities. An entrepreneur must be good at negotiating with all types of people and stakeholders in order to run the business.
  • Optimism and persistence: Consultants are generally known to be go-getters and high-achievers, and they are very persistent in their behavior. I see the same trait in my entrepreneurial friends. The eternal persistence and optimism, both during good and bad times.

Enough Sunday reflections for now… Happy Easter everyone!

MIT Bootcamp x Trashnology

What a week! It is amazing how many things you can get done once you gather six brilliant minds and work 20 hours a day. It is definitely not a sustainable way to work that many hours a day, but it definitely works out for a shorter period.

Let’s take it from the top with some facts about the MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp: 6000+ applications, 123 persons admitted, 5 days, 12 hours of sleep (in total), 6 people in one team, 100 solutions (to one problem). 5 pivots, 1 final presentation!

What is my key take away from this week? It is all about the team! We were a team of six, and we worked on a concept similar to my project Trashnology.

What if we could incentivize people from developing countries to pick up their trash, and give them money in return for the trash collected? Not only will we clean up the earth, we will also give everyone an opportunity to earn their own money!

The idea is still just a concept, but I do truly believe there is a market for it. We did plenty of research on the topic, and we even had an expert in waste management on our team! The next step is to find the right market to launch the product in. We found out that Sierra Leone (targeted marketed) has a great potential in terms of impact, but might be difficult to implement the idea. Next step is to find a feasible market for Trashnology and co-founders! Hit me up if you are keen on working with Trash.

#FromTrashToCash #Trashnology #trashtag

Danske Idéer Final Pitch

The challenge: Come up with a moonshot idea to help mitigate climate change (+ it must have a positive impact on 1 billion people). Easy.

I sat down and did a quick brainstorm. Solving climate change is not really my domain, as most my ideas are oriented towards people and how we can improve their lives. I looked into the meat industry, and how much resources it actually takes to produce one patty. Then I looked into plastic pollution and especially ocean plastics, and how it affects our world. It is such a great initiative to clean up the ocean for plastics, but it does not really solve the problem we have with platics today. We need to dig deeper and talk about human behavior in terms of usage, consumption, and disposal of it.

I clearly remember the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh and in Kathmandu, Nepal, where all the trash is just laying around in the streets. It was really terrible. I needed to solve that problem, but how? I spent quite some time to come up with a sustainable for-profit model! I came up with the idea Trashnology – an incentivized waste management system. People in developing countries collect trash in the streets and get paid per kilo for the waste collected! Not only do we clean up the streets, we also try to nudge people and incentivize them to recycle/clean up for money! We do it to some extent in Denmark with our deposit on plastic bottles. What if… we could use the same model in developing countries and on other plastics too!

I believe this is an idea that can impact our environment and help millions of people in developing countries. I now have my idea for Danske IDéer, now I just need a lot of data and validation from Bangladesh for the idea.