Me Being Born Three Times: The Brazilian Launch of “The Inner Philosopher”

As a prelude to this year’s global Horasis Meeting, I was on the panel as the awesome Professor Marinoff launched the Brazilian edition of his and Daisaku Ikeda’s book, “The Inner Philosopher”, at the palace Anchieta in Vitória, Brazil. On stage, I had the honour to share a deeply personal story—a life marked by not one, but three distinct rebirths. What does it really mean to be “reborn” multiple times? Well, here’s one version😉

THE PRELUDE

The Honour

As the hors d’oeuvres to this year’s global Horasis Meeting, I had the honour to sit on the panel before some hundreds of ministers, CEOs, professors, and even a princess, for the Brazilian launch of the book The Inner Philosopher. 

The book is a masterpiece, previously published in 26 languages, in which the legendary Professor Lou Marinoff and the equally legendary Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda (in memoriam) highlight philosophy as a source of wisdom and courage for everyone. 

Figures like Lao Tzu, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, and Aristotle are shown to be as relevant today as they were over 2,000 years ago, offering guidance for overcoming life’s challenges and discover opportunities for positive change. 

And now, it was time to introduce this work to the vibrant country of Brazil.

The Brazilian Launch

The Brazilian launch took place at the outdoor patio of the charming palace “Anchieta.” After a short opening speech from the governor of Vitória, Renato Casagrande, Professor Lou Marinoff said a few words about the late Ikeda and their dialogue in the book. Each of us on the panel then had the honour to add some meat and blood to the philosophical skeleton, by illustrating the importance of philosophy in our own lives and careers.

The adorable attorney Elysangela Rabelo shared an incredible story about her impressive life’s journey, and how philosophers like Nietzsche and Spinoza helped her move forward and upward. The fantastic futurist Benjamin J. Butler told us how his base in Asia for 22 years had rendered him a long-term practice of Zen and the Dao, and how these philosophies had guided him through life.

After that, it was my turn to tell in what ways philosophy has impacted me and my life. And those ways have been many. And those ways actually brought me three lives, to be born three times. More about those lives below 😉

1) PHYSICALLY BORN – A WILD HAPPY CHILDHOOD 

Physically, I was born in New York as an extremely happy and energetic kid, a blend of a Swedish mother and an American father. Growing up with my mother, with a happy childhood first in Spain and then in Sweden, I was, as a teenager, not a school nerd but an equally happy and energetic mischief-maker, mostly running around the streets looking for new “adventures”—full of parties, girls, and fooling around in the city.

It could all actually have gone more wrong than it did. Luckily, I was not only nurtured by a loving family but also shaped by professional theatre, singing, and dancing on one side, and competitive boxing and disciplined martial arts on the other. If there was any embryotic spiritual direction, the latter got me introduced first to Norse mythology, and then Miyamoto Musashi, to the degree that I at one point thought I was Shintoist. 

All until I at 17 met my father for the first time (there had been a split when I was a baby, until he found me with a detective during my wild teens), and he told me I was 1/8 Cherokee… which of course made me study Manitou 😉 (which/who I still honour).

But these were all youthful adventures; I was a happy, energetic, somewhat mischievous boy who loved party, girls, and having fun in the city. But apart from being an adventurer, I was also a smart adventurer – at least in the street-smart sense of view. It thus happened that I by the age 19, had started my first business. And it just happened that I made my first million the same year – continuing even more intense from there.

There was a storm coming, and I was that storm.

2) INTELLECTUALLY BORN – THE WESTERN WAY

A few intense years later, my grandfather, who was the person I respected most in my family (he more or less “was my father” until I met my real one), told me to get an education. By then my entrepreneurial triumphs had led me to understand I was the smartest person in the world, and I was just going to the university to get a paper proving it.

The Intellectual Rebirth 

Once I got to the university, though, I got an intellectual smack on face—I hadn’t really understood anything.

After fast taking dual degrees in data statistics and business, I entered the PhD program. Once there I was fortunate to, among others, be mentored by two exceptional professors, Bo Anderson, and Gunnar Olsson. Before we began any data experimentation or scientific investigation within business administration, we were required to study classical philosophy. 

It was during this time that I got to know Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Machiavelli, Kant, Hegel, von Wright, Nietzsche, as well as the big ones within social psychology, along with dudes like Bourdieu, Giddens, and Habermas.

And I think that’s when this little energetic and happy boy was born again, intellectually this time.

I actually felt so reborn that I couldn’t understand how I had even been thinking before, to the degree I went to apologize to a bunch of friends who had me for advice over the years – even offering them a “redo” advisory if they wanted. 😉

The Competitive Advantage 

This intellectual foundation has stayed with me throughout my life. Like other entrepreneurs before me (perhaps most explicitly the intellectually well-structured Reid Hoffman), it’s helped me to think clearly and sharply. Combined with my early deepdive into data, I think it has given me a competitive edge that has contributed to whatever success I may be accused of having achieved.

This was especially true when, mid-career, I got my adored twin boyz, and rather immediately shifted from being a highly commercial entrepreneur (eCom, digital marketing, mobile gaming) to a philanthropist (running an NGO assisting refugee children across 17 locations in Europe and the Middle East). Allt to finally “come home” as a genuine entrepreneur in what I call “ethical pragmatism” —a hands-on philosophy I’ve continued to practice as a social entrepreneur (e.g. EdTech, HealthTech, CleanTech).

3) SPIRITUALLY BORN – THE EASTERN WAY

Having travelled to 65 countries, worked in 25, meeting billionaires, royalty, high-ranking ministers, professors, artists, and influencers, I am usually not easily starstruck. Yet while on this intellectual journey, I happened to meet Professor Lou Marinoff in Kitakyushu, Japan, and…. 

BAM – I actually got starstruck. 😉

The Philosophical Healing 

More than a decade earlier, I had reviewed and promoted Marinoff’s book “Plato, not Prozac!” in some articles and used his work within Philosophical Practice” in seminars for one of my pioneering startups within HealthTech (at the time the biggest in Sweden, with one million users).

So, when the Horasis president, the legendary Frank-Jürgen Richter told me Professor Marinoff was at the Japanese Horasis meeting, I approached him, feeling again like that little energetic, happy kid. And of course, Mr. Marinoff turned out to be even more inspiring in person than in his phenomenal texts. 😉

As we discussed some of the philosophical perspectives on the world’s challenges, it just happened that Lou noticed that my philosophical grounding seemed a little skewed to Western philosophy. He asked how much Eastern wisdom I had internalized, and if I was sure I hadn’t missed anything here?

The Dao at Klong Dao 

With previous work in Seoul, a company in Singapore, development in Ho Chi Minh and Da Nang, content management in Cebu, with total understanding Asia is taking over as the centre of globla gravity, and investors not only in the EU and MENA but also scattered over ASEAN, I felt somewhat embarrassed not having a satisfactory answer to Lou’s question. 😉

Reflecting on my childhood fascination with Musashi and later professional reliance on Sun-Tzu-related strategies, I decided to pursue the question as a challenge. I secured some months off the grid, and brought my woman and my beloved boyz to Asia. With the kids in school (and my woman in distance work spiced with yoga), I dedicated my total self to combining martial arts with the inner arts.

First, I got up at 5 AM, and trained hard core Muay Thai for two hours each morning (before it got to hot), followed by a short swim in the ocean and meditation at the beach. After intense sparring, I was then entirely at rest—100% present, or mindful if you prefer. In this spiritually pure state, each day, I sat on the beach—aptly named “Klong Dao”—for at least two hours, not merely “reading” Marinoff’s The Power of Dao, but truly studying (!) it, immersing myself in the Dao, contemplating for hours, gazing at the sea.

And I think that’s more or less when I was born a third time— spiritually this time.

THE DAO OF DATA

Leveraging micro to macro

This journey was and is of course a profoundly personal one. Enlightenment is a strong word for something that is always more a journey than a destination, but I can truly say the feeling is of being reborn—and this time rather close to that energetic, happy child, perhaps added with at least a pinch of wisdom. 😉

Yet as I have embarked on my own transformative journey, we are collectively entering another one. Apart from the advent of the written word and Arpanet, we are now witnessing the perhaps most transformative journey in human history: the AI-explosion.

When on the verge of such a journey, it doesn’t seem totally out of line to add some actual wisdom to guide such a brutal transformation. On that subject, it isn’t very reassuring when Yuval Harari, in his newest book, summarizes his study of the history of information from the Stone Age to the Silicon Age with the conclusion that “we see a constant rise in connectivity, without a concomitant rise in truthfulness or wisdom.” 

The True Turnpoint

On the other hand, we cannot only acknowledge the deep philoosophical heritage of AI, but – to close the circle – with Marinoff & Ikeda in The Inner Philosopher we become convinced of the fruitful possibility of turning to ancient wisdom, offering guidance to “overcome not only today’s challenges but also discover opportunities for positive change”. 

Aligned with this, I would like to summon us all for what I call the Dao of Data – something, I am quite certain that with proper execution will have an enormous impact, on the entire world, or actually on our entire future as a species.

If the AI-revolution is to reach its full potential for positive change—for heaven rather than hell—we will simpluy need both organic intelligence and artificial intelligence. We will need both man and machine, both yin and yang. 

We need a Humanistic AI, a Dao of Data. 

More of that come. But for now, I settle for thanking you, dear Professor Marinoff. You did not take this journey, neither my third rebirth nor the Dao of Data, but you for sure catalysed it. So, from all of us, thanx 🙂 

* Summarized at Horasis Insights here.