On making peace with the world
I grew up in a small town where a quite conservative outlook on life was, and still somewhat remains, the prevailing mindset. I often sensed some kind of disconnection between my perception of life and the ways I was taught to follow. Yet, for much of my life, I couldn't quite put a finger on it and give voice to my feelings. I constantly found myself crashing against a very hard concrete wall, feeling like a fragile, delicate creature trying to navigate life without the right equipment. I was just unable to handle my sensitivity yet.
I quickly got into the business world, with my father running his own company, and from a young age, I was introduced to entrepreneurship and the art of creating your own story by capturing a need in society. Even tho I had an early curiosity for art and literature, I was conquered by business in the idea of crafting my own path while following the footsteps of those before me—my dad.
After graduating high school with top grades, I chose to get into Business School. I completed a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and later pursued a Master's in Business Innovation in Copenhagen. While I loved studying to expand my knowledge of the world and how society works—since business is, after all, a social science—my academic journey quickly turned into a constant cliché. I was studying these enormous companies, cherished for their ability to grow and conquer the market, yet they weren’t addressing any real needs. Instead, they were constantly creating new ones so they could grow bigger. But what was the purpose of growth? Beyond just growth?
I then ended up in Switzerland, in one of the most prestigious universities in the world and decided to take a course on Ethical Business Innovation. The professor gave us the assignment to reinvent the 7 biggest companies in the world following ethical principles. The result was that none of the companies were making profits, if they were to take decisions to create the biggest benefit for the largest amount of the population—i.e., ethical decisions. So what is this about then? It’s about growth, it’s about accumulating capital.
Is then the capital redistributed? Not quite. So why are we making all of these things? To make money? But where does the money go? To an island in the middle of the ocean. But why? So nobody can touch it but the corporations.
In my ideal version of the world, we would make things for humanity to flourish, not to make more money that nobody really benefit from, and just create unequal power dynamics. But I soon realised that this is just not how the world I live in is functioning at the moment and there’s not much I can change. How do I make peace with a world where the most powerful organizations—those we study, admire, and that influence the majority of us—aren't truly benefiting society and nature? How do I make peace with the world as it is?
Suddenly, I’m back to that feeling of being just a flying creature crashing against the concrete wall.
Over the last year or so, while traveling between Europe and New Zealand, I started realising how powerful our sensitivity can be. While the world is still quite imperfect and often seems to be heading in the wrong direction, our ability to seek our own truth and vocalise what we perceive to be important can be our key to living in harmony. By channeling our sensitivity to create something outside of us that people can connect and resonate with, we may find the antidote to adversities, inequalities, and this scattered lack of humanity.
In a world that at times seems to be losing its human appeal, our responsibility is to keep ourselves alive—to keep being that brave, powerful, small, flying creature. Here, where harmony is found in the chaos.
