In Pursuit of Life

Although to the general public in Switzerland Cedric Waldburger is most well known for his appearance in a documentary about minimalism, Cedric is so much more than the 64 items he owns or the fancy youtube videos he posts of working from a beach in Bali. Cedric started his entrepreneurial career at the age of 14, when he founded his first website development and design agency. This was followed by his involved in a variety of start-ups from fintech to food to blockchain, as both founder, investor and/or early employee. In this very open conversation, we discuss work, life, task management, fasting, minimalism and a lot more.

Ruben van Zwieten is a reverend and social entrepreneur, who set-up a house for encounters and inspiration in the center of the financial districts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. With this movement he has inspired leaders to reflect on modern times. In the media Ruben was named one of the top most influential people of the future in the Netherlands. Also in his preaching Ruben is not like most reverends, telling us that the bible is not about truth but are stories to inspire. We will extensively discuss the power of stories, why you should read and know some fiction by hart and how to life a purposeful life.

In this “polar expedition” special, we will discuss Vegard Ulvang’s lessons from the South Pole, Northwest Passage and Greenland. We dig deep into how Vegard pulls together his teams, manages extreme risk and focuses when it's crucial to success. With three Olympic gold medals under his belt, building and selling the successful clothing company 'Ulvang' to Swix, as well as being the president of the International Cross Country Federation FIS, Vegard truly is a man of many talents.

Alan Frei is a Swiss serial-entrepreneur, who currently dedicates all his time to Switzerland's favorite sextoy webshop: Amorana. Previously, he founded several other companies as well as the start-up Center at the University of Zurich. Alan himself tell us that he is a "serial-failure", which might be one of the reasons behind his eventual success. Besides being an entrepreneur, Alan thinks critically how to organize his life. This made him decide to have a radically minimalist lifestyle. Among many other things, we'll discuss with him what is important in deciding what business you want to build, why less is more in a minimalist life and Alan's favorite books. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

Simon Douw is always exploring, when undertaking a solo expedition to the North Pole but also in his daily life when he is exploring the nature of his relationships and how these form the key to growth. Simon is an entrepreneur and has started the first crowd-funding company in Europe about which he also has written a book. In this episode we cover a wide-range of topics: poetry, decision making and why and how Simon walked off the beaten path, the meaning of success, why your team should talk to a psychologist and why Simon no longer believes in personal development. 

On our second episode our guest is Ma Anand Sheela. As a teenager she came into contact with the Indian guru Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh and become involved in his Rajneesh movement. She quickly rose through the ranks and became the personal secretary of Bhagwan and president of the Rajneesh Foundation International. In that role as a 26 year old, she became responsible for establishing the commune in the USA which meant building an entire city for thousands of followers in the middle of nowhere.

In Pursuit of Life tells the story of people that live non-standard lives: from science to politics, from adventure sports to art and from entrepreneurship to social movements. The show unravels the principles, motivations and ambitions of people that chose to lead a non-standard life, so you can apply the elements you like to your life. On our first episode our guest is Lucas Schröder. After first working at a start-up and a corporate, he decided to change course and pursue a different passion: offshore sailing. He competed in the Mini Transat, a race crossing the Atlantic Ocean, twice. Apart from being involved in a number of sailing initiatives, he now is a performance coach and helps people be successful in and outside of their careers.