I’m alive and back on my feet
Greetings from Innsbruck, Austria, where I’m about to MC a great private corporate event focused on the brain (human and machines) for NTT Data. I took my paragliding wing with me and flew yesterday. Stunning scenery.
“I could die in ten years. That’s why I am doing all the crazy things I am doing. There isn’t a minute to lose. We need to do things. We need to laugh. We need to take risks. We need to dream. There is no bigger risk than to leave this planet without having lived what we wanted to live. That’s why I live like this.”
My friend Cyrille de Lasteyrie recently posted (in French) this on Facebook. I could not have said it better.
He inspired me to start writing my newsletter again, after six months of silence. This period where I was not writing felt vacant, like I was somehow dead.
I feel alive when I write.
I only posted on my Instagram @loic; Photos are easier than writing and Instagram has become the only app I use even when I don’t share much.
I have been going through challenging personal times (I know, there are is of course more challenging lives than my own, but you never know what’s behind the nice instagram posts) and I learned a lot about myself as I worked through it. When it’s tough I change more; I am forced by mother Nature and everything she throws at you. Through challenges you can grow and learn and become a better person.
I write again because I am feeling awake again, alive again, myself.
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life”. Steve Jobs
I found this in the app “WeCroak”. WeCroak reminds you of your own death by sending a quote five times a day.
It sounds creepy but according to the app itself “in Bhutan they say contemplating death five times deadly brings happiness”. I have enjoyed the quotes.Here is today’s quote I just got on my phone:
“Death never takes a wise man by surprise; he is always ready to go” — Jean de la Fontaine
Everything dies and everything is temporary. Burning Man dies after a week and we burn memories in its temple.
There was recently a lot of buzz around Banksy’s shredded work. A piece that was sold at auction spontaneously shredded itself after being sold for $1.4 million. I love this metaphor.
Burn or shred your most valuable creation.
It reminds me of Elon Musk who many times invested 100% of his cash into his new company so he had no choice but to succeed.
Cortez burned his ships in the harbor at Vera Cruz. He suspected a mutiny and he removed any chance of escape by the mutineers.
Death makes you go through your fears so you can create again. Everything is possible on the other side of your fears.The positive death movement NY Times story is worth a read if you want to explore more. We should also worry more about the death of our own planet.
As well as writing, creating events also makes me alive. I have missed making events so I recently decided to organize another one. I want to focus on discovering new creations and new leaders. I will use the Leade.rs platform for this; we have a new experiment coming soon that I will share first here in my newsletter.
I want to use online open collaboration to discover and invite the best new speakers on the top current trends. For now you can save the date if you like, it’s going to be small, invite-only (I tend to prefer quality over quantity these days) and non bullshit (I can’t deal with it) and it will be an experiment.
If you’re interested save March 20th — 21st in Paris, more soon.
I want to find again the spirit of my first ever event, LesBlogs, which gathered 200 bloggers from around the world in 2005. We forgot the coffee. There were no booths and few sponsors and therefore simple food. Everyone was so engaged and motivated it was incredible.
I want to create again an event that I myself would be dying to go to; collaborative, innovative, inspiring, creative, and open.
Oh, we started posting every day an inspiring “leader of the day” on the @leaders instagram account. Every inspiring leader there is worth following.
Thanks for reading me!
Loic
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