stories of a journeyman

A short time after I returned to Germany from my journey, I was asked by TEDxBerlin to be a speaker in their conference “Crossing Borders”. End of November it finally happened to take place.

For two weeks I had been planning, writing, re-writing and practicing. The evening before TEDxBerlin’s event “crossing borders” I attended the official final rehearsal to see how my talk goes.
I totally screwed it up. Forgot to talk about entire parts, talked way too detailled about other unimportant parts and crossed the limit of 18 minutes.
I was a nervous wreck. “I am not built for that” was what I thought.

But when I left the stage, John “maddog” Hall, the Godfather of Linux and open source software legend came to me and said:
“I wish I had met someone like you after I graduated from college to tell me about a self-determined life. I could have cut years of corporate crap and directly start doing what I love.”

The night before the event I slept well and did the talk the next day without major blackouts.

Thank you Maddog for your kind words. They helped me a lot.
Thank you Ole Tillman for being an incredible coach and thank you TEDxBerlin for this opportunity.

Greetings from Zimbabwe ( yeah, I thought it would be easier to write the book here. Best decision! )
fabsn

photo collage of TEDxBerlin “Crossing Borders” – click to enlarge

Here’s the event description and my favourite talks from that day. All videos can be found here. Information about all speakers here

“What limits and borders are we faced with as individuals, as a society? Who or what defines these boundaries? What are the results of these demarcations – demarcations as barriers that may even result in scientific and artistic limitations to us as individuals and society as a whole? Are they arbitrarily defined borders or are they erected due to their necessity? Are they obstacles or are they beneficial? And what happens if we overcome these borders?” – TEDxBerlin

Diana Nyad – Dare to Dream

John “Maddog” Hall – Borderless Development via Freedom Culture

Michael Poliza – The Power of Wilderness – How Leaving the Comfort Zone Can Heal the Soul

Carolina Gonzalez-Bunster – From Goldman Sachs to Walkabout: Forging My Own Way

A graphical journey through TEDxBerlin’s event “Crossing Borders” by information architect Mathias Weitbrecht. – click to enlarge