It’s not about “having ideas” – it’s about “acting on ideas”

July 7, 2016 By Fredrik Haren - The Island Man

The island of Svanholmen, Sweden. Island number 12 (out of 100), country number 10 (out of 25), months number 7 (out of 100.)

“I am going to own my own island!”

That was the idea that popped up in my head in November of 1999.

To buy your own island is a bit of an unusual idea. To decide to buy an island in the end of November would, at first glance, seem like a terrible idea. (You see no-one sells an island in Sweden in the midst of winter! Why would you? No one can come and look at it, because all the boats have been taken out of the water. And even if you could come out to the island it would look gloomy and cold with all the trees lacking leaves and the grass being covered by snow etc.)

So if you want to sell an island in Sweden you do it in the summer.

Everyone knows that and that’s why islands are, generally, sold during the summer months.

That of course, also means that people interested in buying an island do not go looking in the middle of winter since they are assuming that no islands are for sale…

But I did.

I decided to look for islands for sale during winter…

And I found the most amazing, little gem of an island, and with a magical location too – it’s one of the 10 closest islands to Stockholm, less than 20 minutes away from the absolute city centre, yet without feeling like it is so close to the city.

Me and the real estate agent had to rent a taxi boat just to get out and look at the island.

I remember that is was cold, windy and icy on the island – but I just fell in love with it.

In the car going back to town I asked the agent how much the owner would agree to let the island go for, and to my surprise the agent bargained the price DOWN for me. (Turned out he was so un-interested in going back out to that cold, windy place that he just wanted the island sold as quickly as possible…)

I got the island for an absolute bargain.

And I managed to do that because I was the only person who was crazy enough to go looking for an island in the dead of winter. There were no other interested parties…

To me this is the perfect story about the value of not just “having” ideas (“I am going to buy an island”), but to also “act” on your ideas (“I will check if there are any islands for sale in November, and then actually checking that there was.)

The picture of the island you can see at the top of this post is taken from a drone video that I got done this summer.

I was sitting on the island and saw a guy flying a drone on the other side.

“Hm, it would be nice to have a drone video of the island”, I thought.

But having an idea will not make it happen.

Do make it happen we have to make it happen. 😉

So I jumped into my rowing boat and rowed over to the man and asked him if he wanted to fly his drone over to my island and film it.

He agreed but half way to the island the drone stopped.

Turned out the island was too far away for the drones radio coverage to reach.

I thought: “Too bad” and decided to row back.

But half way to the island I got another idea: “Hm, what if I row the guy out to the island?”

I turned the boat around and approached the guy again: “Would you, by any chance, be interested to get out to that island out there and film my island from there?”

Turned out that he did!

He had just bought his drone and was keen on trying different ways of filming.

So for the next 15 minutes he flew the drone around the island creating, what I think, is a stunning video of where I live for two months every summer.

I could have sat on my island and thought: “It would be cool to have a drone video of the island”, but it was the fact that I acted on the idea that made it happen – just like how my acting on the idea of buying an island 19 years ago made it happen.

I guess the lesson here is: acting on ideas makes ideas come true.

Make sure you have a lot of ideas, so many that you can make most of them die because you had better ones – but also make sure that, when the right idea presents itself, you step out of the “idea generation zone” and get into the “make it happen zone”.

I, for one, know I am happy that I did that cold, November day when I got the idea to buy an island – and then acted on it.

ps. (So why, did the previous owner decide to sell in the winter, when he could have gotten considerably more if he had waited till summer? Because it turned out that the previous owner, a rich guy, hated Swedish taxes, and in Sweden (at the time) you paid property tax based on what you owned on December 31st. And this guy just could not stand paying another krona in tax to the Swedish government. It was a matter of principal for him and he did not care about loosing money. I signed the contract on December 30th, paid the property tax, but saved a bundle on buying the island… 😉

(Click to see the drone video that was created for me. (I suggest you watch it in full screen mode.)

Fredrik Haren, aka “The Island Man”, plans to visit 100 islands, in at least 25 countries, on at least 6 continents – in less than 100 months. The purpose of this “World Tour of Islands” is to get a better understanding of the world, a deeper understanding of the people who live here and a broader understanding of life. The island of Svanholmen was island number 12, country number 10 and months number 7.

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Islands visited in 2016

Heritage vs change.

May 18, 2016 By Fredrik Haren - The Island Man

The island of Penang, Malaysia. Island number 11 (out of 100), country number 10 (out of 25), months number 5 (out of 100.)

The password to access the WIFI in the E&O hotel is “heritage”.
I find that funny.

This old hotel founded in 1885 – more than 130 years ago! – has introduced a relatively modern technology – wifi internet access – but to get access to it you have to write the word “heritage” …

According to the dictionary “heritage” means: “valued objects and qualities such as historic buildings and cultural traditions that have been passed down from previous generations.”

And yes, E&O gets many of its guests from tourists who want to experience the old, historic buildings of George Town, the main city of the island of Penang.

The “oldness” is what draws the tourists to the island.

And E&O is an iconic landmark in George Town. Situated just next to the water, and with loads of character reminding visitors of its long history, it is in many ways like stepping back in town to step into the halls of the “Eastern & Oriental Hotel”. In its heydays is was know as “the premier hotel east of Suez.”

In 2008, it was listed as one of Malaysian UNESCO World Heritage Site for its long history as a cosmopolitan city.

And here is where the paradox occurs.

Because the definition of “cosmopolitan” is “familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures.”

So George Town was included into the list of World Heritage Sites (a list of historic buildings and cultural traditions) because of its history of being a city that is “familiar with and at ease in many different countries and cultures.”

Sounds like a paradox to me.

A city open to new ideas from foreign lands is celebrated as a place that should be protected to be kept the same as it has been…

Personally I love the E&O hotel (even if it has lost some of its glamour from the past), and I love the historic sites of old George Town – but I also love the concept of innovation, creativity and new ideas.

To have progress – to make the world better – we need to constantly strive to improve and make things better.

At the same time we need to know when to slow down and protect what we have.

Logging in on the WIFI to write this column while sitting in a very old chair in a very old hotel has given me the dual sensation of inspiration from new technology and inspiration from history.

That is the dual sense of emotions that hit me while visiting the island of Penang today.

Fredrik Haren, aka “The Island Man”, plans to visit 100 islands, in at least 25 countries, on at least 6 continents – in less than 100 months. The purpose of this “World Tour of Islands” is to get a better understanding of the world, a deeper understanding of the people who live here and a broader understanding of life. The island of Penang was island number 11, country number 10 and months number 5.

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Islands visited in 2016

The cities of New York City.

May 9, 2016 By Fredrik Haren - The Island Man

The island of Manhattan, New York, USA. Island number 10 (out of 100), country number 9 (out of 25), months number 5 (out of 100.)

“When I first arrived to New York I did not like it. The first semester was hell, and I just wanted to go back home to Vilnius.”

The words belong to Ruta Kruliauskaite, a Lithuanian woman studying New Media at the prestigious Tisch School on Manhattan.

Her statement surprised me, especially since I knew how much she had wanted to go to New York to study, even leaving a successful career as a event organiser in Lithuania to pursue her dream in the City of Dreams. It also surprised me since I knew that she really liked the course.

But it was not the school that had made her unhappy. It was New York.

I asked her: “Imagine that you somehow were able to fly over all the teachers you have here at Tisch to Vilnius, would the course still be as good?”

She thought for a while and then replied: “No. Part of what makes the school so great is because it takes place here on Manhattan.”

She went on to explain that what had put her off in the beginning was the sheer size of New York. The city is just too big and energetic for anyone to wrap their heads around it.

That is what the people of New York have understood. So New Yorkers tend to specialise, cut out a smaller, more manageable piece of the Big Apple so to not choke by biting off too much.

Every city has different areas that have different characteristics, but I think it could be argued that nowhere is these “cities within a city” more distinct than in New York

China Town, Harlem, Chelsea, SoHo etc.

Same with the creative aspect of the city. If you are into advertising New York i Madison Avenue, if you are into finance it’s Wall Street, if you are into theater it’s Broadway. Or off Broadway.

If you are going to make it there (as the song goes) you have to focus.

This is the magic of New York. All those very nisch things happening here. How you can be invited into a room behind a door to discover magic.

Like when Ruta today took me past the security guard at the Tisch School of the Arts at 721 Broadway.

When I was standing outside the school waiting for her to meet up with me the building looked just like any other building. On the sidewalk was the usual unique mix of New Yorkers with men in suits, homeless people pushing carts, tourists with cameras and young students rushing to class. Fashionable, rich women trying to catch a taxi next to a conservative jew walking slowly next to a FedEx delivery man double parking to deliver a parcel. Noise, stress, hustle and bustle. Human randomness.

And then we step into Tisch and take the elevator up a few floors and step into a different world.

Hundreds of students sitting hunched over computer screens developing the future. I see someone building a arcade game in the workshop, someone else is trying on a dress filled with some kind of electronics. A series of 3D-printers are spitting out some creations.

In the elevator we meet a guy with a VR-helmet and it looks like the most natural thing in the world.

In this small, tiny space high above the streets of New York some of the world’s leading minds in how to creatively use technology are developing our tomorrow.

I tell Ruta about how I had watched a Ted Talk on the plane to New York about a color blind man who have had a camera operated into his head to translate color to sounds that his brain can interpret. (you can watch the speech here.) Ruta replies: “Yes we had him here as a speaker last semester.” It’s that kind of school.

A micro cosmos for a specific area of interest. (In this case new media and new technology)

Walk one block, or one street, in any direction from 721 Broadway and a totally different micro cosmos is hiding behind a different door.

As it happens I also watched another video on my flight to New York which turned out to be about the city I was traveling to. (It’s a 21 hour flight, so I had a lot of time to watch film…)

The movie was “Homme Less” – a documentary about a man who is projecting a life of being a successful photographer in New York, working at the New York Fashion week, for example, but who is reality a home less man, squatting at night in a corner of a roof top, sleeping in a sleeping bag under a tarp and having to use a bottle as a toilet. A fascinating film about how the glittering promise of New York lures people with dreams like a sirens singing to the sea men. A sad reminder of how these extreme silos of New York can create parallell worlds where people fall behind the cracks.

As I leave New York I reflect over the need we humans have to craft out a small part of the world for ourselves in order to stay sane.
How we need to feel that we are part of a puzzle, and how that puzzle can not be so big that we can not see the whole picture.

But at the same time they are all “New Yorkers”.

Ruta might not have loved New York when she came here – because she had not been able to get to know her “sub-tribe” in this city of tribes. But after almost a year here she likes it more and more.

For me the lesson from spending a few days walking through the different parts of New York and talking to everything from bankers to fire fighters is the need to create our own little “me-cosmos”.

Done right you can look at the world using many different perspectives, just like you can use the one camera and get very different pictures using different lenses from fish eye to telescopic.We view the world based in the perspective of our personal preferences, our family, our neighbourhood, our city, our state, our country – and the world. From our culture, our interests and our backgrounds.

We need to carve out our own little nisch, and then – when we have made it there – “we can make it everywhere…

”

Fredrik Haren, aka “The Island Man”, plans to visit 100 islands, in at least 25 countries, on at least 6 continents – in less than 100 months. The purpose of this “World Tour of Islands” is to get a better understanding of the world, a deeper understanding of the people who live here and a broader understanding of life. The island of Manhattan was island number 10, country number 9 and months number 5.

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Islands visited in 2016

The love in faith. The faith in love.

April 24, 2016 By Fredrik Haren - The Island Man

The island of Bali, Indonesia, Island number 9 (out of 100), country number 8 (out of 25), months number 4 (out of 100.)

What do you believe people should be allowed to believe?

I am writing this from the spiritual island of Bali, Indonesia. It is hard to visit this magical island without getting affected by the spirituality that oozes out from it. Everywhere you go you see temples, statues of gods, black-and-white checkered cloth symbolising yin-and-yang and so on.

During this visit I decide to dig deeper into this spirit of spirituality and sign up for a tour called “Local Shamans, Healers & Fortune Tellers”.

Now let me clarify one thing: I am not religious and I do not belong to any religion.

I am an agnostic, which means that I neither believe nor disbelieve in the existence of God.

I do not have proof of any god’s existence, but I am so amazed about the sheer magic of the universe I can not rule out that it was more than just random chance that created it all.

The purpose for signing up was not for me to find “clarity about my life” by visiting a shaman – but to get an understanding about what some people in Bali believe.

My guide Nyoman took me to visit the son of Ketut Liyer – the Balinese medicine man, artist and palmist who was featured in Elizabeth Glibert’s “Eat Pray Love”.

We also got to visit Cokorda Rai, an 80 year old healer with royal Balinese blood, and go the Pura Ulun Danu Batur Water temple (which is on the Unesco Heritage list.).

One thing that strikes you when you visit Bali is the extreme friendliness of the balinese. They just seem happy, content and good. You feel safe, welcomed and calm when you are in Bali – and I think that is a reason why the island has been such a magnet for tourism. (the island of 4 million people see an additional 4 million tourists visit every year.) People like Bali. I think they even like how Bali changes them ever so little to be better people.

So has spirituality anything to do with this spirit of the Balinese?

I ask my guide.

He smiled (they do that a lot in Bali) and said: “Our soul should be as a bowl of clear water. Then it’s easy to see the moon in the reflection. If the water it’s dirty it’s more difficult to see the truth.”

I ask him to clarify this philosophical message about clarity.

He continued: “We believe we have to attract the positive energy from mother earth. Balancing is very important for us in Bali. Balance between human and human. Between Human and God. Between Human and nature.”

The spirituality in Bali is a mix of Indian Hinduism and Chinese influences with messages of yin-and-yang and so on. My guide explained how they both believe in heaven and hell as well as reincarnation.

“We believe in karma. Do something bad and something bad is going to happen to you. Steal and someone will steal from you.’

Learning about the spirituality of the people of the island of Bali got me thinking about faith in general.

I might not be a believer, nor am I a non-believer, but I do believe in the right for people to believe, and that is what this post is about.

With a lot of attention being given to horrifying actions being done “in the name of religion” recently I would like to stand up for the right of people to believe.

Many people are implying that if people of a specific faith do not publicly denounce the monstrous acts done in the “name of religion” then they are somehow supporting the terrorists.

Some want to go further and ban some – or all – religions all together implying that “religion is bad”.

I think that is, frankly, unfair.

All major faiths are based on love and compassion.

Love – like faith – is a powerful, positive and magical force, but like all powerful forces they can be miss-used with disastrous results.

A lot of horrifying and monstrous acts are being done in the name of love as well – committed by sick or troubled souls. (Like, so called, “crimes of passion” where, for example, a jealous ex-husband kills his ex-wife because he cannot stand seeing her with another man). Terrible crimes committed in the name of passion and love – but clearly done as something directly opposite to what those words truly mean.

I do not hear anyone calling for all the people in love to publicly take a stand against crimes of passion, or people calling for love to be abolished as it brings so much sorrow to the world.

Love – and faith – are strong emotional powers that in some instances go terrible wrong. But in most cases are all about compassion, care and empathy.

Criminals should be punished, sick people need help. The root causes of terrorism, and all kinds of destructive extremism should be fought.

But blaming faith doesn’t do anything good, just like blaming love will not stop things like domestic violence. If anything it might direct our focus and energy away from the real issues that are causing these horrendous acts of violence.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of “religion” as institutions. But I am a huge believer of letting people believe in things that they feel is making the world better.

And today – perhaps more than ever – we need people who believe in the positive powers of love and compassion, regardless if that is done in the name of any god or not.

We just need more love in this world.
And we need less hate.
That I believe.

ps. So did the palm reading and healer work?

The very first thing that Cokorda Rai, that 80 year old healer with royal Balinese blood, said to me when I sat down in front of him for my session was: “I awaken your passion for creativity.” Then he patted his finger on my head.

Considering that my passion for creativity has been my center point for the last 15+ years I must admit that was pretty much straight on target. Not bad not knowing anything about me… (Or did he? Or had my guide googled my name after receiving my online application and forwarded some information about me to Kokarda Rai ahead of my meeting with him…? We will never know.)

Fredrik Haren, aka “The Island Man”, plans to visit 100 islands, in at least 25 countries, on at least 6 continents – in less than 100 months. The purpose of this “World Tour of Islands” is to get a better understanding of the world, a deeper understanding of the people who live here and a broader understanding of life. The island of Bali was island number 9, country number 8 and months number 4.

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Islands visited in 2016

Don’t change your mind: Charge your mind.

April 13, 2016 By Fredrik Haren - The Island Man

Rhoda island, Cairo, Egypt, Island number 8 (out of 100), country number 7 (out of 25), months number 4 (out of 100.)

“There are islands in Cairo?”

I got that question earlier this week when I answered “Cairo” to the question “Which is the next island you are going to visit in your island world tour?”

And yes, there is. In the Nile. (Which means, I guess we can call them “Nileands”… 🙂

To access map and read more about the Nilometer click here.

I am in Cairo for work but find time to visit Rhoda Island to go and visit the historic “Nilometer”.

A Nilometer was a “structure for measuring the Nile River’s clarity and water level during the annual flood season. It was a step-like structure that measured how high the flood would be. If it was low, there would be famine. If it was too high, it would be destructive. There was a specific mark that indicated how high the flood should be if the fields were to get good soil.” (Source Wikipedia.)

The Nilometer on Rhoda island is beautiful.

It was build way back in AD 861 and you can just see how important it was at the time. (Today the Nile is not flooding so uncontrollable anymore since Egypt has build damms to tame the mighty river.)

When I see the workmanship, the effort and the attention to detail that went into the building of this amazing structure I am reminded of the greatness of the Egypt of the past. (Like you are over and over again when you visit the pyramids, the temples and the museums of Cairo and the rest of Egypt.)

But at the same time I can not but think about how a country that used to be so great can be so dysfunctional today.

It is almost like if there is a curse on some countries where their once-greatness is stopping them from realising their full potential today.

You would think that someone growing up in a country that has a history such as Egypt would be inspired to want to build his or her country up to glory again. That the parents of these children would work hard to make it happen.

But time and time again when I come to Egypt I get the feeling of the opposite.

It’s like their history is holding them back, instead of pushing them forward.

While here in Cairo I take time to listen to a powerful TED-talk by Wael Ghonim of Google Egypt who was instrumental in creating the “Arab Spring” in Egypt. Wael created a Facebook page that got more than 1 000 000 (!) followers and which got more than 100 000 people to go out and demonstrate to create a new and democratic Egypt in an event that escalated to a country wide uprising towards the regime. At the end Wael got thrown in jail and put in 11 days of total isolation and darkness until his colleagues in Google and Facebook friends got him released just days before Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign.

In his speech Wael talks about how disappointed he was over how the Internet and social media – which had started of as a tool to create positive change – had turned into an instrument that tended to create polarisation.

At the end of his speech he says: “(We have to) make it socially acceptable that we change our minds. Or probably even reward that.”

And then he asks about post in social media: “What if we had a metric about how many people changed their minds?”

I think he is on to something. But I think his insight is much bigger than just social media.

I think that the success of societies, the success of civilisations, is based on their ability to change their minds.

And it is definitely true when it comes to personal success. Realising that what we thought was right is wrong and having the courage to admit it and recalibrate our thinking is what makes us grow.

Regardless if it is something small (like realising that there are islands in Cairo) to something big (chancing your world view or religious belief for example) having the ability to reboot our brains to upgrade our worldview is perhaps the most powerful ability we can have.

To change our minds is not to admit that we were wrong: It’s to show that we know how to be a little bit more right.

Or in the words of the brilliant Winston Churchill: “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often”.

When I see the kids playing in the Nile next to the Nilometer I hope someone is going to send that message to them. Egypt deserves to be great again.

Fredrik Haren, aka “The Island Man”, plans to visit 100 islands, in at least 25 countries, on at least 6 continents – in less than 100 months. The purpose of this “World Tour of Islands” is to get a better understanding of the world, a deeper understanding of the people who live here and a broader understanding of life. Rhoda Island was island number 8, country number 7 and months number 4.

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