Vision Walks / Pigrimages

“None of your knowledge, your reading, your connections will be of any use here: two legs suffice, and big eyes to see with. Walk alone, across mountains or through forests. You are nobody to the hills or the thick boughs heavy with greenery. You are no longer a role, or a status, not even an individual, but a body, a body that feels sharp stones on the paths, the caress of long grass and the freshness of the wind. When you walk, the world has neither present nor future: nothing but the cycle of mornings and evenings. Always the same thing to do all day: walk. But the walker who marvels while walking (the blue of the rocks in a July evening light, the silvery green of olive leaves at noon, the violet morning hills) has no past, no plans, no experience. He has within him the eternal child. While walking I am but a simple gaze.” 
― Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking

One to One Work

I work with a maximum of ten people who are . what I regard as visionary artisans of the future. My clients have included:

Founder of Asia’s version of Burning Man

Silicon Valley and Tech CEOs – such as the Country CEO of one of the UKs top tech firms

One of the world’s top hedge fund managers: I was the sole advisor to one manager who made 500 MM USD profit for himself in a year

A cocaine addict who went on to be a pioneer in addiction therapy

Leaders in the crypto space

One client described my work as ‘curating journeys’ or another friend ‘as a co-ordinator of strange experiences. There is some truth to that. Let me explain below.

Together we work on removing any obstacles within which are blocking your innate creativity, imagination and life force. With the world in so much flux, as we enter the edge of chaos, these are the superpowers of the future – and by coincidence they make us happier as well. Life should be an adventure, an odyssey, and we all need support, a guide who can step in occasionally.

At the deepest level we will work on your

a). holistic intelligence including physical, intellectual, social, emotional, intuitive and imaginative intelligence.

b). Finding your life purpose: what is your soul beckoning to do in this one life?

c). Addressing any crises or obstacles which emerge. I also have experience supporting those with addictive tendencies or substance abuse – I believe that the cause is fear and not living the life which for which your heart yearns.

The journey is the courage to seek the depths; the image of creative rebirth; the eternal cycle of change within us; the uncanny discovery that the seeker is the mystery which the seeker seeks to know.” 

— Phil Cousineau

How It Works

Inspired by my 22 years living in East Asia and the influence of Zen, I don’t have a cookie-cutter model of self-development. Everyone is different and so all the work is honed to the individual and where they are in their journey.

Our conversations might sometimes be informative, but more often than not they will be a dance, where we work together to find answers. As every person is different, every session is different. For those seriously striving for transformation in their life, and with whom I prefer to work, there would be work in between sessions in order to amplify what we do together. My experience is that merely counselling is not enough, it needs to include action. This might include things such as:

• Meditation and awareness exercises
• Reading informative or inspirational texts or books
• Tasks to cultivate the imagination
• Watching other media
• Writing journals
• Self-reflective writing
• Self-designed rituals (under my guidance) to mark milestones in one’s life
• Suggestions to use nature as a way of garnering insight: pilgrimages and Vision Quests. I can curate and guide these.
• Curating other experiences. I will either use my extensive but high quality network to find you the best practitioner or if it’s in my field of expertise lead it myself. There might be specific recommendations to go on retreat, receive body work, meet a Chinese doctor or perhaps attend an ayahuasca or plant medicine ceremony. I have prepared many clients and helped them integrate afterwards from such profound work.

My Influences

My approach is grounded in the experience of my own adventures and fighting my own demons, Eastern philosophy (especially Zen and Taoism), depth psychology and the work of Carl Jung, research on creativity and consciousness, Greek philosophy, Western esoteric traditions, sports psychology and anything else that I’ve found useful. My experience has led me to believe that there are 2 important dimensions to the human odyssey: presence/self mastery and purpose. Sometimes I call it Mastery (yang) and Mystery (yin).

Awareness and Intelligence : Zen Mind, Triathlon Mind

“Keep your mind vast and clear as space, and act as precisely as the tip of a needle.”

Zen Master Seung Sahn

“All the prophets sent from Above have spoken of the death that can manifest in this life, that is the death of the ‘tyrant’ from which the slavery which affects us in this life stems, a death on which man’s first and principal freedom depends.”

Gurdjieff

The tyrant that afflicts us all is the mind of course. They say the mind makes a wonderful servant but a cruel and tyrannical master. One of the key’s to life is self-discipline, and this requires mastery of the mind and the ability to drop old beliefs. My life changed in my mid twenties when I gave up alcohol, red meat and sugar and eventually started training twice per day with an Olympian triathlete. Within five years I was earning several million dollars per year, although money isnt necessarily a good barometer of success. I’ve also learnt a lot from the Zen teachers of Asia, weeks of meditation, and high performance athletes.

If your goal is to lead a meaningful and successful life, then you’ll also need to master or even transcend the mind. 

Purpose: Your Soul’s Code

“Sooner or later something seems to call us onto a particular path… this is what I must do, this is what I’ve got to have. This is who I am.”

James Hillman

“You enter the forest at the darkest point, where there is no path. Where there is a way or path, it is someone else’s path. You are not on your own path. If you follow someone else’s way, you are not going to realize your potential. ” 

Joseph Campbell

I think that their is an innate calling, or song within us all. And I think that this very song IS the purpose of life, as I write in my favourite blog. Joseph Campbell once said “the privilege of a lifetime is to be you.” In this world its easy and unfortunate that we put masks on and attempt copy others.

The epic journey we are truly on is to re-discover ourselves. This is the apotheosis that the sages have alluded to, the discovery that you are far more powerful, creative and compassionate than you thought was imaginable. Rather than some intellectual , therapeutic or executive coaching model I prefer to use the Odyssey or the Hero’s Journey which was well explained by the likes of Joseph Campbell or even Paolo Coello in the Alchemist.

Hire me as a futurist and a dialogue partner about the future. There are two ways I can help you

First I can give you context to the decisions you have to make including investment, giving you my views about how I see mega trends emerging. I have a 20 year track record observing cycles in human behaviour, technology trends, geopolitical events and financial markets, accurately anticipating many global trends and events. I draw on experiences as a former advisor to Chief Investment Officers around the world, a hedge fund manger and a futurist. As a Futurist I am also exposed to some interesting investment opportunities.

Second – more importantly I believe – I can help you cultivate what I call the “Futurist Mindset.”

The World Future Society defines this as:

• Adaptive and resilient in the face of change
• Willing to hold and evaluate multiple possible current realities
• Operating with an understanding that more than one reality can be evaluated simultaneously
• Conscious of how we can use foresight, hindsight, and insight to have more choice
• Empathetic to others and their views
• Interested in the technology advances of the current day, so that we can use technology to our benefit

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“A wise person once said, ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it’. This is particularly true today in these times of great change and uncertainty. Now each of us as individuals are being called to tap into something creative inside us and embark on an adventure to discover a future that in a sense emerges from within.

Benjamin’s life and work experience, living and working in the East and the West have enabled him to integrate multiple points of view and modes of thought and feeling and develop within himself a holistic vision of the future of humanity . At the same time he has cultivated within himself a deeply compassionate and intuitive appreciation for the role that each and every one of us can play in that future, when we discover the light that resides within us and when we have the courage to truly live and shine that light in the world.

As for me, I can confidently say that over the course of several years, Benjamin has helped me both in his capacity as a Coach and a Futurist to re-discover  and rekindle my own light at a time when I thought that it had been almost extinguished. He helped me to bring that light to a new level of illumination and massively scale my ability to share it with others through my work as a technology entrepreneur and venture capital investor.

If you have the opportunity to become a client of Benjamin, seize it with both hands. Its not often that you get to meet a real live Obi Wan Kenobi but that is what you will get if you hire Benjamin and you can be sure that from that moment on, ‘The force will be with you always.’ “

Adam Lindemann
Venture Capitalist, Group CEO, Mind Fund

“I hugely appreciate my sessions with Benjamin. Taking on the Managing Director role for BRIDGE Hong Kong [a consulting firm] was a big gear shift for me and juggling the role and a young family meant I really needed to take the time to reflect on how to make it work, get big picture, get perspective, think abductively and at times get extra support. We needed to make a lot of change and working with Benjamin has really catalyzed this change and my own leadership development. Benjamin is a calm, wise, sometimes unpredictable  sounding board. I love that I am not sure where the sessions will take me but I always know the time and take aways will be valuable.

The learnings, reading advice, quotes, poems, perspectives and suggestions have all been a keen part of the successes I am proud to have achieved over the last 6 months.

I would highly recommend Benjamin’s coaching to anyone looking to think differently, adapt their leadership or future-proof their business in these times of significant change.

Abigail Croft, Consultant
Managing Director, BRIDGE Partnership – Hong Kong”

“Benjamin provided me with deep insight and reflection on my journey to be the best version of myself. His feedback and guidance has been beneficial for me to understand and dig deeper into the meaning of what makes us all unique. “

Country CEO of major Asian Corporation and Founder of major Asia-based festival likened to Burning Man