2THE ENDLESS JOURNEYS

NGOC HUONG (CHIM)

1. If you want to have something, get it done yourself. If I want to be an expert, I should learn everything about the field to become one. If I want to learn more, I should ask and look around for information instead of sitting at the table and waiting for others to give it me. Active learning will also give me the chance to meet other cool people. It also makes me aware that I need to figure it out myself, I need to link everything I learn. I can find myself by working on a project, meeting people, crying because of fear. All of that is a part of a learning proc-ess that I wasn’t aware of when I was just waiting for others to show me.

2.When people asked me about "what do you want to bring to the world?" and "why is it important?", I always thought that I knew the answer, that it was an easy ques-tion for me. But then I realized, I didn't even know what it means to me! And it was scary! They pointed out the one thing that I was trying to avoid for such a long time: talking about my feelings, discovering the internal jour-

ney.. I was trying to avoid it because it was so much eas-ier to just focus on the external things.. But yes, it wasn't easy at all. It wasn't easy to be a FAKE.

3.Being number two is not so bad. Someone was born to be number one, but someone has the fate to be number two. They are good at being number two and it's pretty awesome. Because number two makes num-ber one look good, number two makes number one number one. We can still be number two and be awe-some, as long as we're awesome, it's fine to be even number three.

The last thing that Knowmads taught me is: never stop being curious and never stop learning. 

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PHUONG LE

It is impossible to decide which task or session was more important or impressive than the other. I really appreciate every single moment in the nearly 2-month program. Power to Flower is the starting point for everyone to look inside themselves. Definitely, it is an extremely unique approach to self-learning with a flower of 6 to 7 petals (tasks). Never be-fore have I used colors and shapes to express and show my deepest ideas as I did on that morning. I felt a strange awe-someness when I looked at my own clumsy pictures, naturally. Another event that stuck in my mind and will never disap-pear is the afternoon in Banana Island when we all rewound the clock, filmed our childhood and then re-exhibited it on an A0 paper and told our life stories to others. Something bad can’t be changed, the past can’t be replaced and facing those moments was another challenge that Knowmads Team 3 gave us. Yes, I told the story of my life to my beloved classmates, those I believe in and admire so much. Listening to those life stories was fantastic, especially on this windy island full of fresh air and mosquitoes. I found myself in harmony with nature and feelings. I saw myself in others and so did they. Yes, that’s why we were there.

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DUONG LEWith my travels and diverse experiences, I think I know what I want to do with my life but apparently I still haven’t found it. I am still one of ‘those’ in the expression “not all those who wander are lost”. I just know that I still use death as my navigator since I want to achieve something that I am proud of once I reach that point. So I will need to experiment more, and this time with serious reflection and commitment. Mercedes said it right, I need to poke my-self and challenge myself with something that I am uncomfortable with. I never no-ticed that, but it is true that life has been easy on me. So what I need now is some commitment, some dedication to follow

one thing (probably) even when it is hard, even when it is uncomfortable. I need some fight, something that I can die for in order to find myself. 

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LINH PHAM Knowmads – the never too late start for passion

My life was just awesome when I found the job I loved and did the fun stuff I wanted. However, I also had my own fear when being urged by my mother with some “life bur-dens” everyone has to do in “Vietnam”. Well, I would say I would love to get married, have kids, take responsibility and do everything. Yet, under such pressure, I got lost for what I should do next, I called it “burden”. I still had a lot of dreams to discover the world and myself. As a result, I still kept searching when I realized I seemed to choose my safe zone with an affordable life with fair salary. Then I found Knowmads that I thought could stir up my life a bit.

Since the first workshop, I learned some interesting things. There were some who quit their jobs or university to pursue their own fire. There were a couple of married women who never wanted to stay still. They still followed their own hearts to dance or run their own business. What about me? I knew I was lost. Still, I believed it would be never too late to find the dream and live your own dream.

What was the common thing in this “mad-hub”? We all wanted to change. We believed all changes start from our-selves. In a 7-week journey, we learn, grow, have fun,

sometimes gossip, tease, hang out and speak crazy Eng-lish. The most common thing in our hub is sustainability, surprisingly. I don’t know what is going to happen after Knowmads. I do believe people will still work with passion and will make an impact.

We were not limited to words as many actions followed. Some workshops were run with good practice and experi-ence for people. Some websites were set up and pub-lished. Some meetings were set up. I don’t think I have to explain more on this part as actions were being taken on all levels.

For myself, I came up with the idea of a book exchange. Books are not really my passion, but my love is to connect people and make an impact. This action was created out of the mission to preserve the reading culture, practice the beauty of sharing, create interactions and save the trees.

Never did I think I could do a project on my own or did I live my way, now something has changed.

It’s never too late to follow your passion

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LILY HOANGWhen I came to Knowmads, my personal goal was to be confident of myself. I always felt that I was below average and was never comfortable with my true self. I usually put my chin down so that people wouldn’t see my face as I felt ugly or I am never satisfied with my achievements, I often think that I could have done better, I should have done this and that. Because of that, there was hardly any happiness in life, overall. I am also the only child, so my parents expect a lot from me, and because of that I have much pressure on my shoulders. It is like I have to be bet-ter than myself, I have to try harder, or I should not feel the way I do. I guess that is why I don't smile that often. When becoming one of the Knowmads students, I real-ized that people here are very open and supportive in many ways, where I can show my weaknesses without being judged or laughed at. Knowmads showed me that I can be whoever I want to be, I can feel whatever I feel and I can show emotions I have. Whoever judges me for that is none of my business. I found out that whenever I feel comfortable with myself without being afraid of being judged, my true personality comes out and this is where my confidence is hiding. I always thought that confidence

can be improved by reading a lot of books, travel to many places or knowing many people. I never thought that it comes from inside the way we see ourselves and the way we value ourselves. From this recognition, I believe that I have made a huge step in self-growth and moving for-ward in my life.

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VAN NGUYENArt of business success – Self-trust & people - trust

A session on finance management in week 5 was quite interesting as it’s kind of what I’ve learnt at university. However, a simple but vital message that I was not taught at university years ago really made me stay fo-cused that morning. It’s about the importance of good communication and the power of trust that determines the success of our business. In fact, it’s especially impres-sive to hear it from a finance professor who was sup-posed to pay a lot of attention to budget planning and effi-cient finance management as the key to business suc-cess. And that once again reminds me of a core philoso-phy of Knowmads which emphasized that businesses are created and run by people and therefore it’s the ability to communicate with people that matters most. In fact, all kinds of relationships in this world such as friendship, companionship, love, brotherhood and business as well are almost all built upon continued open and sincere communication. And   it’s true that self-trust and people-trust are key to open and honest communication.

Crowdfunding, which is introduced as a means of raising funds for start-ups is also a form demonstrating such val-ues. In order to be able to gain enough fund for your pro-ject, it’s important that you trust your own creative valu-able product/service and trust the crowd of potential back-

ers. A dancing workshop fostering the idea of “So you think can dance” organized by Vy, an enthusiastic Know-mad member showed participants that you could do what-ever you want with strong self-trust. Power leverage, which was introduced by Bobby Liu the next day is also based on the idea of trusting people. With leverage, you’re not  alone as you can tap from the strengths of all possible resources around you. Being curious with such terminology, I just googled the term leverage to see which kinds of powers were being exploited and below is a list of seven forms of leverage:

1. OPM (Other People's Money)2. OPT (Other People's Time)3. OPW (Other People's Work)4. OPE (Other People's Experiences)5. OPI (Other People's Ideas)6. Scalable Production & Distribution7. Scalable Customer Base

Hence, just trust yourself, trust the process and trust oth-ers!

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HOAI THU LE“Whatever you have done, it always brings you experiences”

At Knowmads, we had the chance to draw our personal life and share it with each other. When drawing it, I real-ized that many things happened in the past that made me extremely sad, down and disappointed in life. But looking back it all doesn’t seem like a big problem. Especially since I have also learned a lot from it.  

          

It is just very simple that after failing something, we are always sad, feel regret and are scared of taking the next step or start new things again. But we forget that we al-ways learn and get experiences from it. Experiences are not something that we can buy with money but by spend-ing time, hard work and also failure. 

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VO TUAN SONI want to share the lessons from Knowmads Hanoi Team 3 that were the most valuable. Most lessons I learned from here I applied to my daily life.

First of all is empathetic listening. I remember this from when I was doing my first teamwork. It was the Brain-storm and Mastermind session. For the first time, I totally listened compassionately without saying a word. I felt we were sharing respect and encouragement with one an-other. And after listening, we gave feedback, additional ideas and there was no judgment and criticism. This method is amazingly constructive and taught me a lot of soft skill lessons.

Secondly is breathing. This changes literally everything I do. For example, if I talk fast and I notice that I'm not breathing, meaning that I'm talking too much and maybe it can make me listen less. Another example is the mind-fulness process. This helped with my mental and emo-tional problems as I was heartbroken during half of the program. And when I experience all the feelings, I'm start-ing to be aware of what I actually feel, I breathe along and it makes me more complete, even with "negative emotions". And practicing Yoga helped me to learn about breathing as well.

Thirdly is doing small things, or "the elimination of pro-crastination"! I remember the 10 minutes rule that Mer-cedes taught me in the Coaching Cafe: do something for 10 minutes, if you get bored, stop. If you continue doing it, there we go! So by taking small and mundane steps, we can build something bigger and bigger. And there's nothing to hold us back when doing small actions. This changed my whole perspective and I believe that it will help me a lot in my daily life as well.

Fourthly is that I love presenting. Inspiring to change life. Daniel's workshop helped me significantly in this. He made me remember what it feels like to inspire someone by speeches, to inspire someone when I'm on stage. I will master presentation skills and I am going to inspire oth-ers with my speeches.

Fifth is the power of reflection. It reminded me of times I felt vulnerable and of happy times. It helped to clarify my vision, review things and this method can inspire me to do stuff. And I can do it in every way I can, writing, draw-ing, talking and sharing.

I think that's 90% of what I learned. I feel very relaxed and grateful right now that I joined Knowmads.

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KHANH QUYENOne of the most amazing personal lessons I learnt was from the Life Map Session with Ms Phan Y Ly on the Ba-nana Island near the Red River. That was the first time I ever walked on the old bridge over the Red River and it was fantastic. In fact, I was quite afraid of the height, and the cement under my feet seemed likely to be broken. I had never been to that area as well and the air and envi-ronment were so cool, so it was a great experience. 

Actually, before going to the Red River, I thought that if I was forced to share my life map, there would be 2 situa-tions. Situation 1: I would tell the story without my feel-ings, so I could do it fast and without being emotional. Situation 2: I could never finish telling the story as I would cry and could not continue telling. Fortunately, none of this happened. I felt scared when I told my stories, and as expected I spent most of the time talking about my child-hood and only had little time to talk about the rest. How-ever, it was quite okay, I could finish it without crying too much or being too cold. I realized it was not that hard to share my personal stories with other people knowing that they would not judge much and listen very attentively. As

if by magic, I felt a sense of release. It seemed to take away some existing heavy burdens in my heart and my head as well.

I also enjoyed the stories from my team mates. Every time they told their stories, I wanted to add something more into my life map, as they reminded me of my sto-ries. I could find some similar feelings or situations that my team mates have been through so I felt great and comfortable. Well I guess people are more similar than different.  

After the session, I felt quite emotional but at the same time I sensed a great release by sharing and listening to life maps. I could see the stronger connection among the team mates and I am sure that this connection will follow us even after Knowmads. 

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PHUONG LINHI love flowers, absolutely. There is nothing as beautiful as flowers. Their colors, textures and scents are impossible to recreate.

Therefore, I started at Knowmads with curiosity and ex-citement about the philosophy of  “Power to Flower”. The way Knowmads led us to the topic was very approach-able and inspiring. From a natural wonder to self-exploration; from an abstract idea to concrete actions, from organic blooming to project growth, catching my imagination into words and finally shaping everything into my project.

I was struggling to define a stable path for my project.  Multiple ideas popped up into my head simultaneously: consignment shop, thrift store, co-working place, 3rd space… This made me confused since I was unsure with which option I would stick.

However, what I've learned from Knowmads is that confu-sion is a funny process. I spent a lot of time writing down and speaking out all my confusion to Mr Sextl and my peers. I also did more research into what I wanted to end up. This process really encouraged me to have a final and clearer scene in my mind. I realize that the process of going from confusion to understanding something is a precious and emotional experience.

Also, Knowmads always gently "forces" us to "speak from the I", be confident to express what my heart says. Al-ways be authentic with whatever I do and think!

I have never drawn such many flowers before. I felt like a little kid crawling on the floor and creating some personal “art works” even though I am really bad at drawing.

Because I am always enchanted by flowers all my project mapping, my character values eventually turned out to be five & six- petaled flowers with many colors. Growing my ideas was as natural as flower blooming. This engage-ment can be explained by the presence of flowers, trigger-ing my happy emotion and productivity. Obviously, inter-connectedness between human life and natural life is in-deed a gift.

From that point on, I instinctively experienced the whole process of “Power to flower” and I realized that as a very simple organic system, a flower grows thanks to the sun. So do I. I am blooming thanks to highly empathic Know-mads. Somehow and some way I think they are able to step into my shoes, they are always listening and focus-ing when I am speaking, understanding my feelings and perspectives to guide my actions. 

I am enjoying my fruitful journey with my peers at Know-mads

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QUY NGUYENBeing confused and grown up

Being confused is also a part of personal learning proc-esses and I was very happy with my confusion in the session facilitated by Phan Y Ly, founder of Life Art. We learned how to enjoy the pain, anger, or other sensa-tions in life. Probably because every sensation comes to you regardless of your intention or control, so you just need to welcome, enjoy and learn from that, gradually you will know how to deal with it. One-hour meditation was very interesting and I did not think that one hour could pass by so fast. I imagined I was walking around the room to observe other team members meditating and even going out to see other people on the street and observe what they were doing, however at the same time I was still aware of my body lying down in the dark room in Black Box studio. The instructor’s voice re-cording kept reminding us of noticing and being aware of our bodies, but sometimes I felt lost and sank in my own thoughts or imagination. The touching/massage session was also really enjoyable and it brought us even closer to each other’s soul. Phan Y Ly asked us to think of the project pitch while touching/providing mas-sage to our partner, but many of us could not do it. Do-

ing two things at the same time seemed to be really hard, however I did enjoy the session, especially the last massage with the music on. Huong and I were very connected. I was moved in accordance with her touch-ing hands and eventually we seemed to dance together and really connected with each other. Touching is really a powerful way to connect with people's souls.

Life is not always easy and things are not always obvi-ous. However, life is much easier when we learn how to deal with it and especially when we are together. Know-mads is not only a place for us to learn new skills and knowledge, but also a place for us to cry, laugh and hug each other anytime we need. Starting is always the hard-est and I feel thankful because I have all the knowmads with me. I strongly believe that not only during the course time, but also after we will be there for each other in our life and keep moving together on the way to realize our dreams.

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The first thing I realized is that no one is born a genius and your dreams will never come true if you do not lift your ass off the ground. I used to put the blame some-where else when I couldn’t do something. I never real-ized that I did not try. But after participating in team KMHN 3, everything completely changed. You do not have to be superhuman to do the best. Ask others what you do not know, try try and if not, tell someone to do it for you:]] I found out that you will never know the result until you finish your process. The result is not important. It’s all about how you do it in your way. Good process, good result. And do not limit your mind just by focusing on 1 result. Think big, bigger and bigger. Who knows where you are going? It's for you to find out. Your re-ward is not the result but the process of your perform-ance. It does not matter if you win or lose. You will be proud of yourself because you dared to take action and you have grown.

MAC VY

LAN ANH NGUYEN

My most meaningful decision ever was joining Know-mads Hanoi team 3. I'm experiencing my biggest life- changes. I've been waiting and wasting my 10 years of youth to come to this point. 10 years living in fear, wishing for a "ready moment" to touch my dream, to live the life I want to. I knew deep in my heart that I wanted "a thing", but was never brave enough to think that I could do it. I always thought I'm not good enough for that, always just admired others who did it. Then I only dreamed!

Knowmads came to me (or I chose Knowmads) at the very right time. Trouble at my job, my personal life was changing, I found my best man ever, who shares with me the same passion, which to me at that time was just a dream, but he has done it. 

So what is "it"? My dream: live a traveling life.

I almost buried my dream deeply, but Knowmads helped me to dig it up. Starting with Mr. Guido with his power to flower questions through email. I cried when I answered them. Those questions touched me so much. I again saw

my dream so clear and visible. But I was still scared of taking action to make it come true. Then I again cried so hard during my personal coaching with Daniel. He gently asked me questions, made me realize that whatever hap-pened, it will still lead me to my dream. I could make choices: do it now, or wait until I'm older and older and still live in waiting status. I was so scared when I made my choice: do it now. But I did it! And there is no way to express my gratitude to him, to Guido and to the Know-mads' facilitators.

You made me today, be the one I want to be, live the life I love, choose my own journey: a free life, an endless learn-ing life.

Love you much. Love all of us.

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It's not just during my weekend anymore.

My project goes smoothly. With what I gathered in Ja-son's workshop about marketing and Matt's workshop of sustainability, I now have a clearer view on the next few steps I should make and realize there are a lot of things I can add to my project to make it more unique.

Yes, things go smoothly but I’m a huge mess now.

Since long ago I've done my best to block all my emo-tions, I did my best to forget all the painful, embarrass-ing memories, memories that make me look weak, vul-nerable. I turned my back on them and my life seemed full of rainbows and butterflies. I forgot how to deal

with my emotions and I started borrowing others' emotions and used them in place of my own. By that I lost track of what I really feel, what I need, I lost my goal in life. As easily as borrowing others' emotions, I accepted others’ expecta-tions on myself, used them as my goals. But the emotion that I buried didn't just disappear, the fact is they left marks deep in my mind. Although I turned blind eyes on them they affect every decision I make without me knowing it. I kept ig-noring them, I lost control of myself, sometimes I feel like I don't understand the way I respond to things around me. Bor-rowing others' emotions as a motive for my actions and part of me unconsciously drove me away and often led to a bad result. After a while, I lost more confidence in feeling "my emotions" and I tried harder to run further from them. It's just like a loop. After several years, it become a habit, I feel comfortable with burying parts of me.

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HOANG DO

My friend once told me my smile looks fake, I did not think much about that, I just brushed it off with another smile. Many friends feel the fake emotions I show, they think I’m not being honest. I can always feel a distance between us and I can't blame them, even I don’t understand my feelings, how can I be sure my loyalty for them is true? 

It is not a lie that I can completely block parts of my memory. Memories contain strong bursts of emotion. By blocking them, I protect myself from pain, bitterness, embarrassment. When I did the life mapping with Phan Y Ly I drew a lot of blank spaces. I felt like a time traveller, jumping from this time period to others, without a connection between them. I think I did a good job in killing part of myself. Is that why I've never felt complete? Because I've never been a whole person to begin with?

Knowmads guys, thank you for asking me the question that I will never dare to ask myself. For weeks, the thinking process never stopped, it kept my head spinning, pushed things out that I buried deep down. Now it's a mess inside my head. Never have I had a headache like this. I don't worry though. The larva builds a cocoon around itself, inside that, it destroys itself to particles and from that it rebuilds, goes out as a butterfly. I hope the same thing is happening to my head. I love to see the same thing happening to my team mates. I want to see those lovely butterflies emerge from their cocoon.

I know the stuff I wrote might make no sense at all but I don't care, my head is spinning. I just came back from a family meeting too :)

And to my team mates: I read all your blogs. I see that some of you are changing too. I can't wait to see what kind of butterflies are going to emerge from your cocoon.

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YUKI PHANI opened a blank page on my laptop, then closed it. Re-peat seven times. Sent Guus a message. Too antsy to wait. Started to write again.

Weekend 3 had been a wild ride. It started with me all fir-ing up about my project thanks to an extremely sexist comment from a xe-ôm uncle (those who were there for the check-in would know), but it ended with a hammer banging non-stop in my head and a sudden need to burst out crying.

How did I accidentally board this one hell of an emotional roller coaster? At the end of the day, I still had no idea how nor why, but I slowly realized that it was bound to happen eventually. Colloquially speaking, people refer to it as a "nervous breakdown."

This Creature slowly crept up behind me during the Per-sonal Branding session with Jason. It had detected the faintest smell of my crippling self-doubt while I was trying to pay attention to how to build your personal brand, how to communicate with others to deliver your "identity"

along with your "vision." What if I don't have a unique identity? What if my vision is already thousand of other people's vision? What if I have nothing to build this so-called "personal brand"? What if what if what if...

However, the Creature didn't stop at my self-doubt. When I was talking to Ryan about our passions and our pro-jects, the Creature was once again on the hunt. This time, It aimed for all the deepest, darkest insecurities that I had

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about my own project, about myself, about everything I chose to stand for and to believe in. It pushed me to a dead end, where I started comparing myself to Ryan, my passion to his, my project to his: I didn't have as much ex-perience as he had, I couldn't be as passionate as he was, I couldn't be as marvelous as he was, I couldn't be I couldn't be I couldn't be...

I tried to pull myself together, repeating like a mantra: "Everything will be alright, you will be fine." But the motiva-tional speech of Alan Watts was a stab through my ever vulnerable heart, reminding me that I was also a recent graduate, who had chosen a safe but boring office job over finding what I really loved to do, who had chosen money over passion and heart. "You are guilty as charged," the Creature whispered. The first tear rolled down and I just couldn't stop crying.

Questions after questions, negatives after negatives flooded my brain, leaving me with a feeling that I knew so well but had not experienced for a while:

Fear.

The fear of being unoriginal. The fear of being an oh-so common pebble amidst brilliant precious gemstones. The fear of being useless. The fear of having nothing beautiful to offer to this gorgeous, wonderful life.

I was drowning; and somewhere so far out there, or so close right here in the back of my head, the Creature was laughing, thriving on my fears, collecting them like gold coins.

Many hugs from the sweetest people on Earth, a beer, and many snacks later, I found myself sitting with Diep Huong in a crowded bar/pub on Ta Hien street, talking about the Creature like it was nothing at all. I guess all I needed was time and space for myself to calm down, to rethink, and to reevaluate. The nervous breakdown was bound to happen anyway: if not now, then probably tomor-row, a few days from now, or next week. At any time, I could fall. At any time, I could start doubting myself. But if I don't fall face first, or at least scrape my knees a few times, then how would I ever learn to stand up? If I don't question myself, then how would I ever build an even stronger argument that addresses all sides possible? It is all about embracing your vulnerability, and letting go.

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RYAN LLEWELYN-WILLIAMSFor the past 7 years I have devoured anything to do with personal learning and personal development; it became my drug, my escape, my ambition. I read every book, watched every video and read every article I could to sat-isfy my desire to learn more; yet for some reason I rarely felt satisfied, rarely felt happy with my progress and rarely felt like I had truly grown. I became frustrated, starting and stopping randomly with little long term pro-gress. My journey seemed an endless trek through the wilderness of my own mind, often wondering if I was headed to or from anywhere in particular.

I realize now that my goals were so large I could not see the very first steps; my perception of success was so great that I failed to see the little steps that made the journey possible. I often say ‘I want to reach the next

level’; what that next level was I wasn’t too sure I had no role models to bounce ideas off of or to challenge me. I was chas-ing my own tail and the faster I went the faster it escaped me.

The moment I saw the application form for Knowmads Hanoi I needed no push, no deadline, no incentives. I sat down and filled the form out for 4 straight hours. In some cases, procrastination is a sign that we are not doing what we truly want to do. I wanted this.

One of the very first concepts introduced to us at Knowmads was the ‘U journey’; a learning journey that follows our natural rhythms and energy patterns. I had no idea how powerful a concept this would be until well into the course. We all experi-ence highs and lows; an abundance of energy and passion, soon followed by a lull where we feel everything has become a bit too much and we retreat into ourselves. Guus carefully constructed our guest-speakers times, concepts and energies around this rhythm.

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Constructing our learning around these natural patterns al-lows for a state of flow that energizes us, relaxes us, probes us, and confronts us at the times when we need them most. And of course you have to enjoy the process. Nothing is ever perfect, perfectly imperfect perhaps, but learning to love the highs and the lulls, the lows and the burning desires, with equal respect and understanding, we are able to learn from what seem to be opposites of the same mind, your mind.

I have become aware to the fact that falling back into old patterns is a beautiful opportunity to see and remember the progress you have made. You already know how to move on from them and this time you move through them with a grace and an ease that proves that you have ac-complished these victories before.

Another beauty of the learning journey is that there’s no need to worry that you’ve missed out on a particular les-son, because it’ll come back time and time again until you’re ready to deal with it.

Learning comes in many forms and the best forms are the ones that are the most fun. To make the learning journey more enjoyable, make and play games for yourself. Your subconscious mind will automatically learn the lessons you need to learn without you even being aware of it. ‘The World is our Playground, Come play with me.’

Go with the flow; fight the flow and you will drown, no mat-ter how strong you are, life is stronger. This does not

mean you become the stream, it just means you acknowl-edge that the stream exists. Stop fighting, go with the flow and the stream will carry you distances you never knew you could reach. This will give you the energy to learn to move with the stream, perhaps you’ll learn to harness the power of the water around you to move even faster and then, when you master that, you’ll be able to manipulate the current to go in whichever direction you choose.

Learn by doing. It sounds so simple and yet our Education systems have failed appallingly to embrace this powerful learning tool. My personal formula for learning follows the ‘Pareto principle’ or ‘80/20’ principle. The Pareto principle states that 80% of your success comes 20% of your ac-tion. When you constantly find and focus on this 20% and you will increase your successes infinitely. My formula bor-rows from this in that I believe that 10% of learning should be theory, 80% action and 10% reflection. Follow this for-mula and you will achieve similar successes.  

Knowmads has restored my love for learning. I have got-ten out of my head and into passions; by being able to put my thoughts into a workable framework that has allowed me to play with them, check them and change them at will. I have finally begun to ‘Own my Brilliance’

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QUANG PHANMy eyes skimmed through the beautiful and color-blooming timeline that Team 3 made as a reflection of their experi-ences in Knowmads Hanoi. Hardly a single event along the journey could catch my eyes and let me stop to choose them as my most important moment in Knowmads. Never-theless, it was not until Ryan placed his flower at Week zero, I made a decision to put my own flower at the starting point. A thought came to my mind: the most important mo-ment of everything, every action was its beginning. It was when people really START.

I met a friend that I had really admired for some time. He was an entrepreneur, who didn’t even enter university to start discovering and enjoying his life. After hearing me an-nounce that I quit my job and started my own project, he shook my hand, welcomed me to the world of start-up ‘fools’ and said to me the words that I might never forget:

“When you start creating your own ‘world’, you will see magic happen”

Then I had a reflection of all the things that happened when I decided to follow my dream in agriculture. Along the jour-

ney, there were moments that I had never expected to hap-pen.

• It was in the interview that Guus told me that his friend started a model in the Netherlands that is similar to what I have been thinking about.

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• That was when I met Thu at the first lunch and found out that our ideas were perfectly matched with each other.

• It included the moment when my mother told me that we have a relative who is the same age as me and who is start-ing her own farm in her hometown.

• And I also want to mention my friend in Sai Gon, who is doing some marketing activities for an organic farm, and who called me and told me that she wanted to have some pieces of advice and we could cooperate in the future.

At this moment, my memory goes back to the Pecha Kucha session when we all talked about The Alchemist. There was a quote that I want to take as a conclusion:

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”

It’s all about MAGIC

It only happens when we really START

And I have started my own journey with Knowmads.

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PRECIOUS MOMENTS

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!" “#$%&”

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!" “pl'(”

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!" “)""l ”

THE SERIOUS STUFF

DUONG LEI hadn’t realized it before but now I see it. I used to plan everything ahead and once I’m done, I go straight to execution. However, what I focus on is thinking about what I would do but not the core or the “why” question. Thus I limit myself into the action itself in-stead of discovering the whole picture, the different ways to do it. Planning is good, but sometimes what you need for the plan is just the vision, the final goal, and the “WHY” question. Your plan is subjected to change and the more you plan, the more likely you limit yourself in one thing instead of your whole big vi-sion. Don’t rush yourself. Let your mind go wild and surpass the limitations. 

Once I let the pressure go, I can think of something small to act on right now. So my ultimate goal is to somehow increase the initiative, efficiency, and motiva-tion of young Vietnamese. Because I think if we have that motivation, we can change and contribute much more to our country and generate real added-value that counts. I have jumped into many things and all it does is confuse me even more. So now I will think sim-

ple, and act step by step. It doesn’t have to be the best thing you ever produced because you can develop it later. It is something to encourage you to keep working on and for you to see the result. Once you place the goal and the “WHY” question ahead of every move-ment, you can transfer that sincerity to your audience in one or another way. And that is what we as human beings not only appreciate but need deeply in this life.

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PHUONG LEI suspected my ability and capacity for a long period of time. I did think that I couldn’t do anything big because I am a normal person, small and weak, living in the changing and competitive world full of evils and struggles. I did. What Knowmads did very well is not delivering knowledge but creating a platform and conditions for participants to figure out who they are and what they really want to do. My project is big. Yes, it is obviously. It seems like something I can-not work out.

Stop thinking and hesitating, just DO IT. It is also the most significant lesson I learned from the journey. By doing, you will learn something. Stoping making excuses with “but”, stand up, face your fear and punch it in the face!

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1. Sometimes, you might not like the process, but the result will always pay off all your hard work. So, trust the proc-ess.

2. And passion is something that can make every pitch, persuasion, negotiation, everything go smoothly. Because that is something from your heart, not just from your head.

3. There is no such thing as a bad idea. Every idea, every experience can teach you something.4. Having personal branding is not being shallow, it gives others a curiosity to find out more about yourself.5. Find your fish sauce, find things that you can and want to offer.6. Learning by doing. Everything can be learned by doing. Be curious and try to figure things out.

NGOC HUONG (CHIM)

LINH PHAMHow to overcome procrastination:

• Make a small first move:  When doing something, we may think the task is so big or we don’t like it or it can wait. However, if we don’t take any action, when should it be finished? Let’s see the micro movements change our consciousness. We should find the key factor in each task to kick off the action. For example, if we need to read a book – yet you are tired, first open the book. Then you can do other tasks. Then the opened book can be noticed by you. Or if you want to learn a new language, just put the headphone on and play it. It doesn’t matter if you want to study it on purpose or not.

• Don’t just plan the work, plan relaxing time as well: Having a to–do list is an effective tool to keep track of the task. However, we should add more relaxing activi-ties as well to unwind.

• Do the task you love most: awake your inner child and motivate it by starting what you love to do. When some-thing is done, we may see the result of the first step. This could build some motivation in you as well.

• Minimize goals:  if the goal is too high, we may find it hard to do it and stop right away. When actually doing something takes hours. Then, we should break down the goals, put them into different levels. Are you ready for level 01?

• Do small tasks which have a result within 10–15 mins: that help me to see the outcome easily and see that we can actually do something.

• Before going to sleep, prepare things for the next morning:  then it takes less time to do work in the next morning.

• In general, I face a lot of procrastination when working. All of the above tools awake my activeness in work. I am kind of lazy when I think the task requires a lot of steps to do. Then I skip it right away. After the coaching café and the personal coaching, I did apply some of these tips to my daily life and they help me a lot to fulfill my tasks.

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VAN NGUYENHaving a creative idea is great but taking actions to real-ize your idea is even greater. I learnt the ways how to put ideas into practice in a comfortable way without so much pressure and stress through Knowmads. In fact, it’s the in-spiration and not being afraid of judgment that really count. I could strongly feel it from the community of train-ers and fellow team members during seven amazing work-shops. And I believe that now I can follow an interesting long journey through my Culture-Exchange meal project. The journey to do something what I like! The journey to ex-plore new cultures! The journey to connect hearts! The journey to bring Vietnamese food around the world! It must be endless…

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It’s similar to when I have an idea of choreography. I think about it and imagine the shape of it and turn it into motion in real life. When you have an idea, write it down and make a plan, implement the plan. It’s okay if you miss deadlines as long as you make sure that your project is still “ON AIR”. It’s okay if you abandon it, at least you've learned a les-son after this. Take it easy, it’s not because you are a loser. Maybe it needs time to be authenticated. Passion will never die and post-it notes are the most powerful tools for you to take action, to get a clear view of what you are go-ing to do.

MAC VY

QUY NGUYENWhen I worked for an INGO, my colleagues and I often discussed what sustainability means and how we can achieve it in our projects, but it seemed to be a long discussion without conclusion. At first, Matt, one of our trainers in Know-mads Hanoi Team 3 made me feel like we were in history class as he went through the human population growth curve from 20,000 years ago until now. Then he asked us to come up with our own ideas of sustainability by express-ing it through words, characters, places and images. Different teams had their own ways of describing what sustain-ability is, and I was amazed by the way my teammates understood what globalization is. They seemed to be experts in this field, and even one team gave the accurate answer similarly to what Matt was going to say on his note. Matt gave us a comprehensive understanding of Sustainability through the 3Es (Economics, Environment, and Equity) or 3Ps (Profit, Planet, and People). That was even more surprising to me. I know now that we can see and analyze sus-tainability in any action, circumstance or project, and by our own care we can guide our projects towards sustainable goals.

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Learning by doing is easy with small steps and when you actually do it. Keep moving forward. And maybe you will learn lots of things during the process. For example, I learned to design a fanpage and made surveys. But most importantly, I learned most from a saying from Guus: "Everything is always about stories." To tell stories to my parents, to say what you need, to meet with people. And when I was making my project, I learned that I love to do things that can influence people concerning soft skills, "discrimination" and claiming equality for people. 

VO TUAN SON

LILY HOANGTaking action and learn by doing: this is one of the most useful and effective ways of succeeding. I planned a lot for my project and I did not execute it because I thought it was not ready. However, I finally take actions and really start doing things. I was really motivated by the process and I wanted to do it more and more. I made mis-takes, which, even though I planned carefully, I could not have thought of. I also got a lot of feedback from others as they gave another perspective on my project. There-fore, don't think too much, just do. You are already ready.

Procrastination: this is a poisonous thing that I often have to deal with. I delay things until later, and then later I don't have any energy to complete it. Afterwards, things are added up until it becomes a mountain that I don’t even want to think of. So, I wanted to fix that problem by these actions:

• I wake up early to work out and I complete all the things I don’t like in the morning.

• Before delaying things, I usually think "Now or never".

• Before going to bed, I reflect "What have I done to make my day productive?"

•

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HOAI THU LEWhen my plan came to me, it was beautiful and it was HUGE. I asked myself “Is it achievable?”. I told my part-ner “There are too many thing we have to do, but when should we get started?”…

We started from making plans will small steps, sharing ideas with our teammates, friends, anyone we know who cares about children and nature. We collected their rec-ommendations. Those small things that we did brought us to experienced people, we got a lot of help and also a lot of opportunities from them. By taking it step by step,

our plan got more and more clear. We believe that what we are doing is leading us to the goal of our project.

There is a big gap from A to Z, but from A to B, from B to C ….from X to Z, it is much smaller and taking action for my project is like this. Small actions like those letters in the alphabet. Just following it letter by letter we will get to the destination.

PHUONG LINHCo-creation to get something done. My personal project is to organize a series of" creativity workshops" to unlock people's creativity and give people a play-ground for self-discovery and explore their crazy imagination. What I’ve learned from Knowmads so far is that co-creation is extremely helpful for us. It brings us together, in order to get something done and produce valuable outcomes. It's amazing that we can combine and renew each others' abilities and resources and cheer up together when we can get something done: such as bread banana, a women empowerment workshop and my upcoming creative workshop. They are all sweet fruits that we want to enjoy together.

QUANG PHANIt was not until we experienced the challenges of the weekend that I realized how valuable it was to me be-cause it was time for me to face some obstacles.

While I'm sitting here writing these words, I am still strug-gling to figure out a way to combine ideas of people, to make a team of talents and different characteristics work. Through the weekends of discussions and team work, I sometimes feel like stuck. It is hard to obtain good out-comes for every team that I joined.

Though at the end of the day, all the teams finished with amazing results, I still questioned myself and thought of a ultimate solution to make a team work.

Then the sharing section came, and I talked to Guus. He just showed me an introduction slide of Knowmads that all of us might have seen but didn't pay attention to. It said:

BUSINESS

“All businesses are created and run by people. Therefore, being able to connect, to effectively communicate, to in-spire and to collaborate with others is what we see as the core of business"

The words definitely conclude that day. And I know that what I need to learn is to answer the big question in the upcoming days. Trust the process.

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DIEP HUONG

I signed up for Knowmads and didn't know what to ex-pect, or if I was spending my money and time at the right place, or if I would be an outsider again. As Daniel said, I should just follow my intuition. I had no idea this was even classified as a business school. But that turned out well. If I had known I wouldn't have signed up, and I wouldn't have known what I'd missed until the very end. And I feel thankful. I was dying to find out what I am really passionate about, I still am. I was not sure who I am and what I am here for, I still am. I was curious and nervous about where I am heading, I still am. But now I know, it is ok. It is ok to be lost, it is ok to be scared, it is ok to feel like an outsider, and the destination doesn't matter, it's the journey that counts. I still don't know where I am head-ing, or how it will end, but I know that I'm on my way. I don't know What yet, but I'm clarifying the Why, and that's all that matters now.

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RYAN LLEWELYN-WILLIAMSThe stages of project learning have been an incredible journey. It doesn’t matter where you start; you may have many ideas, no ideas or just one idea, the journey is pretty similar. My journey started with many ideas, even though I knew that ‘Own your Brilliance’ was my passion project I wasn’t sure what it really was and so I subconsciously tried to ignore it by generating multiple project ideas, all of which excited and interested me, none of which was my true personal idea.

I knew Knowmads was my opportunity to bring my pas-sion to a realistic start. It would bring out all of my fears, stumbling blocks and hang-ups, and ultimately lead me to my strengths, interests and greatest personal develop-ment.

Project learning looks like a dissociative disorder; multiple personalities packed into the same project. You start off on a high of possibilities and connections. Everything seems possible; you’re set to change the entire World. This phase is fantastic, a flood of positivity and joy pour forth to inspire all those around you. Then comes a depressive-questioning-life phase, where you wander seemingly aim-

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lessly around your mind. At the depths of your depression you seek the tools to help you climb your way out. You know that without these tools you will go back to that dark place and so you build a framework and a support net to catch you whenever you fall. On the way back up, slowly this time, you solve one problem at a time, one hand in front of the other, until you start to reach the top. Hands come from out of nowhere to help you along and you rise to the heights you knew you were capable of.

In project form this is the brainstorming phase - where there is no judgment, no bad ideas and no limitations. Everything is accepted and anything is possible. Then you link the ideas together and put them into clusters of related information. You present this information to an at-tentive audience who then asks questions you may have missed and offers any advice they may have.

Following this explosion of energy comes a drought of doubt. What if my project doesn’t work out? What if it’s not what I want to do with my life, what if it is? What’s my first step? Will I have enough time, energy, money and in-telligence to make this project really happen? These ques-tions are vitally important; by asking yourself how to achieve your project goals, you focus your subconscious mind on acquiring the answers. This is where you need to

step back from your physical project and focus on your personal blocks. Reminding yourself that life is just a game and it doesn’t really matter what you do takes the pressure off and allows you to enjoy the process a whole lot more. Stop focusing on what other people are doing and make sure you do what you have to do, that is all.

Having the right tools comes in handy here. Marketing, personal branding and defining what you want and how it links to your personal skills and passions is essential. This allows you to connect to people who can help you with your journey and your project. If you don’t know ex-actly what you want, how can others help you get it? What you put out is what you get back, and vice versa.

With the right tools you claw and bite your way back to the top. So you set up a website and start to collect the information you need and want. With this platform you are able to reach out to others who can help you and need help. Once you get your project off the ground, where you go next is up to you.

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YUKI PHANIt's almost three in the morning and we will have a full day in the morning with Knowmads, but for some rea-sons I just cannot sleep, nor can I put out my urge to write something. Anything.

It was deep into the night that I remembered a couplet from a Dickinson poem:

"That it will never come againIs what makes life so sweet."

Every line describes exactly (what I think and believe) the goals of Knowmads Hanoi to be and what I have learned this afternoon after a meaningful conversation with the wonderful Mercedes, along with our emotional checkout session. Usually, I am extremely proud of my-self to be a fast learner; but it is embarrassing how long it took me to realize this by myself.

1. Be passionate. Listen to your heart.

It does not matter how big or how small your project is, as long as it speaks to you, it is close to your heart, it can make your heart sing and it can make your blood boil. It does not matter if language or culture is a barrier, as long as you have the passion for what you are advo-cating, people will sense it and they will listen to you.

2. Trust the process.

Your project is a goal, but it is not the long-term, nor is it the biggest goal. The goal, to me, is to learn the process so that you can take it and apply it to every other project that you will want to start in the future, either by yourself or with a group of people. The process itself is the most important thing.

3. Live in the moment.

It is good to think about the future sometimes, like how your project will turn out, what will come after that, etc., but when you get caught up in this web, it is quite easy to forget the present. It is the sum of many many small moments, like the checkin/checkout sessions, the small conversations we have every weekend with each other, a smoking break, a laugh, a tear, a massage, a hug, or even better, a group hug, that makes up the essence of Knowmads and very possible, even the essence of life. Again: "That it will never come again / Is what makes life so sweet."

And you, what will make your life so sweet?

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WORDS OF WISDOM

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FROM OUR MENTORS WITH LOVE

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