Thinking differently is the #1 skill of today's world

if you ever felt like you're thinking differently have you ever felt like you're the odd one out well good news for you because this is the number one skill of today's world and we'll tell you in a bit why that is because I have an amazing guest here with me today called Dr Octopus so stay tuned [Music] thinking differently is the number one skill in the world and today here in the video CEO of your life live show I have an amazing guest but this show is for you if you want to learn more about how you can run your business in less time and I have all kinds of Specialists that tell you everything about what they do and why you need to take notice and it's up to you what do you decide whether you want to do something with it or not and I'm very excited because today is here with me Perry Perry can you please introduce yourself to the people watching and listening hi Yvonne this is so funny two Dutch people doing a conversation in English so Native American speakers native English speakers are cracking up and listening to these two Dutch people having a conversation in English that's hilarious anyway um how do I introduce myself I'm I'm Perry I'm weird I love weird people um I'm the CEO founder of the octopus movement it's a global movement where we um celebrate and create awareness of the awesomeness of people who think differently and I think different thinkers are very interesting I think it's really necessary to have different thinkers in this world but we will talk about that so that's what I do I love it and and yes it is indeed everybody who listens to us immediately picks up that we're both Dutch but you know that's a mere coincidence so you know thinking differently how did you start the octopus movement and I got so many things I want to ask but let's start with how did you start the octopus octopus movement and why well why I have no idea what exactly happened that I was thinking now I'm going to create the octopus movement but one event in before I started everything was that a good friend of mine in the Netherlands Theo sent me an article about creative generalists and we we're both like that right and he sent me that article and I was reading it that he's an entrepreneur I was an entrepreneur and I was reading that article I was cracking up and I said to him yeah I don't recognize myself in this and he was laughing and we were making jokes about being creative and being a creative generalist and then a good friend of mine Aaron Meyer in Brussels said to me wait a second that's not a creative journalist that's multi-potentialized and when I heard that word the first time I was thinking oh milty what I I had to write it down what what is this and I looked it up and there's a TED Talk of Emily WAP Nick about military potentiality and I watched that show or speech or whatever you want to call it and I thought oh that's interesting it's I recognize a few things from that not that I immediately said I'm a multi-potentialite but I I thought it was interesting and I started interviewing people who call themselves a multi-potentialized and then covet came and I was interviewing and then things happened in the world and at the same time I was constantly interviewing multi-potential lights that's how it all started and a lot of other events one of the events also was that I ended my relationship I was living in Belgium I had to move to the Netherlands I lost everything I gave up everything and I said okay I want to do a hard reset in my life and sometimes people say I lost everything seriously I was homeless just a bag and a dog couldn't see my kids nothing and I thought I'm going to start all over again and I was I was always having all these expectations of myself yes I was weird but I was also trying to be as I was expecting from myself to behave and to be successful in this world and then I said no I'm not doing that anymore I just want to be me let me be an artist not an entrepreneur anymore and and I don't know where this is going but this is what I need to do and during these interviews I discovered that a lot of military potentialites have a connection with neurodiversity and I went to the Phillips organization in the Netherlands and I asked them can I have an MRI machine which they obviously didn't give to me like who is this weirdo correct that's me but I want to know how the brain works because what does it mean when you're wired differently and why is the output multi-potentality that's the question that I find very interesting first of all what is it when you're wired in a different way why is that some people are highly sensitive or highly gifted or have ADHD or I have dyslexia or dyspraxia this calculator bipolar autism what is that and and why are many of these people have that output of being fast Learners Making Connections that are very interesting and why do they care more about the bigger picture in the world rather than being very linear and focused on their own success money and then I thought oh I did a hard reset anyway I don't have anything so what do you do when you don't have anything and and you're you can just do whatever you want to do you start a non-profit you start to do something that really matters and that's two years ago two years in a few months and and now we have 28 2900 people in 65 countries connected to the octopus movement and it's a it's Global mycelium Network community of very interesting people a lot of hidden gems and and it's it's true I always thought these are people that can make a huge difference in our lives these are Fascinating People and they're not being seen that easily you know because they don't fit in the box and etc etc that's how I started the octopus I'm gonna I'm I wanna because I love how passionate you are and I love the octopus problem and everything it stands for but the people that are tuning in and for whom this is all new I just want to take you along because multiplication multi-potential life right that's how you and I connected as well because that's for sure something I recognize and I just wanna if you're hearing this word for the first time it basically means you have a very broad interest you find very many things fascinating and you know quite a bit of those things but you do not have one singular Focus where you know everything about so that's like a journalist versus a very focused person and I gotta tell you many of my clients and many of the people I meet they are sometimes they call themselves serial entrepreneurs because they start multiple businesses because they know one thing in the next and the next very often those people are multi-potentialized as well so just to start with that frame and and the multi-potential light learns very fast this is this is something that's why a lot of entrepreneurs are multi-potentialized you know they will think oh I will figure it out I don't know how this works but how difficult can it be let's go right let's just do it which is a very important element of Entrepreneurship is that just do it mentality and just go yeah I love it yeah and then you discovered the um the that many multipotential lights also are neurodiverse and you already named several gosh these words neurodiversities like hdhd autism bipolar dyslexia and I feel very connected with that because my daughter has the superpower of Dyslexia so there was another thing that we discussed about and the octopus movement I really I I just want to emphasize this because I I think that so many people that are misunderstood and don't feel heard or seen or have been put on a label because that's what often happens right oh so you're dyslexic oh so you're both pull up doing you know and and then you you kind of been put into a box which isn't necessarily a nice box and then everything kind of changes whereas basically you just have a recognized superpower so and I I feel that the octopus movement is the movement where people can really connect whether you are I'm subscribing to that label or not but it is somewhere where you can really talk about you whatever shape or form or or headspace you come in but that's that's what for me the octopus movement is exactly it's very non-linear it's it's very you know it's it's not a box it's not that doesn't have any rules so there are no conditions to join the octopus movement um I remember so well we have a partnership with an investment studio in California and the owner said to me Perry what are the rules to become an octopus and and it makes me laugh because that's where I don't want to go there are no rules you can just join if you're curious and then a lot of people especially in the beginning of saying but what is the purpose what are you doing and I always said I don't know what I'm doing I just know that there is this amazing massive group of people that should have more tension and more possibilities and and I was just thinking what happens if you put these creative fast Learners together something amazing will happen and so we're not thinking in boxes within the octopus movement no I like that and you're touching but we do have structure so people don't don't think it's all woo-woo and and one big mess it's not but it's it it starts not with the system and I think this is what's happening with a lot of entrepreneurs and new companies is they start with a system they you know this is what I'm going to do and we've been trained to do that at school you know if you want to do something you start with the system this is how you operate and I just wanted to let go of that system and say okay no I consider myself as an artist so I start with humans first and connect these amazing humans together and then we will see what happens and then you see that organically structures appear and then you start using these structures to build on top of that and to create something beautiful so I more or less turn it around and I think in today's world that's something that is very interesting to look at that and I I you're touching on on something else that I think is really you know very important it's linear thinking versus non-linear thinking and and and this is you know for many people it's not even a given or they don't think about it but talk to us a bit more about linear and non-linear I think if you understand this that that will change your life this sounds horrible when I say that but I mean it if if the difference between linear and nonlinear thinking everything changes so I think everybody's a non-linear thinker you're you're being born your little baby your your brains are very non-linear and then you end up in a household where Mom and Dad are very linear so that already changes your way of thinking and your approach right and then parents saying no to the child constantly so there's structure being built in then you go to school oh my God that's a system that's very linear which is good I'm not against linearity but it's it's good to have a look at it and then you follow the roots of school and linearity of school and you get your diploma you go to college and then you get your job and your spouse and your golden retriever and your two and a half kids and then everything is wonderful in life of course it's not true but that's the linear approach then we have companies organizations governments and whatnot in that linearity space as well it's how the system works you know and if you have a problem and you go to a company then often when there is a problem the response is let me explain how our system yeah how we work how this this is how we work yes so what it doesn't change the problem so now we go to non-linear thinking me my brain is weird is not standard if you look at the bell curve I'm not in the 80 I'm in the in the 20 percent outside in the fringes of the bell curve right it's my neurodiversity but I think in today's world we're using the word neurodiversity too often sorry for saying that it's not about neurodiversity it's just I'm not in that standard bell curve so I I can join the lane in your thinking I went to school I went to college it's fine right found it very difficult but I was able to manage here and there so I can't help myself to constantly go back in that non-linear space where I see all kinds of things that other people can see and I think that's the big difference between linear and non-linear we try to adjust to be in that system and we are but we can help ourselves to be outside of that system as well so how does it help you well I have three kids they go to school my kids are a bit neurodiverse as well so when something is not working well I now can see okay that's linear thinking that's a system that doesn't fit with that nonlinear brain how can we talk about it rather than being upset this is ridiculous it makes sense it also makes sense looking at myself that I'm sometimes all over the place and and have too much energy and I'm doing all these things and there's no structure and I'm enjoying it because it's my non-linear brain that needs to explore everything and I'm enjoying the emptiness in between thoughts as well and for me that's nonlinear thinking and if you trust that if I can serve that wave of non-linear thinking amazing things are happening if you understand these two and and you combine that and you use that I use linear thinking as well you know of course in creating a global movement I have my Excel sheets I have my air tables everybody in the octopus movement knows Perry loves his air tables it creates structures but it's it's good to be aware of the linearity and the non-linearity in your own life and to understand your own brain this is the thing I'm always saying when people ask me what you know what is what is your advice it's it's to understand your own brain it's to understand your own thinking it's to understand how non-linear are you because if you're pretty non-linear like me and you have to be successful in this linear world you better understand what's happening otherwise you get very much frustrated or you start masking and that's what I've done many times you know you try to adjust to fit in and it's not who you are and you're masking and I see that happening with a lot of people that are wired differently than I met because then at least people will recognize and and approved me and they see me but that's not who I am yeah that's lady yeah thank you for that explanation and the one thing that I immediately um think about is um it's so so fascinating because ever since I became a member of the octopus movement and and started hearing and thinking about linear non-linear thinking I actually did a discovery when I look back on all my current and my past clients that all my clients kind of in one shape or another are either non-linear thinkers or multi-passionates or um have a neurodiversity and and I I very much embrace it because for me it is all about one of my core values is respect which includes diversity and inclusivity because that's the reason why I started my coaching business to show you my client that you are good as you are and it was such a for me it was really a full circle when and we'll talk about this a bit more but when we work together to start this whole you know discussion in a broader uh context with companies as well that I actually have thought about huh it's interesting I never thought about it and to be honest I don't care because I really feel that you should use your strengths as an entrepreneur as a human because that's the way you're wired and that's the way it goes easier for you and I think that's what you're saying you know it's very important to recognize who you are who you think and and how what your strengths are um and that's why thinking differently or non-linear thinking is the number one skill in today's world so talk to us and they're they're I'm sharing all the comments as well and I love them so keep them coming please but share a bit about you know the thing that's gonna happen soon the the great um questionnaire and and all the things that are happening around that well first I wanna I wanna go back to the respect part um because that's not going very well let's be honest let's let's really look at the facts as they are um I do think that linearity is in chapter 11. I made a post about that recently on LinkedIn and let me explain chapter 11 chapter 11 is when you almost go bankrupt you know your company is almost dead and it's the final rescue attempt everything stops everything is frozen accountants lawyers Senior Management come together how are we going to save this ship from sinking and I and I think linearity is also going that way because it's it's not going very well in this world with regards to respect we're talking about respect and we're talking about diversity and it's also interesting and so important but it's not happening in the world look at in today's world where people are struggling to pay for their grocery shopping and the supermarkets have never ever made this much profit as they're doing right now recently in the Netherlands the Russian in in at the government that the CEO of the biggest retail store had to come there and had to explain why a salary is 128 times bigger than the average salary in its own company while there is a crisis while the things are not going very well but the shareholders value is going through the roof we're grabbing and going for the money it's very if I can use a bad word linear it's one purpose and it's it's going for that chunk of cash as much as possible and we don't care about people and then we pretend to be also into diversity and taking care of people no we're not but then something else happens in the world and there's Ai and AI is fantastic because AI is very very Linear by itself it's the best linear assistant you can have and now the whole world is in panic because so many people are losing their jobs which are very linear jobs so we need to look at creativity again we need to look at that's why thinking differently is the number one skill of today I think today it's very important to be able to think outside of the box to create new things to create Innovation to help people grow to look at humanity and look at this world that's what I think is very important then that we need to address and sorry I understand what you're saying but I had me personally this is my experience this is my number one value I hear you when you say in general in the world there should be more respect and yes I think that's why the why this initiative is so great but I was just talking about me my respect my values I just wanna clear yeah but but don't you agree that you know a lot of people we're talking about respect and it's also important but then recently someone asked me this in an interview it wasn't an American company a consultancy company and and I and I told them and I said we should create the non-linear manager everywhere we should we should say this is your position as a non-linear manager and what you do is when there is a circumstance that needs to be addressed differently you're the one who's capable to say okay we're going to remove this from the system and we're we're going to solve this as we should solve this in a human way in humanity in decency and then we continue I I get it eighty percent fits into that system maybe 70 maybe when we're honest sixty percent it should be so cool if we would have that in education at companies and governments just one person start with one person the non-linear manager was saying stop let's disconnect solve this and connect again that would be awesome and I think then then we're really talking about respect because now you know there is a lot of respect as long as it fits the system and that's not a good thing and isn't that why you started a new initiative because of this precise point to combine everything the understanding yourself better that's where it starts you know you cannot sit on a chair and point fingers at everyone and and and this is wrong and this is wrong at education and this is wrong in the world that's not how it works for me that's not how I feel that it works you need to understand yourself first so you can do something about it for yourself your direct family your friends or your community looking back at neurodiversity I've always been intrigued by these labels and these boxes and I thought okay you discover that you have ADHD now what you know you get that official label or not maybe you don't get an official maybe you just think I think I have ADHD which for me is already enough you know you don't have to go to see the doctor and get the label if if that's how you feel about it go for it and how fascinating and how easy and how straightforward would it be to be just connect with someone else who has ADHD or connect with another parent whose child has dyslexia or connect with someone else who feels like it's a multi-potential act or a non-linear thinker so we go broader than just the official linear approach of neurodiversity everything that makes us who we are because of our thinking and our being and I thought how cool would that be to create a platform where we can make that connection very easily so now there is this project sponsored and and and made it possible by the European Union how cool is that we're creating big minor diverse brain to make it more accessible so people with neurodiversity or think there have neurodiversity or want to be close to neurodiversity that able to talk to someone with ADHD so you have ADHD yourself you can talk to someone else with ADHD or your parents and your child just got the label of dyspraxia and you're like and now what you can talk to someone about that because I don't know how it is with you everybody who's listening all over the world but in the Netherlands the waiting lists to see a specialist s are ridiculous yes you want to get some answers fast you discovered your child as dyspraxia what does it mean and now what you know so you want to talk about it to someone who understands and who knows so pick my neurodiversebrain.com is a project of the octopus movement to make it much easier to talk to other people and talk about the diversity of the brain in a non-linear way so not you know you don't have to have neurodiversity and we also talk about non-linear thinking multi-potentiality and lots of other things I love that okay so there is a lot going on right we we've thrown out so many terms today what we spoke about um linear thinking non-linear thinking neurodiversity multi-potentialized the overarching movement which is the octopus movement and I'll talk about it a bit more and if you feel and you're watching this and you feel like wow I want to know more you know the octopus movement is really a great place to start I'll share the link just now and pick my neurodiverse brain is going to build at the way I see it is going to build a bridge that's really what it's gonna what what you know it's going to help that's I'm a firm believer in that that's gonna be it's gonna be help it's gonna be a place where where you can speak with people and is the website already in the air or is it coming soon not yet you can already go to pick my neurodiversebrain.com and it redirects to the octopus movement right we're creating a toolkit so hey there is neurodiversity now what so the two kids will give you some tools in in what to do with that and we're also creating a introduction course what does a diverse brain means and we're working together with Atlas primer and I want to do a shout out for Atlas primer it's such a cool company in Iceland they created an App this was created by a professor at the University and he was an entrepreneur first in I.T then he went into the university became a professor and he was looking at these students and I was thinking he was thinking really this is how you study but you can this is not very efficient we can this should be done in a different way so he created an app where you can upload your study materials your book text whatever and it goes text to voice and then you're thinking oh it's not that spectacular it is trust me it is it's easy to upload PDF files and whatnot and you can scan your text and put it in the app but then something really cool happens they connected to an AI machine at the back end so that means you can listen to your study material and then after chapter one say okay ask me four questions if I really understand what I was just listening to so you can have interaction with your study material which is awesome and you can go on and on and on you can do that with your teaching you can say ask me two questions if I really understand but if you do that six times in a row and you're asking constantly for different questions your teacher is going to say Hey listen you know this is self-study go home open your book and make it work but this app continues and continues and continues awesome so we're using Atlas primer for introduction training to neurodiversity where you can listen to a lot of information about neurodiversity and you can ask questions you can ask but what is ADHD what is bipolar exactly you know awesome I love it okay so the octopus movements you just tell us about why it's an octopus because I love that here it is so I was um and and I think Haley is listening um it's a story I always tell but this is how it happened so I was interviewing a lot of multi-potential lights and it was a clubhouse and language for me is very linear as well so the same thing with the community I I rather use the word mycelium same thing with multi-potentiality it it boxes off again so if you have a polymath and you say to a polymath hey you're a multi-potentialite then the polymath is offended and I find that so weird in life you know that for some reason we're so afraid of our own Freedom that we put ourselves in a box and if you don't call my box the correct way I get offended and and I'm in a fight with you so I was thinking I don't want to use just multi-potential light scanner zebra whatever I I'm looking for hi Haley I'm there I'm looking for I'm looking for the symbol of a curious Misfit and I was asking that after interviewing more than 100 multi-potentialites and I noticed that they're all curious Misfits they're all a bit weird and they're all curious as hell incredible that's what we all have in common and then Christine in London said to me I always send an octopus Emoji just for the fun of it that's a bit wise well it just feels good maybe because he's Greek or whatever but he was always sending an octopus or a squid but a squid the squid movement no octopus I thought octopus that's a cool creature and then a Haley in South Africa said have you seen my octopus teacher well that's a awesome beautiful documentary that everybody should watch it's so interesting and that filmmaker is so non-linear and he and he got into a burnout he went back home in South Africa and he wanted to be underwater every day to calm his mind and his brain and to think and then he got into that relationship with the octopus after watching that documentary he said well this is it it's the octopus movement why the octopus three hearts nine brains eight arms you can transform in any shape it can change color it has a complete weird DNA totally different from what whatever animal so some people call them also aliens they have Blue Bloods they have suckers I can all relate to that I feel like an alien from time to time it feels like I have eight arms because I'm doing all these different things at the same time three hearts I'm an emotional sucker and lots of empathy and nine brains I love learning I love connecting and Etc so that's why it's the octopus movement thanks to Haley and Christine good and if anybody wants to join the movement is there a cost involved how does it work no so um no rules just join the octopus movement and then you would say why would I do that well first of all if you are feeling a bit weird then you're in a bunch of other a bit weird people which is a lot of fun because you can be yourself forget masking be yourself and why is that cool well you can for instance join our Global thinking we created a think tank because I was thinking what happens if you put these different thinkers together and you brainstorm to create something new a new approach to a global problem we have been working and and trying out for a year and then after a year we created a system what works Phenom linear thinkers we do this every month one hour the first day second hour to second day and then we write a white paper it's so much fun it is incredible so you have the Global Knowledge in your brain out there where you can tap into and that's the think tank recently we we wrote the white paper rethinking intelligence where we have this study where we are looking at it at intelligence as non-linear thinkers what does it mean how do we see intelligence is how we see intelligence today still the same intelligence as yesterday and tomorrow so when you join the octopus movement you can join the thinking but you can also become a teacher where we go to schools and teach about non-linear thinking to kids but you can also become an octopus specialist because we combine all these skills in the movement to do awesome projects and to create things and so many more things and we love art we have our own art gallery so if you're an artist and you think oh I want to exhibit within the art gallery that's also possible we do Retreats we do trainings we have brain launches within the octopus movement everything is for free and if you say but I do want to donate and I do want to be someone very special within the movement you can become a founding member it's a one-time donation of 200 Euros and you're a founding member for life we will only have 250 founding members in total in the movement we have 64 now you will be on the website and you are being invited every month to hang out with the other founding members and yours truly and and have fun and we and we discover things from each other we help each other we we help each other to make new connections solve problems introduce people to others it's the founding members I always see it like a family table at Sunday evening everybody comes home you know it's chaos but it's so much fun at the same time and so familiar and that's the The Hangout sessions of the family members every month I love that okay so when people want to join they become an activist exactly and it's thanks to your daughter we call it an octavist and I was talking to someone Yvonne you should have heard that conversation that we were saying to each other why haven't we thought about this activist yeah it's so why an octopus you're the octopus movement and you're an activist we want to do something we don't want to just sit still and network I'm I'm not a big fan of networking and I get it you know an entrepreneur you need to network maybe I should create another name for it then it feels different for me maybe for me it's connecting to the mycelium all over the world that we know each other and support each other and that's why we call it an octopist it's an activist within the octopus movement to create a better world to user thinking to use our brains to support each other to create something beautiful projects thinking white papers and growth I love that I think this is a great close thank you so much Perry for being here if you watch this thank you for being here if you have any queries list them underneath whatever platform you're on or join us in the octopus movement because we're waiting for you um and Perry as always thank you so much my pleasure to speak with you thank you Yvonne thank you everyone thank you so much

Channel: Amaze Yourself, Global Coaching by Yvonne Dam

Views: 2,070

Keywords:

Id: lZzeRbSg2-A

Length: 38min 30sec (2310 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2023