Anselm Pahnke: “I embraced the unknown and it became my friend.”
Anselm Pahnke is a geophysicist and oceanographer, author, award-winning documentary filmmaker, small-town founder, builder of tiny houses, extreme adventurer and keynote speaker. His life and work revolve around one central question: How do we find our bearings in an uncertain world – and the courage to break new ground?
From an early age, he was fascinated by the forces that drive people and those that hold them back. To understand these mechanisms, he studied geophysics and evolutionary biology. After completing his thesis, he made a conscious decision not to take the safe route of a master’s programme at a large corporation – and instead followed his inner calling.
He embarked on a 14-month journey along the African Rift Valley to the Omo Valley, the cradle of humanity, and then spent three years cycling around the world alone. In the frightening silence of the deserts, in the solitude of the savannahs and in contact with overwhelming landscapes and cultural encounters, he found inner clarity. He learned to trust his intuition, to understand uncertainty as a teacher and to reach out to fear. From this experience grew the confidence that he could achieve every next goal – externally and internally.
The journey became a profound research process: What happens when we listen more consciously to our inner emotional world? How does courage arise? Why is trust the starting point for every change? His film about cycling across Africa became the most successful documentary film of the last seven years.
Anselm Pahnke Lecture topics (excerpt)
- Brain or heart?
Strategies between logic and gut feeling
- Live safely or experience life?
Courageously breaking new ground
- Struggle or act?
Learning to embrace uncertainty
In his lectures, he shows how intuition, experience and trust interact, why uncertainty can be an opportunity, and what psychological environment is needed for courage to arise and transformation to succeed.
Even today, Anselm Pahnke consciously seeks out uncertainty. He collaborates with neuroscientific institutes, participates in studies on brain activity and emotional reactions in transformation processes, and applies these findings to the question of how people and organisations make courageous decisions.
In addition, Anselm offers the workshop ‘Courage Rooms – Secure Inside, Courageous Outside’ on request to put what was experienced in the lecture into practice.
“Courage is like a muscle. Courage comes from doing.”
Customer feedback on Anselm’s keynote:
“Anselm, our find on the topic of resilience, touched us deeply. He combines honesty with warmth and tells his extraordinary story in a way that not only captivates but also inspires reflection. He opens up new perspectives and guides us towards self-discovery. After his lecture, his warm and appreciative manner was particularly sought after, and he devoted himself to personal dialogue with dedication.”
– Christine Aly – ITpoint Systems AG CH