Key Points from my Conversation with Brage Johansen

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Key Points

• Actively seek out unconventional thinkers
  Actively seek out “crazy” people with unconventional ideas and become a great listener. Most breakthrough opportunities come from inventors others ignore.
  
  
• Build your luck surface deliberately
  The more fascinating, obsessive people you surround yourself with, the higher the chance world-changing ideas find you.
  
  
• Master storytelling
  In the early stage of anything (startup, project, career), master storytelling over technical details. Investors and people ultimately buy a feeling about the future, not spreadsheets. Focus on creating vivid, positive emotions in others. People forget facts, but never forget how you made them feel about what’s possible.
  
  
• Focus on solving timeless problems
  Choose problems that will still matter even if the current megatrend slows down. Timeless human needs (health, food, safety) give you anti-fragility.
  
  
• Small teams + partnerships
  Keep teams tiny and partner aggressively instead of building everything in-house, as it often complexity kills speed and sanity. A core team of 8–10 can still conquer the world.
  
  
• Know your phase
  Know your phase and step aside gracefully when the company needs a different leader. The founder energy of 3–4 people is magical, but scaling requires a more rational and structured mind with great organizational skills.
  
  
• Reconnect with nature’s rhythms
  Reconnect with natural rhythms (sun, moon, seasons) instead of living by artificial seconds and minutes. Modern clock time disconnects us from biology and increases stress.
  
  
• Embrace discomfort and the unknown
  Accept that extreme highs and crushing lows are the normal emotional price of building anything meaningful. Embrace the full rollercoaster instead of seeking comfort.
  
  
• Work hard fueled by meaning
  Work hard not for money or status, but for the pure joy of creation and impact. When meaning is the real fuel, financial outcomes become a side effect, rather than the goal.

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Transcript

Intro

[Key video clips from our conversation.]

Joachim’s Intro of the Guest

Today’s guest is Brage Johansen.

He’s a serial entrepreneur, and investor who’s also 20 years deep into the space sector.
Brage is an engineer with a philosopher’s soul, who have focused on driving the green shift. He spearheaded Norway’s first public hydrogen station in 2006, and produced a hydrogen concept sportscar called FYK.

Brage is co-founder and former CEO of Zaptec, producing EV chargers.
Co-founder and former CEO of Heimdall Power, digitizing power grids through sensors and software to increase capactiy and safety, while reducing cost of maintenance.
As well as, co-founder and former CEO of Desert Control, making deserts green again through the use of liquid nano clay.

Today, as co-founder and CEO of Spectrum Blue, he is pioneering photocatalytic quantum coatings that create electric fences against microbes for healthcare, to be used on surfaces in the health, property and space sector.

He’s also a board member of the government’s Export Strategy Council, along with a range of board seats in various companies over the years.

When not lecturing on astronomy or Vikings, he explores Earth’s Greatest Moves
through an innovative clock that rethinks time by syncing to planetary rotation.

…and now dear friends, my conversation with Brage Johansen.