Kai Christen was a shy, sensitive child, who found school stressful. It’s something you might not see in him when you meet because he radiates confidence, extraversion and a sense of peace with himself.

Kai was born and grew up in Aargau, Switzerland. In high-school he intentionally tried to be cooler but never felt successful at it. At age 16 he discovered personal development through Dale Carnegie and thought “I don’t have to be broken any longer”. Now he doesn’t like that framing anywhere and laughs about the idea of being broken. But pursuing personal development was one of the most important drivers in his life.

When Kai went to university he felt like he fit in a lot more. But he still describes himself as a bad student who didn’t pay attention in class, and was more interested in partying. He always found school unengaging and now that he teaches at universities himself he thinks hard about how to make class interesting for his students.

I met Kai in 2014 when he was working on his first personal development conference and we quickly became friends and business partners running two conferences together. This conversation was recorded in December 2018 and is finally seeing the light of day.

Today Kai runs personal leadership modules at universities around Switzerland, and generally follows his curiosity and passion on new business ventures.

On today’s podcast:

• How Kai’s mother was smuggled out of Czechoslovakia through the iron curtain when she was a child
• Being disinterest in school and obsessed with video games
• How he was athletic until he became self-conscious
• The transformational experience of moving out of home to a new city
• Becoming best friends with your flatmates
• Learning to be yourself as an adult
• Becoming a trainer and coach
• Only working with people you enjoy spending time with
• Organising two personal development conferences
• Radical Honesty and distinguishing between what you know and what you think you know
• Three Principles and the story of Sydney Banks
• Tiny houses, minimalism, and living between places
• Moving to Berlin and failing
• Volunteering in Lesbos, Greece, during the refugee crisis
• Why helping others is the most selfish thing you can do (in a good way)
• The detrimental effects of news

Links:

• Kai’s Business
• Kai’s Instagram
• Kai’s LinkedIn