Mentor Spotlight: LJ Bjørkevoll
Lars Johan Bjørkevoll, “LJ,” is a curious and creative person, and building businesses have become his “creative outlet’” — he loves the commercial “game” connected to the above and tends to become very enthusiastic and loud when discussing topics related to this. He has spent a lot of time exploring the “inner workings” of life and has done so for over 20 years — Self Exploration, Meditation, and Qigong/Taiji are all vital parts of his life. You could say he’s loud and busy on the outside, very quiet and stable on the inside.
We couldn’t think of a better day to feature LJ as we are officially partnering with his company ScaleUpXQ, an initiative with a focus to strengthen tech companies ripe for commercial scaling and growth. We sat down with LJ to learn where he gets his inspiration from & what keeps him motivated.
1. How did you learn to embrace and take risks?
By not contemplating to much over what to do, but rather do a lot. Doing a lot of things changes your perspectives on risk, as you start to see that things tend to work out if you just do enough. The worst thing to do is to hold back while contemplating risk — you’ll deprive yourself from something potentially great to happen.
2. What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?
Try to see each situation for what it is, not what it “should be” — and act accordingly.
3.What’s the greatest piece of advice you would give to founders or aspiring entrepreneurs?
Don’t spend time trying to do things right — Get into action as soon as possible. Increase the level of quantity/activity and don’t be afraid to compromise on quality sometimes. The more you do the greater the chance is for something great to happen.
4. Tell us a story about how you have failed forward in your career.
I would never have met the Founders of Mesh and worked with them in 2012–2013 if it was not for my previous business adventure failing. And by working at Mesh I became friends with one of the founders of Xeneta which later led me to work with them. Most of my active network in the entrepreneurial community springs out from my Mesh and Xeneta days, so one might say that that my failure in business in 2011 led me to where I am today.
5. If you could describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
Enthusiasm, Grit, Business Savvy
6. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing our world?
Distribution of wealth and power.
7. Who would you say has inspired you the most on your journey and why?
Swedish Success Entrepreneur, Richard Båge, has had a huge impact on how I see business. He gave me the chance to be part of building a great company(Mediaplanet) and the responsibility and trust to do it the way I saw fit — even though I had no prior experience in this field.
My Teacher and Mentor in Eastern Practices, dr.Shen Hongxun, for guiding me on the journey on self exploration and helping me to see “spirituality” in a very direct and pragmatic way — no new age bullshit, but a scientific approach, pure action and respect for every persons individual inner landscape.
8. Why do you believe in what Katapult Accelerator is doing?
Katapult contributes in changing the world by connecting and empowering the right people and companies in doing so. I belive in more doing and less talking and Katapult is a strong contribution to ‘the doing part’ of things.
9. If you were an emoji, which one would you be?
An atom ⚛️
