Interview with Johannes: “There is a reason why you came.”

When I asked Johannes about what he learned at Knowmads, and what he ended up doing. This was the story he told me:

“Without Knowmads I would not have such a huge toolbox, so richly equipped with strategies and ways to deal with challenging situations, both personally and work wise.

The way I move in my everyday world of making a living is very different from before. Knowmads has irreversibly made me into a rebel.

It’s not all perfect, Knowmads is super imperfect just like human beings. Also, my life after Knowmads has been quite a ride.

In my case I had a long distance relationship with my old girlfriend in Germany, she remained in Dresden, a ten-hour train ride from Amsterdam. We have just split up.

Now the tools I learned back in tribe 8 are invaluable.

She was studying to be a teacher. While I was a thousand miles away, doing my crazy little business school in Amsterdam.

I really wanted to make it through Knowmads with my partner, since she’s been my partner since I’m 23. I didn’t want to listen to the nudges to change that might make the distance even larger between us. I’m a stubborn person like that.

Now I look in the book which I took to Nature Quest, that I haven’t looked since Knowmads. It has poems and letters to my future self. It contains moments of clarity where I wrote down what really is important to me in life.

That insight is coming to me even now.

It is important to know Knowmads is not a conventional school.

This was frustrating to me at first, I was waiting for someone to deliver something to me. I was looking to consume.

Then I had a session with my counselor Tsila three months into the program.

She told me: “There is a reason why you came. You quit your job, you explained to your girlfriend where you’re going, you paid a lot of money for a loan, you packed all your stuff in a van and moved here. It was because you are looking for something. You better make sure you find the thing you’re looking for.”

And I was like “Shit, she’s right”.

That was the moment I realized I had to take responsibility for my learning.

Then I came upon a critical point in my life where everything came together. I found my calling, met my current boss, the people I work with and even the type of Buddhism I now practice.

It was a conference in Driebergen. It was over 2000 euro’s to get in.

I wouldn’t be who I am today if I didn’t contact Fokke from the Knowmads network and asked him: ‘How would you persuade these people to give us a scholarship?’

I was able to get in and it changed everything.

The network that Knowmads opens to you, I would easily pay the entire tuiton fee for.

It’s a family or very tight knit community simply by virtue of entering the school. There’s a smallest common denominator connecting you to everyone who has gone through Knowmads.

There are business people, alternative education thinkers, change-makers in the broadest sense of the world. All these people, they’re going to do crazy shit in their lives. I’m a 100% sure that there will always be wonderful things happening in our network.”

To reach Knowmad Johannes Hoffenreich from Tribe 8
Email Johannes@knowmads.nl or find him at @jhoffenreich.

Story by Sabine Wong: Sabine@knowmads.nl