154: Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt – What’s Next is Now: How to be Future-Ready

Our guest in this episode is Dr. Frederik G. Pferdt, Google's
first and former chief innovation evangelist, future optimist and
author of the newly released book: “What's Next Is Now: How to
Live Future Ready”. Frederik is an adjunct professor at Stanford
University, a future optimist and an author. As a global thought
leader and as Google’s first and former chief evangelist,
Frederik has built and trained vast communities of innovation
catalysts, ambassadors and coaches for organizations including
Adidas, Uber, Bayer, Daimler, the FBI, the German Soccer
Association, Lufthansa, NASA, the NBA, SAP, CEO Digital Forum and
governments from more than 25 countries around the world.
Frederik's latest book, which has been released on June the 18th
is called “What's Next is Now, How to Live Future Ready” and
delves into the topic of how to invent a better future. “What's
next is now. You decide in this moment with optimism, with
openness, with curiosity, with empathy, how the next moment will
turn out, that's how you can choose.” Mastering the controllable
elements of our daily existence is fundamental in sculpting a
future that we actively shape, guiding us towards the lives we
aspire to lead. Rather than dwelling on circumstances beyond our
influence, we can choose to identify the aspects we can truly
manage and dedicate ourselves to nurturing those. We have the
choice to approach situations with open-mindedness, warmth, and
empathy. Such choices wield significant influence over both our
personal and professional spheres, both now and in future. In
this enlightening conversation, Frederik expands on how optimism,
hope, and empathy empower us to steer the trajectory of our own
personal future. From shifting our perspective by upside down
questioning and revealing things we weren’t aware of to the
dimensions that enable people to achieve remarkable things and to
the ways we can learn by teaching others. One thing is for sure:
If you’re worried about the future, the solution is not to look
ahead. You need to learn that what’s next is now. By the way:
What can the man who got married at Burning Man teach us about
future optimism, how did he go from being a shy boy to becoming a
global thought leader and how is sitting still for 10 hours on
one day rewarding? – tune in!