Anybody who has had the opportunity to watch the South African documentary film "My Octopus Teacher" by Craig Foster on Netflix, would probably have come away thinking quite differently about the octopus. And thinking differently is what this month’s speaker, Perry Knoppert, of the Octopus Movement, is all about.
Perry is a mad multipotentialite misfit, you might say crazy, well perhaps in that Steve Jobs think different way.
"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes ... the ones who see things differently…"
He was born in The Netherlands, famous for its liberal life, bikes and bulbs, and began working with his father on the market selling lampshades - but he knew there must be more to life than this. You might say he had a light bulb moment.
It all changed when he went with his family to live in Beijing, China. Learning Chinese was a delight, trying to understand the culture, finding a way to live there. He was going to be the first foreign taxi driver in China! His crazy brain with unexpected routes of thinking made him successful in an environment that was completely the opposite of his background.
Instead of seeing his ADHD energy, dyslexic preference for visual and verbal learning, and multi-task switching brain as a disability or disorder, they became his assets for seeing and doing things differently.
He reinvented himself as a non-linear thinker and created The Octopus Movement to make a difference for other multi-passionate people to use their diverse knowledge and outside-of-the-box thinking for the better.
"they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do." (Steve Jobs, 1997).
Programme:
11:00 - Open the zoom room and SA Chamber news 11:10 - Enter your business details into the chat – This will be circulated amongst attendees after the meeting 11:15 - Introduce our speaker, Perry Knoppert – The Octopus movement 11:30 - Questions 11:40 - Breakout room networking x2 12:00 - Finish
