The Angry Optimist on how to find opportunities before everyone else

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon after discovering that the Internet was growing by 2300 percent per year.

Most people miss such trends and instead believe the opposite:

• When something gets better, most think it gets worse.
• When something gets cheaper, most think it gets more expensive.

Optimist's Edge is a method you can use to find opportunities before everyone else.

In my talk, I will show you how to use this tool.

Jeff Bezos used Optimist's Edge to start Amazon.

In my talk, I will show you how to use the Optimist's Edge.

And I'll present some great opportunities today, and how they can affect your organization.

Get in touch: mathias.sundin@warpinstitute.org

I'm the Angry Optimist

During my time as a Member of Parliament, I became more and more optimistic – and angrier and angrier.

Fact-based optimist

I met so many people creating a better future. Innovating and finding opportunities. And others, like Hans Rosling and Steven Pinker, showed me how the world is constantly improving. I felt such strong optimism.

Angry

But afterward, when I read about their ideas and inventions, I found only negative headlines and pessimists who called them naive. That made me really angry.

Fixing the problem

I turned that anger and optimism into action.

I quit politics and founded the Warp Institute Foundation. Now a global community of over 50,000 optimistic, forward-looking people.

A big part of that is Warp News with fact-based optimistic news. I'm the editor-in-chief and CEO.

Fun (?) facts about me

• I have the (unofficial) door-to-door record. Knocking on 10,001 doors in my campaign for Parliament.
• I was the world's first political candidate to only accept campaign donations in bitcoin.
• I used to run Sweden's largest blog about American politics, and I've met three U.S. Presidents.

• I've founded three startups. The first was a dot-com startup a few months after the dot-com crash...
• I was the youngest person to become a Deputy Mayor in my hometown, Norrköping.
• I reached the third highest position in my party, just before I told them I was going to quit and start something called Warp. They misunderstood and thought I said I was going to start something that had to do with wraps...

• I could have bought 100 bitcoin in 2012 for $1 each. At the peak, they would have been worth almost $7 million. But I didn't because the headlines fooled me. It's a scam! It's only for buying drugs!
• I still have several North Korean cigarettes that I bought on an (official) trip there. I don't know why I bought them, since I don't smoke.

My talk: Optimist's Edge

In 1994, a thin-haired man with a boisterous laugh sat in his office at a New York hedge fund.

Among all the numbers he looked at every day, one stood out.
Something called the internet grew by 2300 percent per year.

The number of users was tiny.
But with such growth, billions of people would soon use it.

This was an opportunity worth quitting a lucrative Wall Street job over.

Said and done.

His wife drove the car to Seattle.
He sat in the passenger seat, writing a business plan.
They would start by selling books - but eventually sell everything.

What Jeff Bezos used to start Amazon was the Optimist's Edge.

• See the facts, instead of getting fooled by negative headlines.
• Using optimism to dream and dare to act.

That gave him an edge. The Optimist's Edge.

Giving your organization the Optimist's Edge

Optimist's Edge is a tool we at Warp Institute have developed.

A pair of glasses you can put on. With them, you'll see tons of opportunities.

You can apply the glasses to a problem. Or to be creative.

It is a tool. A method you can use in your daily life, your career, and your organization.

Adapted

The talk can be adapted based on your wishes and needs.

It could be anything from 5 to 55 minutes.

You can add on a workshop.

We can send you and your co-workers a weekly Optimist's Edge article.

And you can ask me to focus on certain edges and technologies. Like AI, space, green tech or food tech.

Reach out, and we'll find a solution that fits you.

Get in touch: mathias.sundin@warpinstitute.org

Some previous talks

TEDx

In my TEDx talk, I reveal the secret to all human innovation. This is the foundation for my fact-based optimism.

International

I've spoken at eBay (Salt Lake City), XPrize Visioneers (Los Angeles), World Frontiers Forum (Harvard/MIT, Boston), Hub (Berlin), Cryptolina (Raleigh), World Expo (Dubai).

Sweden

Jernkontoret, Lundbergs, Google, Fabege, Internetdagarna, Linköpings kommun, Astronomisk ungdom, Norrköping Science Park, Carrus Network, TEDx, Minnesota PR.

”Vi ligger ganska långt fram i vår förändringsprocess, men är ändå ödmjuka inför det faktum att det är en ständigt pågående resa. Man blir aldrig färdig. Mathias Sundin hjälpte oss att bredda våra perspektiv och se saker från andra vinklar. Ska vi vara ledande inom hållbar stadsutveckling krävs att vi ser helheten från  alla framtida kunders perspektiv.”

Roger Ekström, vice VD Fastighets AB L E Lundberg

Moderator

I also moderate events sometimes. If you want someone with broad knowledge of technology, digitization, and green technologies, I'm your guy.

Make the future come sooner

I'm convinced the future will be better than the present, and very much better than the past.

But not by itself. We must make it so. And that is what I work on every day.

I live in Stockholm and in our small cottage in the south of Sweden, with my wife Emma and son Teddy.

Get in touch: mathias.sundin@warpinstitute.org