Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room — Jeff Bezos
Everyone is unique, with a fascinating life story to tell. To understand someone, you must look at their successes and failures, how they bounced back or stayed down, and what motivates them. To truly know a person, you must look behind "the mask." Studying people and human behavior has shown me that we all share universal patterns, regardless of our background, ethnicity, gender, or social class.
The rich experiences that have shaped my professional and personal life come from venturing into the unknown and exploring what the world has to offer. By traveling to every corner, I’ve learned about people, cultures, and different ways of life. In 1978, I was honored to be selected by the National Committee of United World College and the Norwegian Foreign Affairs to attend Pearson College in Vancouver, Canada. There, I learned:
How can there be peace in the world without people understanding each other?
And how can this be if they dont know eachother?
After completing my International Baccalaureate in Vancouver, I traveled around the world for one year as a street musician and made a living from it. Later, I became a "pop star" with a self-financed album of my own lyrics and music.
While later completing my master's in business at BI, I started active trading in the stock market going ALL IN, taking me on a memorable rollercoaster. This resulted in two jobs to make-up for financial losses while being a full-time student. Still at BI, next followed ventures into the build-up from ground zero of my own real estate company specializing in property development, which included ownership of a portfolio of over NOK 100 million in 1986 (equal to +NOK 300M in 2024, based on 3% inflation), which became a reality due to very kind bankers.
Post my MBA, I started working with debt collection at Olympia Holding. I started as a customer service representative, working my way up to co-directing the company, which was later sold to John Fredriksen. I later also had the unique opportunity to trek into the Mongolian everlasting oasis for deep conversations with the Shamans about the meaning of life, explore the North Pole and in Antarctica been ice swimming with the Penguins, interviewing one of USA's most popular presidents, being a high school teacher for many immigrants for a time period of three years. At the same time as I was teaching, I volunteered for the non-profit magazine "=Oslo", where my task was to interview both victims and those who achieved success.
All these life experiences, together with more than 500 profile interviews of high achievers in Scandinavia's #1 business magazine, Kapital & Finansavisen, have helped me to understand why someone is willing to go ALL IN beyond their comfort zone. Growth is daring to try new things. One of these growth experiences has recently been to be a documentary filmmaker. I was fortunate to be asked by Viking Cruises to make a documentary (click for full video) about my trip together with Torstein Hagen to Antarctica with the objective to share the magnificent life-transforming experiences from being an explorer on Viking Polaris, one of the companies four exhibition ships. I'm a true believer in always trying new things, even if it seems frightening at first sight and I don’t know if the outcome will be a true disaster or a success. The only failure is not trying, as best said by Charlie Chaplin: 'Failure is unimportant, it takes courage to make a fool out of yourself.'"
"If you don't define your personal brand, others will do it for you. Take control of your narrative—shape your legacy with authenticity and purpose, ensuring it reflects the true essence of who you are. Remember, the game of life is short, so make the most out of it while you can and focus on what matters most to you."
- Lene Tangevald-Jensen
"We are all different, but share the same human spirit "as the late Prof. Stephan Hawking´s would say.
My pigeon friends are always happy to see me, even in Bogota, and each has a unique personality.
Torstein Hagen, my dear friend and mentor who has taught me the importance of physics and what it means to go ALL IN.
Meeting the people of China brings joy and suprises to me. Here learning after completing my meal what insects I had eaten. This time tarantella and cockroach. Picture taking minutes before throwing up.
This letter is my daily reminder that all you have is today, and there is no guarantee of tomorrow. Therefore, living each moment to the fullest is essential.
Antarctic, a fairy tale place of nature and silence. I loved ice swimming in this majestic spot.
"Life is what we make it"
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