Marcel Gasser
Entrepreneur, mentor, business angel
Switzerland
How to - from human being to being human.
What is the meaning of life? What is the essence or driver behind all our activities? For me, it certainly changed after I discovered a tumour in my head – behind my 3rd eye – in 2014. Neglecting the traditional medicine “or path of suffering” as I call it, as I realized after just two days, was nothing for me. My healing and spiritual journey brought me everywhere within the last four years. Along my way, I’ve met, obviously with no co-incidence, many special beings, for example, healers in Tibet or shamans in Greenland.
I am an entrepreneur by heart, founded over 6 companies, felt being successful, never satisfied, while I was outer world driven. Today I can relax, be more inward-focused, clear. Being a source of inspiration for the entrepreneurs and leaders I support in finding what you truly love and doing it with joy and effortlessness is what fulfils me. Feeling the difference? Being gifted and discover my true being, inner connection and motivation – my passion, I’m now able to motivate others in a very rational understandable way to go on their own journeys. So, what is life about? It is humans’ biggest gift and is all about the experience. There is nothing like good or bad, that’s our perception or labels, as we use too often today. Once you understand that there is nothing without meaning or gain in your life – even if it is “painful” then you discover the beautiful depth of life and yourself.
How to include the spirit of faith in our “business” life? Well for me I discovered a simple 3-dimensional pyramid of how to balance, self-heal and relax your complete being in a more and more stressed, digital and complex environment. Also, this is just labelled by our mind, as I found out life is actually simple and easy. Currently focussing all my projects on the field of transforming human beings – mind driven and unaware towards being human – heart-driven, aware and connected. The same words, just in a different order, remove a lot of stiffness and nonsense. The term “being human” feels even more soft and relaxed if you speak both out loud. Within that process, I also went from an outer world driven or “somebody” towards true nature and inner connection or being a “nobody”. I’m today very proud of being a nobody in positive and spiritual meaning. Our activities as business angels, investors, coach’s or entrepreneurs shall be easy, effortless, elegant and enjoyable.
What do you do today?
My today, as a businessperson, is that I help founders, entrepreneurs and managers to become successful – as a person and a business. My product is clarity installed in these clients on all levels. My greatest joy is to make others successful, after accomplishing my level of success myself when I left my company in 2015. Before that moment is was involved in building 10+ companies in various industries and always with a very global approach. I sometimes call that I switched 2015 from service to self (STS) to Service to Others (STO). Being generous is always rewarded by the universe in more generosity for yourself, so you can see it as a very “lucrative investment”. My mission is that I feel that I need to combine business and the spiritual world. This also resonates with Cocoon because I can see the benefits once you synchronize the mind and the heart and better understanding yourself, your purpose, and mission. A lot of successful entrepreneurs are proof that you need to have both. But in the traditional business world, we tend to use only the mind.
Besides helping others, I have 2 projects that are driven by myself. These are co-living communities. In the past, we shared apartments, but, in the future, we share villages. We want to build 20 of those villages around the world and link them with each other. I can buy a bedroom, but it can be in any village – I can move around, and I partly own one part of those 20 communities. We also like to call them “universities of growth and life”.
The second thing is a conscious business club “club of life” where we combine inspiration, exchange, and personal development into a kind of “new age” business club. For that, we build our own first retreat/club space in the south of Switzerland – or so-called little Italy. The network of like-minded people is more than just a group of entrepreneurs doing business together. It is like a sports club where you focus on helping each other, growing together, and achieving certain goals. Especially in spiritual-/personal development, it is crucial to have a level of routine or some sort of habit to keep the process and progress up.
I love understanding minds in the business and spiritual perspective. I am also very happy that I travel 10 months of the year, of which half is spend in my 2nd home in Thailand – as I became a nomad since 2015 more out of coincidence. I never used to call myself a nomad, but now, also with more people working remotely, many understand what that means. The playground out there is so exciting that I don’t want to go home. I want to be at the playground, I feel at home everywhere, I am a global citizen. I observe and gather information like a sponge. Connect projects from different countries or industries, helping companies to scale abroad or transfer innovation. I think I can’t complain about anything in my life right now – it is very enjoyable. I know how fortunate I am to be in this position to help others. Because I built up my businesses, I have a constant income, and I can also work, although I wouldn’t call it work, I can do what I want regardless of the money. I don’t need to run behind the money. This is why I have a lot of time. That is actually – if I can rephrase that – this is the luxury of life if you don’t have to work for money and can use this financial independence that gives you time, and you can choose where you are going to invest that time. It is a great privilege to invest the time where your passion is and not just for generating your income.
How did you get there?
The funny thing is – there are no coincidences in life. The most significant part for me was when I had a tumor in my head in 2014, and I was very frightened for two days. Will I survive? How will I survive? A big problem. After two days, I even told my parents that this is the best that could happen. So before I had the treatments and solutions for the tumor, I realized that this would be an amazing life-changing event. I have seen the signs. I didn’t run away. After two days, I understood how beneficial such experience can be. I would also say that I was prepared. To be honest, I knew nothing, but the only thing I had was the trust that I will find a solution, and it will be a positive solution. Even if it seems dark and bad, it is going to be positive. I think with this I shifted my life – it changed completely. I learned a lot. I was running around for my healing journey. I went to Tibet. I didn’t want to use chemicals, and I used herbs for my healing. I learned so much in this process. I was fortunate to meet the right people. And there are no coincidences – I kept meeting different people. And how I got there – you have to have a trust. SO simple. Many people say they want to flow through life. Yes, you are flowing, but if you don’t have trust in yourself and the universe, it will not happen. It’s like when you go to a restaurant, and you trust that you will get food served. You don’t have to do anything. You just need to trust that you will get the food. I think life serves the same – it will serve everything you need.
Another thing is not forcing it. I tended to force everything. Before the tumor I had four companies, I did an MBA, I was very successful. Close to burn out and quite unhappy. So the more you force things, the more difficult it gets. It’s because you create resistance. It happens naturally. Even if I fly on a plane very fast, there is still a lot of resistance. I need a lot of energy to fly fast. But if I don’t have the wing, I don’t have the resistance. Then you just float. It takes a little bit more, but I would say it is much more efficient. It is actually very nice with this wind and water. I feel that right now, I am cruising through life and again – I have to trust that there will be wind and water.
Another thing which I really believe is that everything non-achieving or non-forcing comes from spirit. When you switch to “I’ll go wherever it carries me,” it is very spiritual, and you have all the support. It might be difficult to understand, but life is actually very simple. I didn’t have a big goal to become what I am now; it was just very organic, trusting, and flowing. I am so excited! I don’t even know what will happen after a few months. I never know.
Why do you do what you do today?
I already gave some hints. To be honest, it is really this STO – Service to Others. It is not my rational mind, it’s my heart saying. I really care about people and nature. I think I care so much for other beings, and its everything. Because I discovered myself in this process of healing and leaving my business, taking off some masks.
Another big motivation is to inspire others. If you have a diagnosis of a tumor - it’s not the end. Even if it is the end, it’s still not the end. You can’t really lose something. It is only in your mind. You get scared. I would say something, that took me many years to discover, I want to share with people in a nutshell because life gets so much more intense and interesting. Once you understand a little bit about how it works. I am not saying I am right – I am only talking about myself, and I can’t talk about someone else. I see my life, and I can kind of conclude what is right for me. I believe that everybody has their own interpretation of life. So the motivation is really to inspire and to create.
When it comes to creation, I don't want to be creator, I want to be the creation. It has a big difference. It's also with dance - I don't want to be the dancer, I want to be the dance. It sounds big, but I think we can become a dance or a creation. Then it's much more powerful. This is why I don't focus on achieving something rather than be the creation. It’s not the product, it’s rather the whole thing around it. I am not focused on single items.
Where are you going? What is your vision?
I focus much more internally. It is almost like I am going backward. Where we came from as a child, then we go through career, adulthood, we are eternally oriented. I can say I am more internally oriented. My way is back to me. I think when we get old or die, we get back to the roots naturally. Like when old people act like kids sometimes. Also, with diseases. We are dependent on the help of others. Just like as when we were kids. I already started my journey back to myself.
In terms of the business future, I would say the co-living communities are a big motivation. I want to live with likeminded people. I want to live with inspiring people in inspiring places. I also call it a growth university. I want to live forever on the campus of growth. Having the right people with whom to support each other's growth. For that, co-creation and co-growth are important. If we can have it, it should be on the whole planet. That’s how we did it in the past. Line in the villages - maybe one person had a fridge, and everybody shared. Even when TV came - one had a TV and everybody went there to watch it. Now everybody has five TVs. So I really look forward to that we would get back to where we came from. That we care for each other, and we share. The ownership is also important. I mean the financial, not the greed. It can’t be driven by my own interests or ego, without caring about each other, it doesn’t work. I think we have a lot of problems. For me, this is my egoistic solution for myself. To have those communities where I can live myself. So it is service to others, but it's also service to self. Because I want to live there. I get them both.
Testimonials
Farhad Niyoz
CEO of Cocoon
Picture this: You're taking off on a plane during a cloudy day. As you rise above the clouds, you find clear, blue skies. Suddenly, your thoughts are just as clear, full of vision and opportunity. This is the feeling you get when talking to Marcel. He helps clear the fog, brings lightness and shows you opportunities where you might have seen only challenges. Each session with Marcel has been a step forward for me, and I highly recommend him.
cocoonprogram.com
Tom Brooke
CEO & Founder of Qurate
Marcel is a super compassionate human being who very much lives by his feelings and intuition. He’s sharp, has a huge network, and acts fast if he thinks he can help in any way. The quality and caliber of the people he’s introduced me to is out of this world. Like attracts like as they say.
qurate.com
Kyle Dine
CEO of EqualEats
Marcel was such a breath of fresh air. He helped me realize that the business itself is a series of levers that can all be figured out. But the most impact comes from a high function person controlling them.
equaleats.com
Mihkel Trei
CEO of Dealum.com (at time of mentoring)
Marcel seems to have a totally different new perspective on things. He has approached things from angles I don't even know that I haven't thought of.