Marc Winn
You may have come across a Venn diagram about purpose, with four overlapping circles and the word ikigai in the middle. I drew that in 2014, on this island, in about an hour. It has since been used by millions of people who have no idea it came from Guernsey. I mention it because it is the clearest example I have of the thing I am actually good at, which is putting ideas and people together in a way that travels further than I do.
I have lived most of my life in Guernsey. I know how it works, which is a different thing from knowing where things are, and I know that from the outside it can look closed even when nobody intends it to be.
Along the way I created the Ikigai Venn diagram, the one that ended up on several million walls and slide decks, and I wrote The 50 Coffee Adventure. Both came out of the same conviction: that most of what changes in a life changes through conversation with one other person, and that this is far more powerful than anyone gives it credit for.
The method behind Welcome Aboard is the same as The 50 Coffee Adventure. Change happens one conversation at a time. A year of the right introductions will do more for your family than any amount of orientation material.
Photograph to be added
Marc somewhere recognisably Guernsey, a cliff path, the harbour or a parish lane.
Why I do this
I have watched people arrive here with everything sorted, the house, the school, the job, and leave two years later because nobody ever asked them round. Everybody loses in that story. The family loses the years. The employer loses the hire. The island loses a person who might have made it better.
It seemed absurd that the logistics of arriving are a whole industry and the part that decides the outcome is nobody's job. So I made it mine.
I will also tell you the truth about the place. If Guernsey is wrong for you, I would rather say so over a coffee than take a retainer for a year and watch you work it out yourself.
Elsewhere
- theviewinside.me
Where I write. Essays on meaning, purpose and living a contrarian life, and the origin story of the Ikigai diagram.
- marcwinn.com
Where I work with founders, chief executives and leadership teams, getting to the soul of their organisation.
- marcwinn.org
My digital twin. A space to think things through in conversation with me.
- 50coffees.org
The 50 Coffee Adventure. My practice for building connection one conversation at a time, and the method underneath everything on this site.