Christoffer Cormier-Jensen, Serial Entrepreneur
Christoffer Cormier-Jensen
La Grande Boissière, 2009
Serial Entrepreneur
Between Canada, China and Vietnam
Learn more about me :
Currently, I live a nomadic life being based between Victoria BC, Shanghai and Hanoi. I am on the road 6+ months a year for work. I run an online art business which I like to think has had an impact on the art world. I haven't worked a "real job" since an internship during my first-year uni summer. Instead, I set up businesses that go with the flow of my life. A lot of trial/error rapid execution, testing to see what works and what doesn't. The current project is a platform to connect artists with customers through people who are skilled marketers.
My favourite memory of Ecolint was at LGB, we went to Davos with Higher Level Economics crew and Mr Thondoo. I did my EE in economics on the price of bread in Egypt and the relationship with biofuels. We were able to chat with some speaking and also with Kofi Annan on the train ride back. Those were good times.
I also got involved with a good friend of mine, Jorge by funding his PhD research project planting moringa trees in Burkina Faso. Being able to help a community of people who I have never met in a country I have never been to yet puts a smile on my face. We've planted 30,000 trees since last year helping offset C02 emissions from my business and personal life, helps the Sahel region at high risk of desertification and bootstraps an economy for locals. I am working to plant another 70,000 moringa trees by next year to hit 100,000 trees.
I've always been a very confident person and looking back a decade later, I feel like just being at Ecolint helped me develop that. It wasn't a matter of teachers or school work instilling confidence in me but more so that we were in a privileged position surrounded by others in privilege that meant that we could all think bigger/see the bigger picture.
I wouldn't change a thing. Apart from being less stressed about grades. Your grades don't dictate the success you will have in life. Enjoy the moment. You will age fast.
Your words of wisdom. I recently turned 30. When I was in high school I thought being 30 meant being a dinosaur. Turns out time goes by really, really fast. Enjoy life and don't spend time doing something you don't enjoy. If you want to start a business, do it now. Don't wait for the perfect time. There is little to no risk in starting a business while still in high school or during university. I was selling things to stores in Geneva while going to school. Just do it.
Also when you get bored, try new things.