A MOMENT WITH SVEN MAIK
A MOMENT WITH
SVEN MAIKRANZ
was born and raised in Germany , where I went to school and university . I got an MSc and wanted to get into environmental technology . The destruction of the environment was already a hot topic at that time , and I wanted to do something useful in that field . I then started a 20-year career in the energy industry in a company that specialized in oil-waste reduction . But when I entered the management level , I got less excited about technology , but more about the question of why people do what they do and how to influence behaviour positively . In the beginning , it was more about selfdevelopment , but quickly became a passion for understanding how the human mind works and how we can influence it . Over the years , people saw my passion for it and encouraged me to go deeper into that fields . What followed was many years of exploring different fields of education , which led to several coaching certifications . When I started doing some work in that field , I immediately thought about how this could be scaled to reach more people . This again led to the formation of my company , where I built a coaching platform , and it was also the beginning of Upstrive .
What brought you to the Middle East ?
I left Germany more than twenty years ago , and my corporate career in the energy industry brought me to many different and exciting places . The journey took me to the US , Norway , Holland , Malaysia , Azerbaijan and for the last six years in Dubai . We have never been in one place , as long as in Dubai . It seems like a common theme ; people come for 2-3 years and stay a lot longer !
What inspires you most ?
I had a “ wake-up ” moment during my career when I reached a position I always dreamed of , and it did not feel anywhere close to what I always anticipated . That taught me a big lesson on pursuing material or career goals , and I realized that the one thing that truly inspired me was to make a positive difference in someone else ’ s life . It is like planting a seed that grows over time and will be passed on . Positions , careers , material things all pass ; they are just tags we carry for a limited time , and then they get passed on - but if you have made a difference in someone ’ s life , it ’ s something that will continue to live and grow forever . And when we started developing Upstrive , I always said if we just change one student ’ s life with it , it was all worth it .
Share two major challenges that you faced . How did you overcome them ?
The biggest challenge I ever faced was to try to change myself ! When I was 33 , I attended training on transactional analysis ( a fancy word for how we behave and why ). I arrived at that training , as what I thought I was , a “ happy and content ” person , and after three days , I was in pieces , realizing many things about myself that I did not necessarily like and how fooled I got by some of my beliefs . That is where I decided to make changes but did not realize how difficult it would be . And this led to being even more fascinated by the question of what forces are at play in our mind , that make us behave in a certain way despite wanting something different .
A second interesting challenge for me was to change my thinking when I became an entrepreneur . Coming from a corporate career in an industry where incidents needed to be prevented at any cost , I had to work on myself to look at what opportunities there are and not what can go wrong . And at the same time , I needed to focus and be careful not to get carried away by implementing too many things at the same time . We have tons of ideas on how we can take Upstrive even further , so we keep a close eye on making sure we go step by step .
What is Upstrive , and what do you hope to achieve in the region with Upstrive ?
Upstrive all started more than two years ago in a meeting with my good friend , Linda Bonnar , who is the author of the coaching book for teenagers , PRESS PLAY . I loved what Linda had created and knew that an app would be an even better way to reach and support more young people around the world . That was the spark that started Upstrive .
Upstrive is an integrated system comprising of an app and a desktop application designed to help educators measure , manage and positively impact student wellbeing , while equipping students themselves with a toolkit for success . It works in real-time , allowing schools and organizations to identify challenges students are facing , emerging trends and individual cases in any class , year group or across an entire school , quickly . Upstrive analyses the data from student entries and provides school staff with that information so that they can intervene quickly and effectively , to address issues and prevent problems from escalating . This is something we are most proud of with Upstrive actually ; because of the app and how students can log how they ’ re feeling , school counsellors have been able to identify students who have been self-harming and atrisk and work with them , to provide them with the support they ’ ve needed . And it ’ s important that everything can be done anonymously to protect identities if required .
Our objective for Upstrive in the region ( and globally ) is simple ; to improve the mental wellbeing of every young person . We believe we can do this by giving young people a tool they can use to express themselves , develop their self-awareness and learn ways of managing themselves even better . There is a global mental health epidemic taking place , and
48 Term 1 Sep - Dec 2021 After the Bell