#29 Bernhard Fanger on living a better-balanced life

Born in 1962, Bernhard Fanger is one of the “boomers” who has had an interesting career path that was anything but a straight line.

As with many things, in retrospect, it is relatively easy to connect the dots of his military service, a carpentry apprenticeship, positions in management consulting and product management and later on the board of directors and supervisory boards of medium-sized stock corporations.

The 25 years it took to draw that squiggly line were necessary to ultimately be able to take up self-employment as a consultant, mentor and author.

As such Bernhard likes to find out how his clients feel in their current situation and as part of the company. He believes — and I agree — that working with standard concepts as these very often don’t fit.

Believing personal development can be easy and enjoyable, he likes to bring his clients into Nature for a combination of trekking and coaching.

For those who won’t, can’t or can’t join him on one of those coaching treks he wrote the book ‘That's how MAN does it: Strategies and ideas for managers who are reinventing themselves professionally’. Unfortunately not available in English just yet.

A book specifically for male executives thinking of changing their professional lane and finding meaningful independence as a step onto a new path in their career.

He wants to encourage both readers and clients as they contemplate making changes in their lives. Encourage them by telling them it is okay to start small, to make mistakes, to carve out a path that is uniquely their own. Just as he himself has done.

Bernhard lives in Munich, spends a lot of time in the Austrian Alps, is married, the father of four children of his own, two stepchildren and two godchildren.