102. Mapping Your Life Territory – Anthony Willoughby

Mind the Shift

Anthony Willoughby has been described as an eccentric, an adventurer, an explorer, an entrepreneur and a team-builder. He has lived his life staying away from restricting social structures.

At school, he was the odd man out.

”Oh, I was completely ostracized”, he says.

Today, he sees that as a privilege, because he didn’t want to be a part of a mainstream he never understood.

Anthony is an eighth generation expatriate. He grew up in Sudan, Egypt and East Africa, experiencing fascinating wildlife and adventures.

Then he was sent to school in England, which completely lacked enthusiasm for life.

His luckiest moment at school was when his house master said ”let’s talk about your future”.

”’Anthony’, he said, ’let’s make one thing absolutely clear: you are far, far too stupid to go to university’. I remember the sense of freedom.”

Education has not changed in hundreds of years, and it is basically designed to train people to work in factories or go to the trenches, according to Anthony.

”The brain is damaged by it. It completely removes creativity.”

So he began a life of travel and human encounters.

He was based in Japan for 30 years. From there he made adventurous excursions to Yemen, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea and East Africa.

”It was when I met with the Maasai in Kenya I saw people who had substance without arrogance. I thought: why aren't we taught presence, why aren't we taught identity, why aren't we taught who we are?”

In Papua New Guinea, Anthony learned the importance of knowing one’s territory. That was the beginning of the two consultancies he is now running: Territory Mapping and Nomadic School of Business.

”Nomads have this glorious sense of being able to welcome people on their territory. They have absolute confidence. They know who they are.”

He began asking business people ”what are you hunting, what are you protecting and what are you growing?” and had them draw their own territory maps.

”You can build teams in a company quite easily. But the purpose and the identity is what is missing”, he says.

He and his associates are now working in exactly the same way with billionaire families in America as with homeless people in Wales.

Anthony laughingly says that he in some ways loved Covid, and he loves the recently launched artificial intelligence robot Chat GPT.

”People thought structure, stability and certainty existed, but they’re delusions! They’re delusions that people build their lives on. But they’re meaningless if you don’t know who you are.”

”And suddenly the arrogance of knowledge does not exist. The only thing that matters is wisdom. We’re going right back to the basics.”

Anthony’s email address Anthony’s two consultancies: Territory Mapping Nomadic School of Business