Sometimes I get the question: Why do you call yourself “The Wolf of Berlin“? Quite frankly, when I was looking for a branding, The Wolf of Berlin was the natural one for me to pick. I selected it without a lot of thinking. My first name is Wolfgang and I live in Berlin, the capital of Germany – that’s it. When I talked about that branding with my marketing advisor, he raised some very serious concerns. Wolves are dangerous animals, and most people are afraid of them. Why in the world would someone want to be coached by a wolf? My first reaction was: he is absolutely right.
Then I thought about it some more and of course I googled the wolf and found that in shamanism there is the notion of a “power animal“. A power animal is, like an angel, a creature of light without a physical body and its mission is to protect a human being and become his soulmate. So, let’s look at the wolf as a power animal. The wolf makes ancient wisdom available to us. He stands for leadership and strength. At the same time, he stands for the wild, the uncontrollable, and there is as well something mystical about the wolf. I guess everyone who saw the movie “The Wolf of Wallstreet“ was inspired by Leonardo Di Caprio’s performance as a brilliant story teller and sales guy who looked at business as a game and ruthlessly played it to the extreme.
A wolf has some amazing capabilities and is a very social animal. He lives in packs where they jointly go after fat prey. At times the wolf leaves the pack in order to go after a new experience. A wolf can smell a human being over a distance of up to 2.5 km and can walk up to 40 km in a day. He is very faithful in his relationships. The myth that the wolf is howling at the moon was actually created by Hollywood movies. Howling is the way wolves communicate over distances of up to 10 km and protect their turf. In order to maximize their outreach they put their heads back. Since they are mostly active during dusk and the night, the moon is their steady companion. But the wolf is by no means howling at the moon.
If you get inspired by the wolf as your power animal, you can enjoy personal freedom, the shelter of the pack and grow your leadership skills and self-confidence. When the wolf looks at you with his impenetrable gaze, he is asking you to listen to your soul’s calling and that is what coaching is all about!
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