Name: Magnus Danielson
Claim to fame: Runs a collective community house in Sweden
Words of Wisdom: “Good decisions come from wisdom, wisdom comes from bad decisions”
————
Magnus Danielson is the leader of the Collective Sunshine in Stockholm, Sweden. The Collective Sunshine is a community house made up of 12 people, most of whom are active Couchsurfers. They regularly welcome surfers to their collective, and share the joys of hosting, entertaining and getting to know their guests.
At the collective, members do many activities together like cooking, hosting events and simply spending time with each other. They are all very social and appreciate being surrounded by friends and experiencing life together. Magnus began running the Collective Sunshine in 2010 when he returned home from his world tour where he visited 20 different countries.
“I was out hitchhiking the world for about 14 months and stayed with a lot of different people and pretty much Couchsurfed the whole time. For a few days in 2009 I was even staying with the Couchsurfing collective in Istanbul.”
He admits that he didn’t always have much of a plan, and Couchsurfers would often come through for him at the last minute.
“One day I arrived in Münich at around 5 pm or so after hitchhiking all day and realized ‘Oh, I don’t have a place to stay tonight.’ So I wrote my phone number in the last minute Couchsurfing group and had 3 messages within an hour.”
Back in 2008, Magnus was inspired by a friend’s stories of her own Couchsurfing experiences and decided to give it a try. As soon as he signed up, he jumped right in, trying out as many new things as possible.
“After I signed up I got a ”welcome letter” the next day which inspired me to join an event. I met some cool people and decided to try hosting the next weekend. That went pretty well so when I had a business trip to Geneva the next weekend I joined a Couchsurfing potluck there and thought it was a lot of fun. Three weeks after joining Couchsurfing, I hosted my first event at my place. I had perhaps 30-35 people at my little 47 sq. meter flat, which quickly felt a bit small, but we had SO much fun together!”
After having such great success during his first few weeks on Couchsurfing, Magnus began to host larger events, utilizing common areas within his housing association and also organized outdoor events like BBQs. His last event before kicking off his world tour in 2009 brought 150 people together, many of whom he still keeps in touch with today.
Magnus says that traveling and Couchsurfing have made him much more of a risk taker. In fact, he initially saw results when he went back to work after his first long trip.
“Suddenly I didn’t really care if I would get fired, so I would tell people what I thought and would do what I thought was right. I had so many ‘Oh man, I am SO gonna get fired today’ moments, but in the end what happened was that my career really took off and I got more responsibilities and freedom. Today, when I take a job, I tell my employer straight away ‘I prefer to have a blank paper regarding what my tasks should be, trust me, I’ll figure out what you need to have done.’”
In 2014 Magnus started his own consultancy firm while leaving plenty of time for traveling. He has truly discovered the beauty of working for himself, taking extended time off, and returning to his work when it’s the right time for him.
The Sunshine Collective threw their big annual house party in October 2017 and are looking forward to their next big event in June. For these events, the members invite many friends, both old and new from around the world. These parties are an important part of the collective and allow them socialize with members or the community as well as fellow travelers and Couchsurfers, and possibly even meet some future collective members.
You can learn more about the Sunshine Collective by checking out their website. Magnus leaves us with some parting words that he lives by:
“I never fail, I only have learning experiences.”