Torstein Vabo Ansari

Nanotechnologist · Entrepreneur · Former Special Forces · Father · Explorer

My Story

I grew up in a quiet but closed religious community in southern Norway called Menigheten Samfundet — the fifth of six children, arriving like pearls on a string. My parents were among the more open-minded, giving me just enough space to explore beyond the walls of belief.

Studying nanotechnology and quantum mechanics at NTNU shattered the mental cage of dogma. In that international university environment, the world cracked open: new cultures, new ideas, new ways of living. I discovered a limitless width of humanity through the student culture, and deeper fabrics of reality through quantum mechanics. On the nano-scale, reality itself collapses and reforms — mysterious, poetic, alive.

As my world expanded, I was drawn into meditation, Eastern philosophy, and a deeper ecological awareness — a recognition of how intimately the inner universe mirrors the outer one. I began to care not just about understanding reality, but about living in alignment with it: caring for people, nature, and the global ecosystem I am part of. That widened consciousness led me into entrepreneurship, the discipline of turning vision into form and creating solutions that serve community, humanity and the planet

Through entrepreneurship, a seed of divine willpower took root. I became obsessed with exploring the limits of the mind, body, and heart, which guided me into the Norwegian Special Forces, where these limits got tested to the edge and crossed, again and again and again.

From the stillness of meditation to the fire of the Arctic, from the discipline of the military to the vulnerability of losing a child. Life has carved me open. I’ve met birth and death, love and loss, power and surrender.

Now, everything I do begins from that intersection, where courageous love, holistic intelligence and wise faith meet.
Body. Mind. Spirit.

My Journey

1990
Born in Kristiansand, Norway
2011
Got accepted into Nanotechnology studies at NTNU (B.Sc. + M.Sc)
2014
Studied abroad at University of California, San Diego
2015
Got accepted into NTNU School of Entrepreneurship (M.Sc)
2017
Got accepted into the Norwegian Special Forces
2020
Finished my time in the Special Forces
2021
Built the company Pinecone Leadership
2022
Met my beloved wife Samina. Lost my first child, Shams
2023
Faced deep challenges in the aftermath of loss
2024
Welcomed my beloved daughter Alayah to the world
2025
Building foundations for planetary change