Rebel Take-Aways From AI Co-Founder Manuel Prinz

Manuel Prinz was supposed to build cars in Stuttgart. Instead, he's building an AI startup in California, has visited over a hundred countries, and once ate a fertilized duck egg in the Philippines without flinching. Here are the takeaways that stuck with me after our conversation.

Let the Internship Talk You Out of the Wrong Life

Manuel's dad pushed him into an engineering internship before he could commit to the career. Manuel showed up expecting to design something sleek. What he got was hard labour, screwing things together, day in and day out. He walked away knowing, with total clarity, that mechanical engineering wasn't for him.

That internship didn't derail him. It redirected him. Sometimes the best thing a boring or brutal experience can do is show you exactly what you don't want, which is half the battle right there.

Chase the Hidden Exchange Programme Nobody's Advertising

When Manuel was studying business in Germany, he noticed a buried line in the school's agenda about a student exchange with UC Santa Barbara. Nobody was applying. Nobody was even talking about it. So he called the school himself, figured out the logistics, and made it happen.

That one phone call changed the trajectory of his entire life. He landed in California, got taken to San Francisco by his roommates, and saw Silicon Valley for the first time. The opportunity wasn't hiding. It was just waiting for someone curious enough to actually read the fine print.

Get the Taxi Driver to Brief You First

Manuel has been to over a hundred countries, which means he's had to get up to speed fast, repeatedly. His two-step method is genuinely brilliant in its simplicity. Step one: talk to the taxi driver on the way from the airport. A good cab ride, he says, gives you a complete rundown of the city in fifteen minutes flat. Step two: find a local bar that first night and just... show up.

He's not being a tourist. He's being a person. There's a difference, and Manuel understands it intuitively. (The fish soup at 8 a.m. in Hanoi is proof he actually follows through on this approach.)

Stop Treating the Destination Like the Point

Manuel put it simply: the journey is the goal. There's no finish line where everything finally clicks into place and you get to exhale forever. He said he used to chase milestones thinking the next one would deliver some final, complete happiness. Then he figured out that's not how humans work.

What he practices now is embracing even the mundane parts of the day, the boring tasks, the repetitive meetings, as part of the thing itself. Not as obstacles to the real life he's supposed to be living. That reframe, as small as it sounds, changes everything about how you show up.

Never Talk Yourself Out of a Thought That Won't Leave

This one hit me. Manuel said that if an idea keeps showing up in your head, even while you're sleeping, it's there for a reason. The trap is when you start explaining to yourself, and then to other people, all the reasons it won't work. You gather a chorus of agreement. And then you feel permission to quit before you start.

His mum told him she stopped trying to talk him out of things early on, because once he had an idea in his head, it was basically done. He was going. He didn't always have that quality, though. It built over time, through reps, through pushing past the resistance often enough that it started to feel normal.

Keep Moving or You'll Scare Yourself

Manuel's wife needs two to three days on vacation before he actually relaxes. Before that, he's just a restless person on a beach, looking for something to organise. He described the feeling of having nothing to do as genuinely anxiety-inducing, more frightening, honestly, than most things he's faced in business.

His personal motto is "never stop running," and he means it both literally and not. He said if the day ever comes that he stops running entirely, that'll be the end. I understand that completely. Some people find peace in stillness. Manuel finds it in motion, and there's nothing wrong with knowing which one you are.

Eat the Weird Egg

Okay, this one is literal. Manuel tried balut in the Philippines, a fertilized duck egg that is an acquired taste to put it very diplomatically. His colleague nearly threw up watching him eat it. He asked for seconds.

The point isn't the egg. The point is that Manuel approaches everything with the same instinct: try it, see what happens, figure out what you can get out of it. That's not recklessness. That's a posture toward life that keeps the world interesting. And occasionally delicious, apparently.

Catch the full conversation with Manuel Prinz on The RebelRebel Podcast and hear about fish soup in Hanoi, propeller planes into Cebu, and why never stopping running is the best business strategy he knows.