None of this was in the game plan for my life.I had been hit hard, broadside and from left field, in a way I could never have imagined.Things like this just didn’t happen to me. I was always the lucky...
I was soon discharged from the rehab center and sent back to the SAS. But the doctor’s professional opinion was that I shouldn’t military parachute again. It was too risky. One dodgy landing, at night...
At this stage, I was also living a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. I was eating too much, smoking, and drinking (which is always daft), and not training at all.Predictably, I piled on the pounds and looke...
As a former pilot in World War I, Walter had always preferred flying as a means of travel, rather than going by sea. Whenever he was in the Dakota, flying over to Northern Ireland, he always asked for...
Luckily those simple values meant much more to him than my school reports - which weren’t always glowing!
In fact, the will to win means nothing if you don’t also have the will to train.The day of the race is the easy bit: all eyes are on you and the adrenalin is running high. the unglamorous times when...
I have met enough unhappy millionaires to know that money alone does not make you happy. I’ve seen people work so hard they do not have any time for their families (or even time to enjoy the money).Th...
But it was the other things I witnessed in India that really blew my mind.In the back streets of Calcutta I saw sights that just should not happen: legless, blind, ragged bodies, lying in filth-strewn...
As a kid, this was usually a pretty simple equation - she would only buy me a new toy if I selected an old one to give to the charity shop. (Quite annoying, I seem to remember!) But as I got older I r...
Every time you try and do something new, or something difficult, or unusual, you are absolutely going to get doors closed in your face, friends mocking you and phones slammed down on you.Rejection and...
The that gets published each year sends out the message that having more money than the next person is something to aspire to. This had led to a culture where - once we have grabbed hold of whatever...
People are often quick to label others a ‘failure’. There are many people who find it all too easy to point out loud and clear when others fall short of their dreams.But only little people belittle ot...
Or in other words: Think about it. What do you worry most about? Is it inside or outside your sphere of influence? You see, most of us fret and panic about stuff we have no control over - things we ca...
Legend has it that when he once gave a speech at Harrow School, he simply stood up and said, ‘Never give in, never, never, never. Never give in.’He knew those simple words make such a difference.Whate...
It’s a great perspective, because so often we see a crisis as something to be avoided, when in reality it can conceal both adventure and advantage.I am not saying we should seek out a drama, but rathe...
It was always said to me with a wry smile, as if I was being told something of infinite power. And he was right.In turn, that enthusiasm adds the extra 5 per cent sparkle to everything we do - and lif...
It is just the way of the world: to get to the successes, you have got to get out there and commit to fail a few times first.The key is not in the failures themselves, but in your ability to keep goin...
If you’ve got a friend who’s always putting you down, or always telling you that your ideas are naff, or who takes the mick out of your taste in clothes, music or books, then I bet you go home after s...
I call them the dream-stealers.Beware: they are more dangerous to mankind than you might ever imagine.In life, we will never be short of people who want to knock our confidence or mock our ambitions.T...
Expeditions into jungles or across deserts or raging oceans are never easy. However much we might romanticize the lives of explorers, when you are in the middle of an inflatable boat with 50-foot wave...