I have been so lucky to lead amazing teams to incredible places: the remote Venezuelan jungles of the Lost World in search of Jimmy Angel’s lost gold; or the remote white desert that is Antarctica to...
I also believe strongly in the powerful words: I took the road less traveled, and that has made all the difference. They are good ones to live by.The big, final motivator was that I really wasn’t enjo...
Give to friends who do amazing jobs but who earn very little, give to charities that move you, give to those the world overlooks, give as your heart tells you - and learn to listen to it.And by all me...
For eighteen hours we had neither drunk nor eaten anything. My body and mind both felt strangely distant. Both were aching for some relief.In the porch of our tiny single-skinned tent, I reached out t...
You're not human if you don't feel fear. But I've learnt to treat fear as an emotion that sharpens me. It's there to give me that edge for what I have to do.
The line between life or death is determined by what we are willing to do.
You see, if you quit, you lose. But so long as you stick it out, you’re still in with a chance.As Harrison Ford once said: ‘Them that stick it out are them that win.
Winston Churchill (him again!) once said words to the effect that everyone gets the chance to make their fortune once, but not everybody takes it.
William Blake said: He was right. We need time and space and adversity to really get to know ourselves. And you don’t always find that in the grind, when your head is down and you are living someone e...
Whatever doesn’t kill you only serves to make you stronger. And in the grand scheme of life, I had survived and grown stronger, at least mentally, if not physically.I had come within an inch of losing...
There’s a verse in the Gospel of Matthew that - regardless of your religious beliefs - we would do well to remember when we find our feet getting a little too big for our boots:
That fine line between bravery and stupidity is endlessly debated – the difference really doesn’t matter.
One of the books that has had the most influence on me is a little manual called by Scott Alexander. I know, it’s a weird title, but give it a read. I read it first when I was 12 years old and I stil...
Neil’s feet were still numb from the frostbite. Long exposure up high, sat waiting in the snow for all those hours at the Balcony, had taken their toll. At base camp, we bandaged them up, kept them wa...
My worst ever speech was one I did for a pharmaceutical company in South Africa. They were paying me $1,000 and my airfare. It was a fortune to me at the time, and I couldn’t believe my luck. That wou...
Most people crumble when squeezed, but the champion feeds off it.Develop this trait, even if you don’t feel it naturally applies to you. Embrace the dramas whenever you can - in order to practise!Tell...
It took me quite a while to begin to recover physically from Everest.The thick, rich air of sea level, in comparison to the ultrathin air of Everest, was intoxicating--and at times it felt like too mu...
I remember once, on a family skiing trip to the Alps, Dad’s practical joking got all of us into a particularly tight spot.I must have been about age ten at the time, and was quietly excited when Dad s...
I remember once in the Arctic, when we were attempting to cross the frozen North Atlantic in a small, open rigid inflatable boat (RIB), that I heard that voice very clearly.We had been caught out in a...
I love the quote she once gave me: When supply seems to have dried up, look around you quickly for something to give away. It is a law of the universe: to get good things you must first give away good...