Eton’s great strength is that it does encourage interests--however wacky. From stamp collecting to a cheese-and-wine club, mountaineering to juggling, if the will is there than the school will help yo...
Well, obviously the £1,000,000 one is 10,000 times faster than the £100 one. Right? That’s clearly ridiculous. Is it even ten times faster? No way. Twice as fast? Unlikely. At best, the difference is...
Above the gates at Delphi, a short inscription greeted every weary traveler:This simple advice was considered the most important piece of knowledge anyone could possess. And to understand what the ora...
My faith is an important part of my life and over the years I've learnt that it takes a proud man to say he doesn't need anything. It has been a quiet strength and a backbone through a lot of difficul...
While Mum was a busy working mother, helping my father in his constituency duties and beyond, Lara became my surrogate mum. She fed me almost every supper I ate--from when I was a baby up to about fiv...
Walter came from a strong line of self-motivated, determined folk: not grand, not high-society, but no-nonsense, family-minded, go-getters. His grandfather had been Samuel Smiles, who, in 1859, author...
This general lack of sleep really got to me. And little can prepare people for how they will react when deprived of it--over multiple days. Everything suffers: concentration, motivation, and performan...
Their hands were also huge – two massive leathery mitts that looked like hairy wicket keeper’s gloves.
That same day we drove to Seville to celebrate. I asked someone for the name of the smartest hotel in Seville. Alfonso XIII, came the reply. It is where the King of Spain always stays.We found the hot...
Tentative is no power.
So, remember that our goals are reached by how we prepare and train in the many months before crunch time. Train right, and the summit or gold medal will be the inevitable culmination of your commitme...
So how do you get to know yourself?The first way is to spend some time alone - just you - without all the outside influences of peers and family that so powerfully shape our aspirations. Give yourself...
Sedmkrát spadni, osmkrát se zvedni.
Samuel Smiles ends his book with the following moving story of the gentleman general:The gentleman is characterized by his sacrifice of self, and preference of others, in the little daily occurrences...
Our achievements are generally limited only by the beliefs we impose on ourselves.If we tell ourselves often enough that we don’t have what it takes, then that will inevitably become our reality.But I...
My time at Eton did develop in me a character trait that is essentially, I guess, very English: the notion that it is best to be the sort of person who messes about and plays the fool but who, when it...
My Everest story would be incomplete if I didn’t give final credit to the Sherpas who had risked their lives alongside us every day.Pasang and Ang-Sering still climb together as best friends, under th...
Mum, still to this day, says that growing up I seemed destined to be a mix of Robin Hood, Harry Houdini, John the Baptist, and an assassin.I took it as a great compliment.
Life rewards the dogged, not the qualified.
Life has taught me to be very cautious of a man with a dream, especially a man who has teetered on the edge of life. It gives a fire and recklessness inside that is hard to quantify. It can also make...