What pushes us to embrace or endure gravity-defying, life-risking challenges?
‘Man versus Wild’ may be a concept as old as time itself; it’s also one Bear Grylls has redefined for the millennial generation. Grylls’ survivalist wits served him well as a British Army trooper, then as a survival instructor in North Africa. Although SAS training took Grylls to a psychological and physical brink, it couldn’t possibly have prepared him for a parachute accidentally breaking. Grylls is one of very few who can to attest to this, as his parachute failed to open in routine SAS training in Kenya, breaking three vertebrae in his back.
Grylls’ appetite for survival, for life itself, won out. 18 months later, he was among the youngest to summit Mount Everest, achieving his childhood dream. Sailing around the UK, crossing the North Atlantic, and a Northwest Passage expedition were all among the adventures that would ensue for adrenaline-hungry Grylls. From Sikkim to the Himalayas, Nova Scotia to Antarctica—the inner whirring of Bear Grylls has pushed him to the edges of the earth, and the limits of human experience.
These ‘limits’ were things that Bear learned to view as invisible; his life’s work and attitudes have been to inspire young people to adopt this view also. As the UK Chief Scout, Ambassador for The Prince's Trust, and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), Bear knew that the ascent and the shape of his path ahead mattered. Tapping into an inner strength, unshackling himself from the limits of his youth, and forging an undefinable path ahead—Grylls has forged an entire life around exceeding boundaries and achieving the impossible.
Bear Grylls – video transcript
I think it's interesting with some of the really iconic, successful people out there. They were never the natural, brilliant people. They were often the underdog.
The truth is, I don't have a lot of self-confidence, and I never really had much self-belief either. But I think we can draw strength from our weaknesses. That it's okay to not feel super confident. So, I'd really reach out to young people who, are the unseen, and the unsung, and the uncelebrated.
I often say that the people who do so well in life have had a real dogged battle at school. They never got any prizes. They never got into the top teams. They never got the A's. Just to stay afloat, they were swimming so frantically, trying to kick to the shore. And all the people at school think, look, there's Johnny still kicking and they laugh. But the thing is, when they hit life, and they get out of that sea, everyone else is flabby because they've never had to try. Johnny, he's been kicking like madness ever year. Nobody's ever noticed him until he gets out and they go, "Wow!" So really for me, the only muscle you need to develop is your effort muscle. And the harder you try, the more you practise, you're going to be ready for life. And really, that's how you empower people.
I never really had any career aspirations as a young kid. All I wanted to do was climb trees and get muddy. I was never particularly brilliant at sports, or academics, or stuff at school. And I think, I knew that I loved adventure, I loved to be close to my Dad. I knew that I was getting skills accidentally through the adventures we were doing. And the Army was a natural kind of progression of those things. And I kind of heard my Dad when he said, "Just try in life to work at your core competency", and "it's okay to follow your heart."
Well, I think you do this step at a time, inch by inch. And you try and stay true to the vision. For me, my goal was simple. One, is that at one day I really dreamt and dreamt of being able to stand on the roof of the world on the summit of Everest. But then life comes along and hits you sideways with something unexpected. Then you really see what people are made of. And for me, that time came when I had my parachuting accident while I was serving in the military. I broke my back in three places, and spent months in and out of hospitals, and suddenly like, now all bets are off. How are you going to rebuild it from here? And the truth is, I struggle with confidence, and I struggle a lot with self-doubt. But I was dogged, and I was determined. So really for me, the real summit, metaphorical, and emotional, and physical, and everything, was rebuilding from there and having the tenacity to try and keep going.
The important thing. Number one, you’ve got to have a dream. Number two, you’ve got to not listen to the dream stealers. The people who will tell you, "You're crazy!" Tell you, "You're mad!" Because the world doesn't like people who kind of actually get out and they make things happen. And in a way, the world is just testing you. It's saying, "Are these just words out of your lips or do you really mean it?" From there, it's also important to paddle your own canoe, choose your own path. Don't expect the world to give it to you. You're going have to do this yourself.
Then I think it's, you got to be ready for failure. It's the only way you can get somewhere meaningful. The only way you're going get your dreams, your goal, is through the door of failure. There are no back doors, there's only one main door and you’ve got to go through it. And you might have to fail a tonne of times. But you've got to fail.
So then after failure, there's some values to carry along this road with you. And I say two of them, courage and kindness. Kindness is a really important one. Otherwise, you just become one of these ambitious people who kind of kicks everyone out of the way and nobody likes you. And if at the end of your life you've got no good relationships, you're not a successful person.
And real courage is facing things that we're all scared of, and I've never yet met anyone in this life who's not scared of stuff. But the thing is, I've learned about facing fears and courage, is that the best way over our fears is actually right through the middle. If you're going to be ambitious, and you're going to go for big obstacles, you really need to learn how to face the giants. And what happens when we walk straight towards the big giants, is that we often realise they're not as scary as they seem and often, they actually totally evaporate.
Ultimately, the only thing that really matters, is that spirit of endeavour, of never giving up. This having the courage to follow what is really on your heart, and what you feel you're naturally good at and you naturally love. Be tenacious, be dogged, be determined, never give up. There is a power to those words. I say it to my boys everyday, N-G-U, N-G-U, never give up.
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Bear Grylls became 'the world's best known survival expert'.
After leaving the Special Forces, he summited Mount Everest at just 23 years old, despite breaking his back in a free fall accident a year earlier.
With an estimated global TV audience of 1.2 billion people and having sold over 18 million books, he is one of the most recognised adventurers in the world.
He is the Chief Ambassador for the Scouts worldwide and a co-founder of BecomingX, helping people to build the skills and confidence to thrive in life.
