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.
