The video recounts transformative experiences of adventure, challenge, and stepping beyond comfort zones, using real-life stories from treks up Mount Kilimanjaro, climbing with family, and individual feats of perseverance. The narrator weaves together tales of physical hardships, life-threatening situations, and personal setbacks to illustrate the profound growth that emerges from overcoming obstacles in demanding environments.

By drawing parallels between climbing mountains and navigating life or business challenges, the speaker reveals how pushing one's limits and embracing fear can unlock courage and change self-perception. Real examples—including the story of Wendy, who used courage built on a climb to ask for a promotion, and the narrator's pivot during the COVID-19 pandemic—showcase the benefits of blending adventure with leadership and creative thinking.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. adrenaline [əˈdrɛnəlɪn] - (noun) - A hormone released into the body in response to stress or excitement, causing increased heart rate and energy. - Synonyms: (epinephrine, excitement hormone, fight-or-flight hormone)

And I can tell you my adrenaline, my noradrenaline cortisol was pumping through my veins.

2. traverse [trəˈvɜrs] - (verb) - To travel across or through an area, especially in a challenging way. - Synonyms: (cross, navigate, pass through)

There's a couple of sketchy pads, sketchy parts like the pink slab, and then there's a couple of cliffs you have to traverse, but you'll be fine.

3. amygdala [əˈmɪɡdələ] - (noun) - A part of the brain involved in emotions like fear and aggression, critical for survival instincts. - Synonyms: (brain center, fear center, limbic system component)

my amygdala, this thing the size of a pea, the base of our brain had kicked in and it had frozen me.

4. endorphins [ɛnˈdɔrfɪnz] - (noun) - Natural chemicals in the brain that relieve pain and make you feel happy or elated. - Synonyms: (feel-good hormones, neurotransmitters, natural painkillers)

and then the endorphins started to flow. I was in my happy place. I was so elated.

5. perceived limits [pərˈsivd ˈlɪmɪts] - (noun phrase) - The boundaries or restrictions one believes exist, which may or may not reflect reality. - Synonyms: (self-imposed boundaries, assumed limits, psychological barriers)

to push ourselves to overcome our fears and uncertainty and to push beyond our perceived limits.

6. pivot [ˈpɪvət] - (verb) - To make a significant change in strategy, direction, or focus, often in business or career. - Synonyms: (shift, change direction, adapt)

I pivoted my career from a successful entrepreneur to a business coach and a leader of peer groups.

7. elated [ɪˈleɪtɪd] - (adjective) - Extremely happy and excited, often as a result of achieving something significant. - Synonyms: (overjoyed, ecstatic, jubilant)

I was in my happy place. I was so elated.

8. legacy [ˈlɛɡəsi] - (noun) - Something passed on from one generation to another, especially achievements, traditions, or experiences. - Synonyms: (inheritance, heritage, bequest)

he was going to summit Mount Kilimanjaro as a legacy to honor his older brother who died in a climbing incident 10 years before.

9. adventurepreneur [ædˈvɛntʃər prəˈnɜr] - (noun) - An entrepreneur who combines business pursuits with adventure activities. - Synonyms: (adventure-seeking entrepreneur, trailblazer, business explorer)

An adventurepreneur is an adventure seeking entrepreneur who combines business with adventure helping leaders like you.

10. grinding halt [ˈgraɪndɪŋ hɔlt] - (noun phrase) - A sudden and complete stop, especially in progress or activity. - Synonyms: (standstill, dead stop, abrupt pause)

Business was going really well and everything just came to a grinding halt because in March 2020, Covid hit.

What If Someone’s Life Depended on Your Next Decision - Chris Hardwick - TEDxJabavu

What if somebody's life depended upon your next decision? Darrell collapsed into the tent, exhausted, tired. The blood was slowly draining from his face. You see the altitude over the last couple of days has had really impacted him and he was getting slower and slower, relying on his trekking poles. He was not doing very well at all. We just arrived into Barranco camp on day three. Sunset was just coming in and Team Sabah Hoo Ya we were about to do a seven. We were in the middle of a seven day trek to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and it was not going to be easy, but we were going to get there. One of our guides, Amne, he crawled into the tent to check on Darryl, to check his vitals. His pulse was low and his blood oxygen level was really low, down at 67%. Now for those of you that know Normally below about 93%, you'd get put in an ambulance and raced off to hospital and put on a ventilator. But we were on the side of a mountain, just under 4,000 meters in elevation and a 35 kilometer hike to the nearest hospital. Robert, our head guide, came over and talked to me and he said, look, we need to get food into Darrell, we need to get water into him and we need to get him into bed to rest and he should be okay. You know, Darrell was here because I invited him. I was the leader of the trip and I'd met Darrell 40 years before in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, and I was worried that he wasn't going to make it through the night. So I said a prayer. Dear Lord, please keep him alive till the morning so we can get him out of here. And during the course of the night I set my alarm to wake up every hour and check his blood oxygen levels. And they slowly rose up to 70 and 73. And thankfully by 5am the next morning was all the way up to 89%. And so we were able to continue on the trek.

Teams who engage in physically challenging adventures like climbing and hiking build 20% more trust and improve communication. And Team Sabah Hoo Ya we had fantastic communication. We had three guides and 26 porters and, and together we were like this elite commando unit. It was an amazing experience. Each year, 30,000 people attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, yet less than half of them make it to the summit, defeated because of the lack of oxygen and the high altitude. But not Darryl. You see, Daryl had a purpose. A couple of years before, he had made a commitment and a promise to his father. Just before he Passed that he was going to summit Mount Kilimanjaro as a legacy to honor his older brother who died in a climbing incident 10 years before. Would you have pushed through your limits to achieve the summit? Robert, our head guide after the trip, shared with us that we were a very unique group. Team Sabah Hoo Ya. We had pushed through together and our team was a really tight group all the way to the very finish.

Have you ever had a near death experience? Hey Matt, wait up. I'm stuck. Moments before, my eldest son Matt had moved across this narrow ledge at the top of a 200 foot cliff. Like a nimble mountain goat, he got to the other side, he turned around to check on me. He's like, dad, you know how to walk, right? And I'm like, yeah. A couple of days before, I called one of my buddies up, trail running guy Dylan. I said, look, I need some intel on Skypilot Mountain. Have you ever been up there before? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been up there. Like, do you need a guide and ropes and all the gear? Nah, nah, you'll be fine. There's a couple of sketchy pads, sketchy parts like the pink slab, and then there's a couple of cliffs you have to traverse, but you'll be fine. Well, I was anything but fine. I was stuck, frozen on the side of the mountain, the top of this cliff, my amygdala, this thing the size of a pea, the base of our brain had kicked in and it had frozen me. It's the emotional reaction fight flight or freeze. And I was frozen. Thankfully. A few years before, I'd met a Tibetan monk who shared this unique breathing technique with me when I was climbing in Himalayan mountains. And I was able to work my way through that routine. And when I opened my eyes, I was careful not to look down. And I made myself. I got across that cliff, got to the other side, and a little while later I caught up to my son and we made it up to the summit of Sky Pilot Mountain. You know, the obligatory selfies and a few high fives and before long we were back down at the bar. But we pushed through and beyond our limits. And that's one of the cool things about climbing. We learn what we're capable of when we push ourselves beyond our limits. You know, walking and climbing increases creative thinking by over 60%. Like that's a lot. And climbing a mountain, well, every single choice you have to make, it's life or death, it's route finding, it's handholds, it's footholds. It's figuring out which is the safest way. You've been very critical about your decisions. You know, one of the things that I think about is that you go on an adventure like this and every great achievement, every major breakthrough and every unforgettable adventure, they always start with the first step.

Just like Wendy. Have you ever done anything that was totally outside of your comfort zone? Who wants to go first? Our French Canadian guide asked. And Wendy stepped forward. And you know, I looked around at the rest of our group and I was like, yeah, go get it, Wendy. She walked up, she had to clip in onto this lanyard with a double carabiner system and double lanyards clipped onto this cable. And she stepped out onto the first iron rung and she was shaking a little bit. She was visibly scared and she was like squeezing those rungs like she was going to rip them out of the wall. But step by step, rung by rung, she slowly climbed up that near vertical cliff. Would you have gone first? Wendy pushed through her fear and beyond her limits. And a little while later, she topped out on the first of 150 foot cliff. We were so proud of her. We were actually following up behind her. We saw her up above and it was such an amazing feeling. You see, Wendy had changed the story that was going on in her head. She'd become courageous. You know, I love taking leaders like her out into the wilderness on climbs, on mountains, rock climbing via Ferrettas. It's a fantastic way to find out what we're made of, to push ourselves to overcome our fears and uncertainty and to push beyond our perceived limits. And these new skills that we learn, we can take these back home, we can take them to the office, we can share them with our family and friends and colleagues and business owners. The cool thing about Wendy was she went back to work the next day and I had a one to one call with her the following week. And she called me up and told me she'd finally asked for that promotion. And she got promoted to director of finance a week after we did this climb. And that was because she had a new level of courageousness.

An adventurepreneur is an adventure seeking entrepreneur who combines business with adventure helping leaders like you. I pivoted my career from a successful entrepreneur to a business coach and a leader of peer groups. I spent a few years doing that and I had about 50 clients and members scattered around western Canada and into the US Business was going really well and everything just came to a grinding halt because in March 2020, Covid hit. Do you remember where you were? Do you remember how scared you were? Yeah, it was really scary. I lost over half of my clients. They didn't know what was going to happen. Everybody was sort of sentenced to, like, going home. It was really scary. And my clients were worried about their families and their friends and their employees. And, you know, then all of a sudden, we got into this Zoom world. And every single day I'm sitting on the kitchen counter with my laptop doing Zoom calls. I tell you, after a few weeks, I was going stir crazy. I had to get outside. And then I remembered back to this speaker I'd had a few years. This guy by the name of Dan Miller. He'd come in and talk to our groups and shared how we were actually not designed to be inside. We were designed to be outside in the wild. I thought, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I need to get outside. So I got out into the mountains, and every weekend I was climbing peaks all around Vancouver. I was in my happy place. And one particular peak was one by the name of Black Tusk. It's this volcanic plug that just comes straight out of the ground. It's 250 meters high, and to get to the top, you have to climb up a chimney with no ropes like this to get to the top. And it is like crazy. And I can tell you my adrenaline, my noradrenaline cortisol was pumping through my veins. But I made it to the top. I was sitting there elated. I remember sitting down, looking across at Garibaldi Lake and Garibaldi Mountain, and then the endorphins started to flow. I was in my happy place. I was so elated. And then I got this crazy idea. What if. What if I could climb a thousand mountains in my life? I thought, yeah, that's a worthy goal. So I got home that night and I found this app called Peekery. And I went on there and logged every single mountain I'd ever climbed around the world in my life. And I've climbed 249 peaks. I thought, yeah, I've only got another 751 peaks to climb. That's going to take a while. So I did the math. If I lived to 90 and did 25 peaks a year, and I keep fairly healthy and fit, I might just be able to do this, you know, hiking and mountaineering, one of the things. And I was sharing this with the kids just the other day in the Soweto High School. Like, you don't need a lot of gear and you don't need a lot of money. A pair of hiking boots, a backpack, a water bottle jacket, like it's a cheap sport. And there's lots of mountains around here. Mount Mafati, the highest peak in South Africa. I haven't climbed it yet, but I'm looking for someone to join me because my new goal is to climb the highest peak in every country that I visit. You know, my parents didn't have a lot of money, and growing up, they took us on adventures and stuff. And I just got the travel bug. And I've now traveled over 110 countries around the world. I'm an Aussie, right? We like to go backpacking. I didn't have any money. I worked. I got odd jobs along the way. I traded money on the black market, whatever it took. I went to 65 countries by the time I was 25. And then when I got back, I got stuck into my career and started working. And now I've been at 365 peaks I've climbed around the world. I'm driven, I guess you could say. Look, I've been shot at, I've been mugged, I've been chased, I've raced rally cars, motocross bikes, mountain bikes. I've crashed a bunch of them. I'm a free climber, a cliff jumper. I've broken so many bones in my body, I've lost count. But here I am today in front of you. There's nothing special about me. Everything I've done, you guys can do. Going beyond the limits, this is the life I choose. Comfort might keep you safe, but adventure, that makes you legendary. And let's be honest, can we all agree that a day in the mountains beats a day in the office? Any day. Yeah. Besides, you never know when you're going to get hit by a bus, right? Could be tonight when we walk out of here, or we find out tomorrow we get diagnosed with terminal cancer and we've got three months to live. I live my day every day to the fullest, trying to do as much as I can, because you just never know when your number's going to come up. So I say get off the couch, get off those devices and get outside and go on an adventure, whatever that means for you, because it's different for everybody.

You know, upon reflection, I look back at my life. Started off going on adventures with my family. You know, I was in Cub Scouts and Rovers and Rangers and stuff. And then traveling around the world. And then I got into construction. I was building projects in Australia and in North America. And then I started building businesses. I built, bought and sold nine companies over a 15 year period. And then I got into building Lidus. That's what I've been doing the last eight years. And now I'm in the business of building adventurepreneurs. Combining business with adventure. So regardless of your age, you know, I've had six careers in the last 40 years. Because every eight years I reinvent myself. Today starts the beginning of my speaking career. I'm going to do that for the next eight years. I have no idea what comes after that. I got a lot of books I want to write, so maybe I'll become an author. Look, I believe anything is possible. Surround yourself with believers. Eliminate the naysayers from your life. So it's up to you guys now. And girls. Rewrite the story that's going on in your head. Push through your fears. Take the first bold step into the life of your dreams. The world needs more adventurers. It's your life. It's your climb. It's your summit. So clip in. Breathe deep. Go get it. Hoo ya Hoo. Yahoyah. Thank you. Hallelujah. Thank you for the love that you laid on me.

INSPIRATION, LEADERSHIP, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MOUNTAINEERING, PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, ADVENTURE, TEDX TALKS