Leadership Development Training From Bear Grylls

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 at 10:37 PM

If you have ever watch Man v. Wild on Discovery Channel, you are familiar with Bear Grylls.

If you haven’t seen the show (you should watch it every Friday night), Bear is an adventurer who demonstrates how to survive and escape from incredible but totally possible survival situations in the wild.

The interesting thing about Bear is who he is as a man. He is a former British SAS (Special Air Service) commando. SAS is the British counterpart to the U.S. Navy SEALs. He survived a parachute malfunction which nearly paralyzed him. He turned that setback into motivation to climb Mt. Everest.

He not only recovered from his injuries, but succeeded in climbing to the summit of Everest, and became the youngest Briton ever to do it.

The reason I admire Bear and consider him one of my teachers is because of his humble nature, focus on his family,and his unwavering positive attitude even in the face of extreme danger.

He taught me a valuable lesson in one episode where he was setting a trap to catch food. He said, “So much of survival is about opportunistic hunting.”

That quote stuck with me for years as I pursued my entrepreneurial dream. I have never thought of business as survival, but if you have ever watched Bear operate, you’ll see that he not only survives (i.e. barely gets by), but thrives.

So much of business is about opportunistic thinking. Looking for opportunities where others quit. Seeking win-win situations in negotiation. Creating fortunes with sound business practices, and the fine art of making a rapid decision and confidently sticking with it.

Another of my favorite quotes from Bear came in a YouTube video I viewed recently. In the video, Bear tells the story of his harrowing decent after reaching the summit of Everest.

I was taken by how he attributed his survival to his special forces training, and how a quote form a unit leader stuck with him in the toughest of times on Everest. The man told Bear, “The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is often just that little word: ‘extra’.”

Watch the video here.

Bear Grylls is absolutely one of my favorite teachers, and I promise if you follow him, you will not only glean tons of leadership development training, but you will learn a lot about life, business and high-achievement.

Live like Bear, and give that little bit of ‘extra’ in everything you do.

Go Big,
~JT