Ben Saunders: An Inspirational Explorer

I came across a motivational piece recently on TED.com about an adventure athlete and Brand Ambassador for Land Rover named Ben Saunders.

In 2004, Ben became the youngest person ever to ski solo to the North Pole, and in October of this year he plans to a lead a three-man team to be the first ever to make a “return journey” to the South Pole on foot in an expedition named Scott 2012.  

A “return journey” simply means from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back.  And I use the word simply very lightly as this expedition will be 1,800 miles long (roughly 69 back-to-back marathons) through some of the highest elevated and windiest cold conditions on Earth, and is calculated to take four months to complete.  The last to try it, Captain Scott and his team, of which the expedition is amply named after, all perished in their attempt.  Outside of Land Rover, Ben Saunders will have to support of Nikon, Oakley, and tentmaker Hilleberg on Scott 2012.

In the 18 minute attached video Ben gives the audience an inspirational and thrilling story of his adventure to the North Pole, of which he had to overcome an attack from a polar bear, frostbite, and lack of food to name a few things.  He speaks of a point in his trip where he travelled 7 hours to realize he had gone 2.5 miles backwards due to the ice he was travelling on being moved by the currents of the water below.  Also interesting was how he used historical events to put in to perspective what types of challenges he was facing throughout the journey and brought humor throughout.  He ends the speech by reading a negative school report from a teacher of his stating that Ben “lacks sufficient impetus to achieve anything worthwhile.” Where he followed that up by saying something that I believe could help us all through obstacles in our life, whether professional or personal, and that is “no one else is the authority on your potential. You're the only person that decides how far you go and what you're capable of.”

You can follow Ben on his blog - http://scott2012.org/ as he builds up to and embarks on Scott 2012 this October.  

Other pages of Ben’s:

Tumblr: http://blog.bensaunders.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/polarben