WILD MAN
“MY EXPERIENCE IS THE SUM OF ALL MY NEAR MISSES”
IF YOU COULD NOMINATE anyone in the world to have your back, you’d probably want it to be Bear Grylls. The man who’s endured everything from a broken back sustained in a 5000m parachuting freefall, to almost drowning in a Sumatran river, to biting into a live Puff Adder, is acutely attuned to identifying risk, managing fear and coming back from failure. “You’ve got to anticipate the simplest of errors,” says Grylls, who’s speaking to MH on an overcast London day from the deck of his houseboat on the River Thames. “It’s always the little stuff that catches people out. My experience is the sum of all my near misses. On that basis, I’ve got some good experience.”
“Good experience” is perhaps underselling his expertise. Unparalleled is probably closer to the mark. Grylls went from a stint in the SAS to become the youngest Briton to climb Everest, before launching a TV career that spans a series of globally, and on Netflix, to name a few. Which is why I’m particularly heartened when Grylls tells me near the end of our chat, “I’ve got your back”. In the wilderness that’s basically like having Batman as your camping buddy. In real life, though? Well, it turns out Grylls can help you there, too. Because as he so effortlessly demonstrates, the secrets of survival draw on traits – determination, grit, perseverance, resilience – that bear a remarkable resemblance to those critical to achieving a goal that lies at the other end of the spectrum of human experience: success.
