Translator: Yulia Kallistratova Reviewer: Denise RQ
My name is Erik Larsen, and I am polar explorer.
I have spent my entire life
in pursuit of some of the most cold and remote places on the planet.
However, I will say, when most people meet me
they are disappointed.
I don't look as big and strong as what they assume
because I spend a lot of my life looking like this,
or like this
... or even like this.
And in case you think that's my stunt double,
here is me underneath all of those layers, at least some of them.
I knew that today's talk was pretty important
so I tried to take a shower
and look a little nicer before I came,
because most of time in my life
I look a little more like ...
that.
(Laughter)
Here is a fashion tip for you:
don't take a shower for about six weeks straight
and you can pretty much kick your hair to do whatever you like. (Laughter)
Think you might already have that one.
(Laughter)
Growing up in the Midwest,
I was completely average in every single way:
average height, average intelligence, I wasn't the fastest or the strongest.
Can you see me in this picture?
There I am, the awkward--
(Laughter)
- thanks for laughing -
the awkward kid in the corner.
In fact, I am so incredibly average
that even today, when you stick me in the room of middle school kids,
it's hard to figure out which one I am.
(Laughter)
You guys are not helping out my self confidence at all.
(Laughter)
In 2010, I completed a world record expedition:
I was the first person to travel to the South Pole,
to the geographic North Pole, and the top of Mount Everest,
all within a 365-day period.
For nearly six months of that expedition,
I lived in a tent without any creature comforts
and faced countless challenges along the way:
thin ice, avalanches, extreme cold, and even polar bears.
My success on that expedition was directly connected
to the team around me and their skills.
Completing that world record endeavor really allowed me a unique opportunity
to see some of our changing environment and comment on its fragility.
Despite all the hardships for me, I really enjoy expedition life
and feel like I've learned some valuable lessons from them.
After all, isn't life really like an expedition?
Didn't you wake up this morning
and wonder if you're going to get eaten by a polar bear?
I know I had, I have that dream all the time.
But realistically, look, the skills that I used to climb on Everest
are the same exact skills that I use in my daily life and my job:
hard-work, tenacity, perseverance; these are all important things.
But here's my question, and let me ask you:
how do we know what is important,
who we can trust, and how do we build a team?
What do we do? Just look on Craigslist for a team member?
Maybe, well, actually polar explorers have been doing that for quite some time.
Ernest Shackleton in 1901 was trying to cross Antarctica,
and he placed this ad in "The London Times":
"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Hard work, return doubtful."
(Laughter)
What ensued was probably
one of the most incredible stories of polar travel and survival.
Their ship was crashed by ice,
and when they ran out of food they ate their dogs,
when they ran out of dogs they ate penguins,
when they ran out of penguins they ate ...
Well, let's just say they got picked up before that happened.
I am planning another expedition called "Explore the Extremes“,
which I'm very excited about.
My expedition partner Peter Reese and I are traveling
to the world's most extreme environments,
and we are looking for team members.
Will you join me?
(Audience) Yes!
You will? Awesome!
A lot of times people say no, but I feel really lucky.
We are looking to equip a world of explorers
to help change the future.
Everybody here can be an explorer.
But obviously, not everybody wants
to freeze their you-know-what off at the ends of the Earth,
eat mush for breakfast, not take a shower for two months,
and sleep cuddled up to a polar bear, although they are very warm.
But - and this is very important -
each one of us in our lives will require, at some point,
to solve some sort of problem with other people.
Probably, the hardest expedition that I've ever been on, hands down,
is the journey to the North Pole.
Traveling to the North Pole is so incredibly difficult,
it's cold, really cold, minus 40, minus 50.
And unlike in Antarctica, which is a continent,
and you're traveling across all this land,
the Arctic is on an ocean, and to get to the North Pole,
you're crossing a thin layer of ice that's basically floating on water.
And that ice does whatever the water does,
so when the water moves that ice can fracture
and create a massive pressure ridge 20-30 feet tall.
It can also fracture, and break apart, and create an open lead.
Every step on this expedition is steeped in risk,
and there is never one single moment when you feel completely safe.
I remember one instance in particular where we were skiing along,
and Darcy, my teammate from Canada, was in lead.
His job in lead was very important:
he had to work to break the trail, the snow is deep,
and he is also road-finding,
he is trying to find his way through all that rubble and fractured ice.
And as he made his way through some brush ice,
he saw one of these, which is lead, a crack in the ice.
These leads, they can be a few feet across
or they can be upwards of half of a mile across.
And this particular one was a newly frozen lead,
which means the ice was thin, and that ice in the Arctic ocean
sometimes can be just thick enough to support your weight,
and you put your ski and it actually ripples underneath your weight.
As Darcy skied up to this lead,
the first thing he did was assess the situation.
And he brought his--
- Hold on a second, Darcy, you get a little ahead of yourself there -
he brought his ski pole up to just tap the ice to see if it was safe enough.
As he was doing this, I skied up alongside of him,
we had a quick conference: what do you think, is it passable?
And instantly, as we were talking,
the ice disintegrated underneath us forcing us to make an instant reaction.
Darcy jumped forward, and I lunged backwards,
both now on safe ice,
but there was a ten foot wide gap of open water separating us
Darcy on one side,
AJ and I with our two sleds, the tent, and much of the food on the other.
A survival situation --
very serious.
So here is my question - see you Darcy - so here is my question to you:
when do we decide who we will trust?
Is it the moment when things devolve into complete chaos?
When you're getting swept away by an avalanche
and you reach up your hand and say, "Hey, can you help me?
And by the way, can I trust you?"
Or do you work with teams
who have proven themselves, are strong and reliable?
Careful team work and success is really critical
when you can trust your people and use a globe.
A globe?
As I've traveled around the world for over 20 years
by dog sled, ski, ice ax, and who knows what else,
I realized that there are five basic characteristics
that we all need to be successful.
And they spell G.L.O.B.E. Here is what they are.
G: goals; you want to be a lawyer, you want to be a doctor,
you want to be president of the world, you want to eat Subway sandwiches all day.
We all have different interests, there is no question.
But to achieve something, we need to be focused on a similar goal,
we need to have the same goal in mind.
It's OK if you're interested in other things,
but maybe that's not best for my team.
And not only are you focused on a goal, the same goal as me,
but it's also important that we're focused on the same way of achieving that goal.
"I want to go really fast."
"Wait a minute, I want to go slow and take pictures."
So the first step in finding a good team in a G.L.O.B.E. method
is choosing a teammate with the same or similar goals as you.
The second is learning desire: L.
The world is changing at a fast rate.
When I was your age cellphones did not exist,
and there was no such thing as the Internet.
The world is constantly changing
and it's changing faster and faster every day.
We cannot expect the same things to happen today that will happen tomorrow.
And we are constantly moving around and getting into new situations.
We need to be aware of how the world is changing,
we need to assess things very carefully, and make a new plan,
and be curious about those things.
We can't just be locked in our same way,
"I've been doing this 100 years," bla bla ble bla blu.
No, the world is changing
we have to have a desire to learn and come up with a plan.
And not only that.
As students, you have the responsibility for learning yourselves.
It's not always a teacher's responsibility to give you that information.
So for me and my team,
we need to come up with solutions to these problems that we're facing.
And that's through a strong learning desire.
O: overcoming spirit; "It's cold. I'm tired. I'm hungry.
There's a 300 foot crevasse that I have to go over,
and a ladder that's two inches wide."
There are a lot of obstacles that we face in our daily lives.
And so, having an optimistic attitude or an overcoming spirit
that allows us to believe in ourselves that we can accomplish these goals
is very important.
So, O: overcoming spirit.
B: background.
I don't think it would be a good idea for me
to travel to the South Pole or the North Pole
with somebody who grew up in Florida
and never seen snow before in their entire lives.
They may be interesting people and really good at surfing,
I'm not surfing on the way to the North Pole,
at least I hope I'm not.
But what I want in a expedition partner
is someone who has similar experiences to mine,
someone who we can form plans together.
Not only do I want someone who has similar experiences,
but I'm also very interested in someone who has dis-similiar experiences,
because I want to have my weaknesses maybe be a strength in someone else
so we can compliment each others' efforts.
But regardless, B: I'm looking for somebody with a strong background
that is going to be able to assist us
in overcoming whatever our objective that we are trying to meet.
And lastly, the final letter in selecting teams in my G.L.O.B.E. method
is E: equipped.
Are you equipped?
Harness: check, crampons: check, ice ax: check, rope: check.
I have all the gear I need, and I'm ready to go.
But get this: it's just not about the physical gear we are carrying,
mentally, are you prepared?
Have you planned? Have you trained?
Do you know what to expect in your upcoming endeavor?
All these things are critical to be able to achieve those goals.
And not only that.
"Equipped" means that when you are tired, and hungry,
and scared, and of all those things we talked about earlier,
are you able to still persevere?
When you only have 50% of your energy and your optimism left,
are you able to keep going?
Your're equipped. You are ready.
Because let's face it: we are all explorers in this world.
As explorers in the 21st century,
our job is not to go and conquer these places, but is to protect them.
In the "Explore the Extremes" expedition we are looking for explorers.
We are looking for explorers that have those five basic qualities.
But remember: we are all explorers, and sooner or later in your life,
you will be in a situation where you have to overcome an obstacle,
and there are all sorts of problems, environmental problems, social problems.
People in this room need our help.
Choose your expedition partners wisely in life, people.
Thank you.
(Applause)