How Change Leads to Lifes Greatest Adventures

a few years ago

i found myself deep in the andes

mountains of chile

i was riding my horse up to 16 000 feet

in elevation

on a narrow path at the very edge of a

steep

and harrowing cliff when i looked to my

left

there was a 5000 foot drop below

i calmed my nerves i took my horse’s

reins on a short rope for control

but i knew that with just one wrong step

i would plummet into the abyss below

for anyone who’s ever been on an

adventure you’ll know that ascending a

mountain is never a straight line to the

summit

there are detours and obstacles along

the way

however on this day we would carve our

trail

back and forth into the mountainside

creating our own unique path

and when we finally reached the top of

the mountain i got off my horse

i gave her some water and thanked her

for keeping me safe

but i thought to myself life was like a

mountain trail

at any point in our journey we could be

forced to change directions

and it’s how we embrace these changes

which will determine

how far we go in life change

leads to life’s greatest adventures

i grew up in a small town in northern

new jersey 20 minutes outside new york

city

when i was young i played baseball and

soccer

i loved the new york mets and star wars

but there was one thing that was unique

about me i loved adventure

here’s me at age five crossing a

death-defying suspension bridge

with man eating crocodiles below

and here i am at the north pole

breathing negative

50 degree temperatures and 100 mile an

hour winds

i loved dreaming up these imagined

worlds

i wanted to discover the lost city of

atlantis

i wanted to dive shipwrecks looking for

gold

and i knew that when i grew up i wanted

to be

an explorer however life has a way

of presenting challenges to us that we

could never possibly imagine

and when i was 18 years old i woke up on

a bright sunny morning

to a knock on my door it was my uncle

mike

and i thought it was strange that he was

at my house that day

i opened the door to a solemn look on

his face

and he said to me jeffrey your father

died this morning

i looked back in shock and disbelief i

said how is that possible

and he said he took his own life

the days that followed were a complete

blur

but i had no time to make sense of it

all i felt like i had to grow up

overnight

and i changed myself in order to survive

two months later i was a freshman

student at the college of new jersey

i was excited for the change in my

environment it was a welcome relief for

everything that was going on back home

the minute i stepped on campus i felt

different

i made an incredible group of friends i

became class president and i was on the

varsity tennis team

and even the explorer came out in me i

started visiting the surrounding area of

the college

falling in love with the historical

sites at nearby princeton university

i even created special tours for friends

and family to show them the places

that i loved as the ending of college

neared i had this incredible sense

of hope and excitement for my future

the next 10 years moved pretty quickly i

got a brilliant job

on wall street i married a wonderful

woman

and i had the privilege of becoming a

father

life was good things were calm and

smooth

but something was off inside

i was not happy i thought that if only i

got a higher corporate title

then everything would be okay if only

i got a bigger bonus then everything

would fall into place

but as these things that i desired came

to me

nothing seemed to work nothing seemed to

make me feel joy

and at the age of 32 my entire life

began to fall apart

it became very clear that the unresolved

issues from my past had taken complete

hold of my inner world

i felt like i was spiraling down this

endless pit

and there was nothing to stop me over

the next year my marriage crumbled

i had no place to live and i was

struggling severely at work

it was a devastating time for everyone

involved and i had no one to blame but

myself

sometimes in life things fall apart and

we don’t know why

oftentimes this can be the universe’s

way

of setting us on a new path

a year later i was walking along the

water in hoboken new jersey

feeling without hope but i remember

coming to this realization

that if i were going to move forward i

needed to change instead of following

what i was supposed to do

i would seek out meaning and connection

i would go on this great journey

to figure out what was in my heart

and then an opportunity for adventure

came into my life

at the age of 32 i i went on the first

hike

of my entire life the mountain was

located one hour north of new york city

and everything changed for me that day

the feeling of being immersed into

nature

made me feel connected the camaraderie

of the group of people i climbed with

made me feel as part of a community and

reaching my first summit filled me with

a deep sense of pride

while only 500 feet in elevation that

mountain

on that day was my mount everest

when i got home that night i knew i had

found something

a door to go through i wanted more of

these feelings in my life

so i began climbing mountains all over

the united states

i started with small ones at first and

gradually increased the difficulty

i used the challenges in the mountains

to rebuild my confidence and self-worth

the bigger the mountain the stronger i

grew

the mountains were healing me

at around the same time i was invited to

a leadership workshop at the bank where

i worked

little did i know what would happen that

day

a british polar explorer named robert

swann was going to be speaking

i learned that robert was the first

person in history to walk to both the

north and south poles

and that he had dedicated his life to

the preservation of the antarctica

continent

to maintain it as a natural reserve land

for peace i was blown away by his speech

his life was a series of tales of great

adventure

amazing triumphs and utter devastation

he had overcome extraordinary obstacles

in his life

but he lived with purpose and passion

and i wanted to live like him

i knew i had found something but i knew

i knew it was time for a change in my

life with my work

adventure was having such a

transformative effect on my life

i decided to start an adventure travel

company

i wanted to take people around the world

to the special places that i loved

and i dreamed of one day having the

greatest explorers in the world

lead our trips by day i was a banker

and on nights and weekends i was

building my company

and after two years of juggling both we

launched the explorer’s passage at the

new york times travel show

the largest travel show in north america

i created the booth in my head it was an

old explorer’s den

peering out into the himalayan mountains

and on those three days

we had the busiest booth in the entire

show

and on the third and final day new york

times management came over

and awarded us best small booth out of

450 other exhibitors

it was a massive moment this was it

i thought my company was going to soar

but as everyone knows things in life

don’t always come so easy

on that monday we had no phone calls or

emails

and for the next 18 months i tried every

sales and marketing tactic i could come

up with

but to no avail we had not one single

sale in mid 2015 i was just about to

give up

and i went into the mountains for

reflection

i started up this trail that i had done

dozens of times before

and midway through i noticed that a

large tree had fell

to block my path i stopped

thought about it and it hit me

maybe i was creating the obstacles in my

life

each morning we wake up and we look in

the mirror

but how deeply do we really see

ourselves how honest

are we about ourselves i decided to go

on a personal journey into myself

i wanted to understand what was blocking

me from moving forward

and i dug deep i started to see that the

more that i removed my roadblocks from

my past

the more my future began to open up

and soon my life began to change

and the phone started to ring what

started as a first trip to peru

ended up turning into trips all over the

globe

it was happening i was finally breaking

through

i started to see how change was becoming

a massive catalyst in my life

change was nothing to be feared but

something to be embraced

and then in 2016

through a series of completely random

events i wound up in a coffee shop

with robert swann the explorer

he told me that he’d been running these

sea expeditions to antarctica

for about 20 years and the purpose of

the expedition was to train the next

generation

of environmental leaders he was looking

for a business partner

i had never imagined of myself going to

antarctica

but i jumped at the opportunity

over the next 18 months robert myself

his son barney swann and our teams

worked day and night in filling the ship

and in february 2018 we brought 90

people from 27 nations

on an expedition to antarctica the trip

was an extraordinary success

robert showed me that adventure could be

used to help with major global issues

but climate change was not the only

thing that i cared about

i cared about conservation i cared about

world peace

i cared about people who were struggling

people

like my father so we decided that for

the next adventure

we would head to tanzania i huddled up

with barney swann

and we looked at the environmental

challenges that this great nation was

facing

and the issue of deforestation rose

right to the top

the mass deforestation around the mount

kilimanjaro region was having

devastating effects on the ecosystem in

the area

and no one knew more about this

challenge than dr jane goodall

gained has been fighting for

conservation efforts in tanzania for

nearly 60 years

barney and i wanted to be part of the

solution

so we partnered with jane and brought 20

of the most special people from around

the world

to tanzania to climb mount kilimanjaro

and on the day before the climb we spent

it with jane

and the extraordinary jane goodall got

on the ground

with each of the members of our team

with a broken arm

and planted trees with them she engaged

them in discussions around conservation

in the environment

our team was so inspired by this work

they couldn’t wait to get home to do

more

but first they would climb up africa’s

highest peak

over the next week this mighty mountain

challenged each

member of our team to the core everyone

had our ups and downs

but we stuck together as a team and went

step

by step as we pushed throughout the

night

to the summit in the horizon we saw the

daylight break

over the mountain and the sun come in

and on the final morning all 20 team

members

stood on the rooftop of africa

triumphantly

we had all done it as a team

on the summit of mount kilimanjaro that

day i went for a private walk

by myself

i looked at the joy and emotion that our

group was experiencing

and i thought to myself i reflected

on all the amazing people that i have

met over the past 10 years

i thought about all the amazing

adventures that had gone on

and i realized that after all these

years i’m back to that kid again

that kid who dreamed of being an

explorer

for me it was adventure that brought me

home to myself

for me it was adventure that helped me

heal the wounds of my past

but for you wherever you are in your

journey

i encourage you to have the courage to

change

i challenge you to find what truly

inspires you in life

and if you embark on this extraordinary

adventure

your life will become a masterpiece

thank you very much