Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens
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0:10 - 0:14Okay. I'd like to present
a hypothetical idea. -
0:14 - 0:17A way to practice taking risks,
because after all, -
0:17 - 0:20practice makes perfect. Right?
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0:20 - 0:23So I want you to picture a stadium.
The biggest stadium you've ever seen. -
0:23 - 0:26and it's got a huge arch
over the top of it, -
0:26 - 0:27a hundred meters high.
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0:27 - 0:32Now, most people think that that arch
is simply there for supporting the structure. -
0:32 - 0:37But others believe that arch is also there
so that we can tie a rope to the top of it, -
0:37 - 0:39we can stretch that rope
all the way to the rim of the stadium -
0:39 - 0:43and do a huge rope swing
all the way across. -
0:43 - 0:46And better still, we can do that
in a kayak. -
0:47 - 0:50But wait! What if the rope breaks?
You could die! -
0:51 - 0:55Okay, maybe you didn't ask that question.
But I'm pretty sure that you did ask, -
0:55 - 1:00"What's a professional kayaker,
and what's he doing on our stage?" -
1:01 - 1:04I haven't done much to change the world,
but I have made a career -
1:04 - 1:07out of exploring remote rivers.
And the rivers taught me -
1:08 - 1:10just about everything I need to know.
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1:10 - 1:14Growing up in South Africa
was a good life, but a simple life. -
1:15 - 1:20No TV, no video games,
but I did have a kayak and a river. -
1:21 - 1:26I had the disadvantage of having
very few kayak mentors -
1:26 - 1:30to teach me what could be done in a kayak,
but I had the distinct advantage -
1:30 - 1:33of having nobody to tell me
what could not be done. -
1:34 - 1:38I remember as a young teenager,
hearing about a French rafting expedition -
1:38 - 1:42that had attempted to take on and navigate
the world's biggest rapids, -
1:42 - 1:45on the Congo River.
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1:45 - 1:51I saw this old photocopy
of the Paris Match magazine, -
1:51 - 1:55and this was the last photo ever taken of them.
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1:55 - 1:57Right about the same time,
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1:57 - 2:00I saw an old newspaper
with this photo of Marco Begni -
2:00 - 2:03kayaking off a waterfall near my house.
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2:03 - 2:06If you look at the top left of the frame,
you'll see a kayak there. -
2:08 - 2:11I clearly remember walking into the kitchen
and saying to my parents, -
2:11 - 2:13"I'm going to kayak down
that waterfall one day." -
2:14 - 2:17And my dad said, "Well, son,
if you work hard and practice, -
2:17 - 2:19maybe one day you'll be good enough."
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2:19 - 2:24About ten years later I found myself
kayaking off that very waterfall. -
2:24 - 2:28And about 15 years later I found myself
standing next to the Congo River -
2:29 - 2:32on the very same spot where
that last photograph was taken. -
2:33 - 2:37Now I think the best way for me
to introduce you to my Congo expedition -
2:37 - 2:41is to play the trailer to the film that
I made about it. Have a look. -
2:45 - 2:51Some call it a calling.
I think of it as an obsession. -
2:53 - 2:54Inga.
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2:56 - 2:58World's biggest rapid.
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3:00 - 3:03Almost every attempt to survive it
causes death. -
3:07 - 3:13I've been kayaking my whole life.
But when is enough enough? -
3:17 - 3:21I first heard the story, and seven people
died having their attempt. -
3:22 - 3:25Now I've waited half my life for my turn.
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3:26 - 3:29All I have to do now is call a team of the best,
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3:32 - 3:33put my friends' lives on the line...
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3:38 - 3:42I've definitely been struggling with it.
I've woken up quite a few mornings -
3:42 - 3:45and just almost felt like calling the boys
and saying, -
3:45 - 3:48I just don't know
if I'm in for this one. -
3:49 - 3:53This is the obsession: to release yourself
by accomplishing the goal. -
3:54 - 3:57Or by being stopped by something outside of your control.
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3:57 - 4:00But once you start this journey,
even if you don't want to go, -
4:01 - 4:03you have to.
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4:03 - 4:17(Energetic music)
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4:17 - 4:20You can run all the big water you want,
but how do you prepare for something -
4:20 - 4:22that's never been done before?
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4:22 - 4:26In a place where help is not on its way.
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4:29 - 4:30Congo.
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4:32 - 4:35A place where experience is just a word.
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4:54 - 4:58The lesson that we learned today is not to fuck with these rapids.
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4:58 - 5:02FIsher messed up because he got off to the side where whirlpools form,
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5:02 - 5:04where all of this stuff goes down out here.
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5:05 - 5:08I may have had the closest call of my life, but I didn't come here to die.
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5:09 - 5:11I came here to win.
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5:17 - 5:21(Helicopter noise)
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5:22 - 5:25(Music slowly builds)
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5:57 - 6:00-Steady bro!
- Fuck, they're not gonna make it dude! -
6:03 - 6:06(CONGO: The Grand Inga Project)
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6:06 - 6:09All right, so. Spoiler alert: we survived.
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6:09 - 6:11(Laughter)
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6:11 - 6:17(Applause)
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6:17 - 6:20So what you just saw in the introduction there, is
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6:20 - 6:25even us extreme sports guys feel trepidation as we approach a new challenge.
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6:26 - 6:30And in this case, it was fearing that if we took the next step,
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6:30 - 6:34the voyage itself would take on a life of its own, and drag us along with it.
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6:35 - 6:40It would be like faring out into a huge river with a strong current, and you can't stop.
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6:40 - 6:42It's a commitment.
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6:43 - 6:47So how, then, do we prepare for something that's never been done before?
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6:48 - 6:53In my profession I have a small box that I start with that has five tools in it.
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6:54 - 6:56My equipment: I make sure I have the right gear.
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6:57 - 7:01My physical well-being: I make sure that I've prepared physically for the task.
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7:03 - 7:07The location: I make sure that I'm in the perfect place to do what I do.
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7:07 - 7:11And once I've checked those three off, I use those to develop the other two,
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7:11 - 7:14which are the skills and the experience.
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7:15 - 7:19But you can't use any of these tools until you demistify risk.
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7:20 - 7:25We can mitigate risks purely by understanding them, and the way that we understand them
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7:25 - 7:28is that we take a seemingly impossible idea and we break it down
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7:28 - 7:34into little digestible parts, and we look at each step individually and see if that is attainable.
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7:35 - 7:40What happens then is what we're doing, is that we find that many of our fears are unjustified,
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7:41 - 7:46and very often we find that what's before us is far less risky than we thought.
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7:48 - 7:55So... (coughs, lowers tone) give me a second. Might need some applause here.
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7:55 - 8:01(Applause)
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8:02 - 8:07So you know, as humans, we are not inherently risk averse.
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8:08 - 8:13We evolved by taking risks, so it's okay if there are risks in what we do.
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8:13 - 8:16We simply need to understand those risk, and once we understand them,
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8:16 - 8:20we're ready to take the first step. So let me show you what I mean.
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8:20 - 8:25Let me show you how I put that to use every time I look at a rapid or a waterfall.
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8:26 - 8:30As I paddle up to the top of a waterfall, the first thing I do is climb out of my kayak
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8:30 - 8:34and I walk down the side of the river and I look at the pool below.
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8:34 - 8:36That's my goal, that's where I want to be.
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8:36 - 8:40And it's only then that I turn back at the rapid, and Oh my gosh!
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8:40 - 8:43If I look at the whole rapid it's far too daunting.
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8:43 - 8:47So what I need to do is break it down into smaller chunks, into individual moves
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8:47 - 8:54and see that I can do each move individually, and only then do I figure out how to link those moves together.
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8:54 - 8:58So let's zoom in on this photograph. If I would have shown this top part of the rapids
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8:58 - 9:04to even an intermediate kayaker, they would say, "Okay. Well that looks fairly chunky, but it's good to go."
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9:04 - 9:10And if I showed them the next part, they would say, "Oh, that's a pretty straightforward job. Yeah, let's go do it."
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9:11 - 9:15And if I show them the last part, they would say, "Okay, it's pretty spectacular but it's a straight shot.
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9:15 - 9:17You don't really need to do anything. It's good to go."
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9:18 - 9:20You'll have to take my word for that.
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9:21 - 9:25But the job is not done there. Once we cut a problem horizontally,
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9:25 - 9:28the next thing we need to do is cut it vertically.
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9:28 - 9:33What we're trying to do is establish the path or line that we're likely to be on.
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9:33 - 9:38And the reason that we're doing that is to eliminate the parts of the rapid that don't affect us.
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9:38 - 9:41The parts of the rapid where we will not be.
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9:41 - 9:45Because if we do that, then we can look and see if there are any deadly features.
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9:45 - 9:50If those deadly features are in the eliminated part we never have to think about them again.
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9:51 - 9:54And if those deadly features are in our path, and they're unavoidable,
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9:55 - 9:58well then we don't go. It's far too risky.
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9:58 - 10:01That's how extreme sport works. Sorry to disappoint you guys.
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10:02 - 10:07So imagine you're walking along a trail like this. You're walking along and you've got a cliff on your left side.
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10:07 - 10:12You're thinking about what you're doing while you walk. You're not thinking about the cliff the entire time.
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10:13 - 10:17It's only if you turn towards the cliff and start approaching it that it becomes a real danger.
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10:17 - 10:19And then you stop.
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10:20 - 10:26Okay, so how do you know if you're on the right path, and what happens if you're on the wrong path?
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10:26 - 10:33Well, in kayaking there's no turning back. So what that teaches us is not to panic when things go wrong.
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10:33 - 10:39When the unexpected occurs we have no choice but to solve the problem and keep on moving.
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10:39 - 10:45But fortunately, as in life, if we zoom back just a little bit, perhaps to where we haven't yet
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10:45 - 10:49climbed in the kayak and made the commitment, we get to see that very often
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10:49 - 10:53we can start down a path, realize we're on the wrong path, turn back and reset the plan.
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10:54 - 10:59Let me show you what I mean. (Laughter)
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10:59 - 11:03Have you ever heard the cliche, "never give up"?
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11:03 - 11:08Well tonight we're canceling it. We don't say that anymore.
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11:08 - 11:11From now on we say, "Don't give up too easily."
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11:12 - 11:18On this particular trip, our plan was to use a rope to rappel down into the base of Victoria Falls
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11:18 - 11:21and kayak through the rapids at the very base of the falls.
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11:22 - 11:25Once we got down there, we found the unexpected.
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11:25 - 11:30The wind and the spray from the falls themselves were so strong that it was impossible to kayak,
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11:30 - 11:35so we had to fall back on to our contingency plan and climb a hundred meters back up the rope
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11:35 - 11:37and cancel the whole idea.
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11:38 - 11:42But guess what? The TV show we were making about it turned out great,
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11:42 - 11:47and we got this photograph. We gave up but we didn't have to feel ashamed of it.
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11:48 - 11:54if you refuse to give up on an idea, then you inhibit your ability to experiment.
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11:55 - 11:59But if you're willing to give up after a good effort, then when you do give up
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11:59 - 12:01there's no reason to feel guilty.
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12:02 - 12:06Okay, so I think that now you're starting to get to know me a little bit, so I think that we're ready
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12:06 - 12:10to talk about the stadium idea again.
How do you guys feel now? -
12:11 - 12:15But wait! What if the rope breaks? You could die!
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12:16 - 12:19The rope is not going to break, and here's why.
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12:19 - 12:26Right from the start, we're going to use a rope that is thousands of pounds stronger than it needs to be.
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12:27 - 12:32So we've used the right equipment to eliminate the problem and we never have to think about it again.
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12:32 - 12:37We've eliminated the "what if" factor. It's called "pointing positive".
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12:38 - 12:43We can now focus on the how, and in this particular case, the more important question is,
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12:44 - 12:49"How long does that rope need to be to make sure that we don't hit the ground on the way down?"
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12:49 - 12:55And once we're finished, how are we gonna get from the end of the rope back to the ground?
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12:56 - 13:02Now, with a few simple mathematical calculations, these are pretty easy problems to solve.
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13:02 - 13:06So we're ready to go. Are you guys ready? All right, let's do it.
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13:08 - 13:10(electronic music)
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13:35 - 13:38(Wind noise)
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13:54 - 13:59All right. (Applause)
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14:01 - 14:03I can see you want to do that, don't you?
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14:05 - 14:08All right. So when we imagined this idea, first of all,
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14:09 - 14:15the idea sounds crazy. But once we break it down and demystify the risk,
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14:15 - 14:23then we suddenly find that it's so safe that this very swing has now become a fully fledged commercial operation.
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14:23 - 14:28Yes. You too can go to Durban, South Africa. You can pay your money,
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14:28 - 14:31and you can go and do a giant rope swing across a stadium.
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14:32 - 14:35You can take a leap of faith. And hundreds of people do.
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14:35 - 14:39And guess what the most common thing that they say is afterwards?
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14:40 - 14:46"Man! It just really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I feel as if "If I can do that,
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14:47 - 14:52I can do anything!" And guess what? They're absolutely right.
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14:53 - 14:59So right now, we all live always at the edge of uncharted waters.
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14:59 - 15:03And no matter that they're something meaningless like kayaking down a rapid,
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15:03 - 15:08or meaningful like changing the world, the principle is always the same:
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15:09 - 15:13We need to buck up and add our piece to the puzzle.
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15:14 - 15:16It reminds me of a quote that I heard once.
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15:16 - 15:19I was in the deepest gorge in the world, in Tibet.
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15:19 - 15:25One of the boys ad-libbed a quote out of a book called "Wanderer" by Sterling Hayden.
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15:25 - 15:26And I'll give you just one line.
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15:28 - 15:36"Ive always wanted to sail the seven seas, but I can't afford it. What these people can't afford is not to go."
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15:37 - 15:38End quote.
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15:39 - 15:40Thank you very much, Athens!
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15:40 - 15:44It's been a pleasure and a privilege. Good night!
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15:44 - 15:48(Applause)
- Title:
- Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens
- Description:
-
How do you prepare for something that has never been done by anyone before? Steve Fisher responded to this on the stage of TEDxAthens.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 15:59
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens | ||
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens | ||
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens | ||
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens | ||
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens | ||
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens | ||
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens | ||
Dimitra Papageorgiou edited English subtitles for Breaking down risk: Steve Fisher at TEDxAthens |
SungJoo Kim
There were only a few mistakes like spelling. Other than that, the translations were nearly perfect.