TEDxNottingHill - Jim Rees - 10/09/09
[Music] [Music] apologies to the men in the audience about the Cy voice and I hope the women like it my wife actually likes it so I hope I actually retain it um I'm going to start with the first question that I always get asked with whenever I talk about the Race Across America I've now done three solo races Across America uh consecutive so that the video clip that you just saw was from 2007 I did the race again in 2008 and I've just finished it again in June this year um each time going quicker um but the question I always get asked almost immediately when I come off stage is the classic question which is why why do you do it so I thought I'd just share with you the why as to what what inspires me why I do it um I have a I have a passionate belief that everyone on the planet has greatness inside them and um some one of the things I do in my spare time like sairo is I actually go around to schools in the UK and talk to Children um to inspire them to believe in what's possible um just out of interest I'm I wanted to make this a little bit sort of interactive instead of making sure that no one's sleeping after lunch um I'm just curious as to how many people in the audience have got kids here can you just show your hands not actually here but I've got kids here okay how many people used to be kids okay great and how many people want to still be kids yeah okay um the reason I asked you that question is that um it's interesting there was a there was some data done about 20 years ago and they took um 105y old children and they measured these 5-year-old children self-confidence in their self-esteem and what they found which was really exciting was that 95% of those children had phenomenal self-confidence and self-esteem the frightening thing is that they followed those same 100 children and remeasured their self-confidence and self-esteem when they were 18 and the frightening thing was that actually only 5% of those same children had the same levels of high self-confidence and high self-esteem so my question to you uh to the audience again interactive and I would appreciate some feedback is what's happened in that period from 5 to 18 so just to show of hands just shout out what you think has actually gone wrong well what's happened to those children that had phenomenal self-confidence so schools have happened okay what else they hear they hear no quite a lot anything else sorry puberty happens what else um sorry that was st stop being childish oh there's the mark say that again bad influence from peers absolutely the drive for Success that that's they're too overloaded with the drive for Success too overloaded for drive for Success okay driv by parents driven by parents okay fear fear fear yeah brilliant the system the system and we're all part of that system of course the media um our friends our so-called friends are all part of that media we letting them grow say that again we are not letting them grow up we're not letting them grow up absolutely so I guess what what you what you're talking about is the conditioning they've been conditioned you know these young whippersnappers at five had a phenomenal self-esteem and self-confidence but by the time they got to 18 it was almost conditioned out of them and like subal I iaps passionately believe that they greatness hasn't gone anywhere it's just been um suppressed over time and um I you know I started a not for profit organization called team inspiration which is all about inspiring children to believe in what's possible so the why do things like the Race Across America and push myself to extremes uh is really more about a normal guy with six kids I have six kids myself um you know proving to the world that actually anything's possible with the right mindset and um the speakers that I've already spoken that have spoken just after lunch both Bill and SEL have both mentioned that as a key theme in their talks and I completely agree with them um just out of interest you would have you would have heard some of these as you were growing up as kids I'm certain but again just an interactive bit if you can just finish these off for me so look before yeah you know it it's too good to be true yep you getting it oh we know that one yeah who do you think you are and actually the list could go on and on and on we could play and have some fun with this this afternoon but I haven't got enough time to do that you know you're clumsy you're stupid um all sorts of stuff you know um is thrown into the Melting Pot in terms of the conditioning that suppresses their greatness from 5 to 18 and it has happened predominately to most of us in the room apart from those that are actually quite bold and get out there and have a go now here's a little bit of fun for you this next slide I'm just going to see if you can be a bit childlike this afternoon which is I think an ingredient of great Enterprise um and just see if you shout this slide up so I'm just going to press the button and if you sh read the slide and Shout It Out Loud for me if you could are you happy to do that children ah okay so yes it reads two things opportunity is nowhere which I heard mostly from the audience an opportunity is now here and I guess really for me personally if I relate what I do to the business world I work in the corporate world myself um it's actually grabbing this you know if you're an entrepreneur entrepreneurs get the opportunity is now here that's all they're looking for all the time you know when things don't work they're not looking for who who's responsible for that they're looking for okay so what can we do to resolve it let's focus on the solution as opposed to what caused this happening let's move on let's learn from it and let's um do it differently next time so opportunity is now here is absolutely the lenses with which Enterprise and buding entrepreneurs will always continue to succeed with unfortunately most people look through the lens of opportunity as nowhere and hence restrict the opportunities around them opportunities everywhere at the moment you know we're we're talking about a tough um economic climate but actually entrepreneurs aren't finding that at all they they're looking for there there are loads of opportunities for entrepreneurs right now if you're looking for it um based on the fact that I've um have I got five minutes left now is that what I just saw I'm five minutes in I'm sorry I didn't I didn't get the cue about which way way I am if we could just run the um the video clip in the background and what I'd like to just share with you is some of the stats um from the Race Across America um because I guess some of you might be interested in some of that um the race actually itself and this is what you're seeing is video footage from this year's Race Across America with the sound taken out of course and um the stats the race actually starts in San Diego Oceanside San Diego um June each year and we all have a a a root book which every racer has to it's like a Bible which has got all the um the route that you have to take as Solo solo Riders and goes all the way across um to Annapolis Maryland just over 3,000 Mi later so that incorporates terrain like the Mojave desert and the deserts of Arizona and then before you actually start climbing uh the Rocky Mountains you get on the other side of the Rocky Mountains and go across um my least favorite part of the race which is um right across Kansas which is quite flat and very boring and normally with headwind as well so you get about 500 miles of headwind um most years if you're lucky you might get a side wind which is a little bit less um painful really on the legs and then um just before you finish and get into Maryland you actually have to cross the Appalachian Mountains again on the bike which is just sort of like the killer sort of kicking the pants just before you finish um in terms of calories um I burn per day I'm on the bike in fact last year in 2008 I um I did I completed the race in 11 days 8 hours and slept a total of 13 and 1 half hours so I was sort of roughly averaging just over an hour per day um this year I did a stint which was 36 hours nonstop on the bike um so I could actually cover off the first 500 miles and it's just a strategy that most of the solo Riders use to actually stay as long as they can on the bike to get to a particular point in the race so um and this year I went a little bit quicker I was 10 days 20 hours and I was sixth overall um out of all the solo um competitors this year we had 24 solo Riders from around the world and only 12 finished the race um and it is it is considered to be the toughest race on the planet and the reason for that is that it is that has got this non-stop nature to it you have to finish the race within 12 days it's unlike the Tour of France the Tour of France the thing that you see on TV they're professional cyclists I'm not a professional cyclist most of the most of the people that compete in this race aren't professional cyclists they're not doing it for money or Glory because there is no money involved in it it's not it's not a professional event it's really more for the honor and uh you know the medal at that you get at the end to say that actually it's almost bragging rights I suppose if you if you like um calories per day I'm burning between 10 and 12,000 calories per day I can't actually eat enough to actually keep the calorie count up so of course by the time I finish the race I've lost weight quite a bit of weight I'm not quite sure how much but I'm certainly thinner and my wife quite likes the thinner sort of um look that I come home with um other stats are we um there are more people that have actually climbed Everest and have actually finished the Race Across America Race Across America has been going now for 28 years so it's been U quite a longstanding event um in terms of the climbing that we do in the Race Across America we climb over 110,000 um M of climbing during the race of course we get some downhill as well because it starts at sea level and finishes at sea level so um there's some pretty good stuff there in terms of my experience this year and just sharing with you some of the best and the worst um experiences this year probably my worst experience was probably about day four going through Kansas it was about 42° heat and I decided that I just wanted a pound app um a lot of the Cy including myself use power naaps of 10 and 15 minutes just to sort of rejuvenate yourself you sort of almost trick the body to think that you've had a long sleep and uh I was taking I was taking a pette we just set up outside someone's main drive under a beautiful Shady Tree and I could feel the breeze coming over the brow about 2:00 in the afternoon and this chap that owned uh the property just sort of drove up and he sort of drove his car out and looked out the window and saw me lying on the on the floor at at the front of his house and he and the only thing he said to my crew were is he dying and they said oh no no he's he's a competitor in the Race Across America he's just taking a quick nap and his reply was get him off my property um so we literally had to pack everything up and I had to carry on cycling and find another spot to um take the pound out um so that was one of the worst experiences because of course I was quite looking for for to a little pound app um one of the one of the best best bits of the race was um quite a long way into the race near Camden town which is there are 54 time stations across the race horse America this was Time Station um 32 we were filling up our follow car that follows me during the race through the night and um we were filling our car up I was having a arrest I was just sat waiting for the carard to be filled someone else an American was filling his car up went in paid for his uh petrol and then um asked the lady behind the cashier what what's going on here and she explained that I was competing in the Race Across America solo and he was so blown away with it by it he actually just paid for our petrol he didn't come out and tell us he just went off and he asked them to just say Well done keep it going um so it's quite you know in terms of the best and the worst you see the best and the worst of America which was pretty uh amazing um other facts is of course when you're so sleep deprived which is a technique that um you know they use in Warfare in terms of depriving people of sleep um I hallucinate quite a lot during the race um and certainly we call it the witching hour between sort of 2:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the uh in the morning where you're just so sleep deprived you start hallucinating and I've seen some pretty amazing things this year um a pothole in front of me turned into a black Panther coming out of the out of the road you know ready to pounce on me which really sort of woke me up and spooked me a little bit so in terms of um the grueling nature of the race um you know I'm hoping to sort of share the fact that you know a normal guy and I'm not an I'm not an Olympic cyclist um can actually go out and do stuff and actually inspire young people and also older people um I used to do Iron Man triin and fly around the worlding competing in Iron Man triathlons and um that that consists of a 2.4 M swim 112 Mi on the bike and then a full Marathon the oldest competitor in an Iron Man Triathlon is 80 years old so my guess is that there's no 80y olds in this audience uh if we could go back to the slides please if uh I need this little fell here my belief is that the key to any any buding entrepreneur any business in this environment or any any environment really is the key is mindset it's having the right mindset and both previous speakers and I'm sure the speakers this morning um that was a common theme in their talks and without a doubt without the right mindset you can't do something like the Race Across America my belief is I could take any of you in this room and train you to compete and complete at least an Iron Man now I'm not suggesting that you I'm trying to encourage you to go out and do that I'm just suggesting that if you had the right mindset you can actually do more than you you at the moment think you can not just physically but in other aspects of your life as well and I think this is probably the most powerful quote on the planet if you think you can or if you think you can't you're probably right and I think this is the without a doubt this is the key message I leave with children when I'm speaking to them at school because this is the the the thing that stops them you know if they have a belief that they can't do something then they they won't even give it a try if they believe they can they'll take the next step and then the next step and without a doubt I suppose the key message that I really want to leave you with here is that actually my experience as a parent seeing my children grow up uh a lot of the corporate stuff I do one-on-one with some very senior people in the corporate world and the leadership development stuff I do and me physically doing some of these races that I've I've competed in I absolutely know without doubt that most of us are only really just scratching our our full potential we can do more we can be more we can have more in our lives but a lot of it is down to the mindset that we actually apply to life and it was really lovely to be able to hear um the two previous speakers just uh elaborate that on that as well um because I absolutely completely agree with what they both said it's fantastic I just really want to finish off with this um final quote which is I do have a passionate belief that we are all built for greatness and I suppose the question I really want to leave you with this afternoon is what Mark are you going to leave thank you very much ladies and gentlemen