[Music]
can you see me it’s okay we’re not gonna
play worse Wally the thing is that until
I was 25 years old I couldn’t see me
either
I’ve done nothing and left my mark on
the world I was invisible to myself even
ironically until that point I’d done
everything that society expected of me
it took a huge step into the unknown in
order for me to discover my place in the
world and I’m gonna share the story of
how I went from A to B by riding a bike
around the world like most people here I
went to university and upon graduation
at that high-pressure situation where
everyone’s asking what are you going to
do with the rest of your life now I
didn’t know so I did what was expected
of me I got a job and with it I got
everything else I got the money the car
the house I got respect for my friends
and my family I was successful but I was
incredibly unhappy diagnosed with
depression it took the help of a
counselor to make me realize that all of
my actions were pleasing everybody else
but not myself now at this time I didn’t
know what I could do to change my life I
couldn’t see a way of changing it for
the better but an opportunity came along
to ride a motorbike across Iceland with
two friends so I took it and I can’t
begin to explain to you what a
difference this made in my life to find
out that there was this adventurous
freedom out bird I’d never known existed
before we arrived at the island with
just our bikes a map and a compass and
everything to explore we rode across
deserts we passed glaciers and mountains
we swam in hot water rivers and at night
we camped under the Midnight Sun I was
alive and it was these new languages new
landscapes that were inspiring me now
what it turned out that I’ve tapped into
was a core happiness from when I was a
child when we’re young we don’t ever
things of an adventure for us we’re out
there exploring new things every day
this is me with my first bike I’ve got
the bunny bike and for the first time
I’m going faster than I’ve ever been
before I’m going to further than I’ve
been before and everything’s in sensory
explosion I’m seeing new things I’m
hearing new things I’m smelling and
touching the world as I go through it
I’m feeling the wind in my hair and the
burn in my legs and it stripped
everything down to a core connection
with the planet it was a connection to
something bigger a connection to
something that’s pure and it’s lost in
adulthood when we’re young we don’t
realize how insignificant we are in the
world do we when we’re young with the
center of our own universe it’s just as
we grow up we get smaller and was that
simplistic way of seeing the world that
I’d found on my adventure I wanted more
so I went on to decide to ride a bike
around the world I guess if we take that
childlike mentality of looking at the
world and we put it into an adult term
we would say do one thing every day that
scares you now it just turned out that I
did one thing for seven years that
scared me
but that challenge excited me it
inspired me and the challenge changed me
as a human being it took me from being a
25 year old with depression to an
around-the-world cyclist very early on
in the journey I realized that even the
people with your best interests at heart
lead you astray they lead you on the
wrong path when you’re young you’re told
what’s good and what’s bad what’s
sensible what’s impossible even but at
the beginning of my bike journey
I need the guidance as well so I was
asking for support from companies for
sponsorship I wrote out letters every
day asking for equipment for components
for bikes I organized a meeting with the
mayor and 50 local businesses to support
what I was planning to do but nobody
replied to my letters and nobody came to
the meetings at home my dad was even
saying you know you should settle down
while you’re young you can do this when
you were tired but I knew that I wanted
to do it
and so I ended up spending my own money
to buy the equipment that I needed and I
did what I think is probably the hardest
thing of every challenge which is taking
the first step and I did that alone I
cycled out of the UK and supported the
way that people addressed what I was
doing continued as I cycled through
Europe every day I was being told that I
was either gonna be attacked or killed
by terrorists when I get to Iran and
these stories scared me I didn’t want to
be the guy who wakes up with a hood over
his head being held to ransom on the
news I didn’t want to be the guy who’s
found dead in a tent in the morning I
was scared to arrive in Iran but when I
got there I realized that this was
another country with some of the kindest
most generous and intelligent people
that I’d ever met this is me sitting for
a meal with a family who found me in the
street and they invited me and ended up
spending three days with them it had
taken me stepping out of my comfort zone
into the unknown to realize that there
was a world of helpful people out there
who would go out of their way to make
sure that I was okay that kindness of
strangers ended up spanning the whole of
the 51 countries that I cycled through
but it wasn’t only cultural problems
that I came against there were
geographical challenges as well and
never more so than when I cycled across
probably the most inhospitable place in
the world which was Tibet this slide is
from the first morning on the climb to
the rooftop of the world it’s on a
desert a desert with snow it’s like
double bad this is the worst conditions
you could ride in and so faced with this
I ended up having to carry push or pedal
all of my equipment on the bike
everything that I owned up a hill to the
rooftop of the world to Tibet the climb
was incredibly difficult there was snow
that I wasn’t prepared for and as I got
higher the snow got thicker the oxygen
got thinner and the cycling harder the
climb ended up taking four days and I
had to reassess my expectations of
normal I looked at this and I thought
okay well maybe if you can see the top
of a climb
maybe it’s not a crime after all that’s
a metaphor that I continue to use for
every problem that the world throws at
me today but of course getting to the
top was only the beginning of the
problem
I was then faced with living for three
weeks at 5,000 meters in altitude at
these kind of places the world’s physics
change water freezes like glue when
you’ve got an average daily temperature
of minus 10
elastic doesn’t stretch putting up
attempts impossible and then with such
little oxygen every small task was an
incredibly big challenge add into this
that I wasn’t going to places where
people live no one lives up in Tibet so
I’d occasionally find a military
settlement where I could get the basic
rations of instant noodles and biscuits
and when there was no snow I had to find
water in this frozen world I’d end up
walking out onto frozen rivers smashing
a hole in the ice collecting water
knowing that if that ice broke and I
fell into the water there’s no way that
I would survive just when you think the
day’s couldn’t be any worse then comes
the night the temperature plummets to
minus 40 degrees and I’m still sleeping
in a tent now sleeping was okay had an
Arctic sleeping bag three season
sleeping bag and I was wearing my
clothes inside I was I was warm I slept
well but then you come to waking up and
you can see but that’s my breath frozen
on the inside of the tent it’s frozen on
everything and then the worst part I’m
doing the first sleeping bag dropping 30
degrees I’m doing the second sleeping
bag another 10 degrees and the first
step once again like leaving England the
first step out of the tent was always
the hardest to go from this warm cocoon
that’s kept you safe through the night
and step out into this frozen world
outside but we do what matters and at
that time nothing mattered more than
survival I had to keep going I stepped
out and I continued to push myself I
push myself into some of the largest
environments in the world and on the
positive side it was incredibly humbling
to find how small one man is when you’re
faced with such big mountains
it put all of my worries for my youth in
perspective when I was worrying about
how am I gonna pay the bills what my
friends think of me suddenly it didn’t
matter compared with how am I going to
survive
just through this day but having the
weight of my own responsibility for my
own life on my shoulders was incredibly
difficult to and find myself just stood
still when a climb became too hard or
when the wind picked up in the sandstorm
hit my face and I just begin to cry
there were times some days when I pushed
the bike for six hours through snow
through sand and then at the end after
all of this hard work I could look back
and I could still see the place where
I’d packed the tent that morning I was
pushing myself through limits that I
never knew existed before my time in
Tibet came to an end when I met this man
who I could probably introduce as the
most expensive taxi driver I ever took
it turned out that it’s forbidden to
ride a bike through Tibet but the police
found me and they needed to remove me
they wanted to take me back to that
desert way I started the journey now for
me that was impossible I didn’t have a
visa that was stretched long enough to
go back there I needed to go forward
they detained me for a week and at the
end of it they came back and played this
good cop bad cop routine so when I get
the good cop alone I start to tell him
you know I can’t go back that way it’d
be impossible I need to go forward to
Nepal how are we going to do it well it
turns out that if you’ve got 200 pounds
and it slips into the right persons hand
you can go quite a long way through this
part of the world so with that in mind I
took the last few hundred kilometres
through Tibet in the back of a police
car I descended and came to the
Friendship Bridge I pushed my bike
across it into Nepal I found the first
wooden shack that I came to lent the
bike against it and looked around and I
had a moment that brought me to tears I
realized that I’ve been in this frozen
world it was lifeless for so long I’d
pushed my limits to survive and now I
found myself in this beautiful area of
life I looked around
there were trees with green leaves there
are red flowers I took a breath I could
smell the food cooking in the local
cafes down the road I could smell the
the shampoo of people washing in the
street and as I turned I could hear the
children playing in the school down the
road in that moment I realized what I’d
done I’d ridden a bike from the
industrial heart of the UK to the prayer
flags and the incense of Nepal in that
moment I realized that I had gone from a
time when no one believed in me to
pushing my limits way beyond what I
thought was possible in that moment I
thought about every country I’d been
through and all of those cultures that
had been different and I’d had to adapt
to and through adapting I’d got myself
through situations that I never even
thought and get myself into and in that
moment I knew without a doubt that I’d
go on to ride a bike around the world I
knew that I’d built something inside
myself that was that strong and all
clicks back to this moment as a child
that sensory explosion that feeling of
adventure and I was big again in my own
life it turned out that all I needed to
do in order to discover my place in the
big wide world was that I just needed a
bigger bunny bike now what I’d hope to
leave you with from my adventure around
the world is that I didn’t get to ride a
bike around the world by playing it safe
and conforming to society I didn’t get
to find my true place in the world by
conforming or playing it safe either I
would say that if you truly want to find
your place in the big wide world you’ve
got to step out of your comfort zone
you’ve got to go into the unknown and
harness that childlike adventurer inside
you and maybe more importantly like I’m
doing enjoy the ride
thank you
[Music]
you
can you see me it’s okay we’re not gonna
play worse Wally the thing is that until
I was 25 years old I couldn’t see me
either
I’ve done nothing and left my mark on
the world I was invisible to myself even
ironically until that point I’d done
everything that society expected of me
it took a huge step into the unknown in
order for me to discover my place in the
world and I’m gonna share the story of
how I went from A to B by riding a bike
around the world like most people here I
went to university and upon graduation
at that high-pressure situation where
everyone’s asking what are you going to
do with the rest of your life now I
didn’t know so I did what was expected
of me I got a job and with it I got
everything else I got the money the car
the house I got respect for my friends
and my family I was successful but I was
incredibly unhappy diagnosed with
depression it took the help of a
counselor to make me realize that all of
my actions were pleasing everybody else
but not myself now at this time I didn’t
know what I could do to change my life I
couldn’t see a way of changing it for
the better but an opportunity came along
to ride a motorbike across Iceland with
two friends so I took it and I can’t
begin to explain to you what a
difference this made in my life to find
out that there was this adventurous
freedom out bird I’d never known existed
before we arrived at the island with
just our bikes a map and a compass and
everything to explore we rode across
deserts we passed glaciers and mountains
we swam in hot water rivers and at night
we camped under the Midnight Sun I was
alive and it was these new languages new
landscapes that were inspiring me now
what it turned out that I’ve tapped into
was a core happiness from when I was a
child when we’re young we don’t ever
things of an adventure for us we’re out
there exploring new things every day
this is me with my first bike I’ve got
the bunny bike and for the first time
I’m going faster than I’ve ever been
before I’m going to further than I’ve
been before and everything’s in sensory
explosion I’m seeing new things I’m
hearing new things I’m smelling and
touching the world as I go through it
I’m feeling the wind in my hair and the
burn in my legs and it stripped
everything down to a core connection
with the planet it was a connection to
something bigger a connection to
something that’s pure and it’s lost in
adulthood when we’re young we don’t
realize how insignificant we are in the
world do we when we’re young with the
center of our own universe it’s just as
we grow up we get smaller and was that
simplistic way of seeing the world that
I’d found on my adventure I wanted more
so I went on to decide to ride a bike
around the world I guess if we take that
childlike mentality of looking at the
world and we put it into an adult term
we would say do one thing every day that
scares you now it just turned out that I
did one thing for seven years that
scared me
but that challenge excited me it
inspired me and the challenge changed me
as a human being it took me from being a
25 year old with depression to an
around-the-world cyclist very early on
in the journey I realized that even the
people with your best interests at heart
lead you astray they lead you on the
wrong path when you’re young you’re told
what’s good and what’s bad what’s
sensible what’s impossible even but at
the beginning of my bike journey
I need the guidance as well so I was
asking for support from companies for
sponsorship I wrote out letters every
day asking for equipment for components
for bikes I organized a meeting with the
mayor and 50 local businesses to support
what I was planning to do but nobody
replied to my letters and nobody came to
the meetings at home my dad was even
saying you know you should settle down
while you’re young you can do this when
you were tired but I knew that I wanted
to do it
and so I ended up spending my own money
to buy the equipment that I needed and I
did what I think is probably the hardest
thing of every challenge which is taking
the first step and I did that alone I
cycled out of the UK and supported the
way that people addressed what I was
doing continued as I cycled through
Europe every day I was being told that I
was either gonna be attacked or killed
by terrorists when I get to Iran and
these stories scared me I didn’t want to
be the guy who wakes up with a hood over
his head being held to ransom on the
news I didn’t want to be the guy who’s
found dead in a tent in the morning I
was scared to arrive in Iran but when I
got there I realized that this was
another country with some of the kindest
most generous and intelligent people
that I’d ever met this is me sitting for
a meal with a family who found me in the
street and they invited me and ended up
spending three days with them it had
taken me stepping out of my comfort zone
into the unknown to realize that there
was a world of helpful people out there
who would go out of their way to make
sure that I was okay that kindness of
strangers ended up spanning the whole of
the 51 countries that I cycled through
but it wasn’t only cultural problems
that I came against there were
geographical challenges as well and
never more so than when I cycled across
probably the most inhospitable place in
the world which was Tibet this slide is
from the first morning on the climb to
the rooftop of the world it’s on a
desert a desert with snow it’s like
double bad this is the worst conditions
you could ride in and so faced with this
I ended up having to carry push or pedal
all of my equipment on the bike
everything that I owned up a hill to the
rooftop of the world to Tibet the climb
was incredibly difficult there was snow
that I wasn’t prepared for and as I got
higher the snow got thicker the oxygen
got thinner and the cycling harder the
climb ended up taking four days and I
had to reassess my expectations of
normal I looked at this and I thought
okay well maybe if you can see the top
of a climb
maybe it’s not a crime after all that’s
a metaphor that I continue to use for
every problem that the world throws at
me today but of course getting to the
top was only the beginning of the
problem
I was then faced with living for three
weeks at 5,000 meters in altitude at
these kind of places the world’s physics
change water freezes like glue when
you’ve got an average daily temperature
of minus 10
elastic doesn’t stretch putting up
attempts impossible and then with such
little oxygen every small task was an
incredibly big challenge add into this
that I wasn’t going to places where
people live no one lives up in Tibet so
I’d occasionally find a military
settlement where I could get the basic
rations of instant noodles and biscuits
and when there was no snow I had to find
water in this frozen world I’d end up
walking out onto frozen rivers smashing
a hole in the ice collecting water
knowing that if that ice broke and I
fell into the water there’s no way that
I would survive just when you think the
day’s couldn’t be any worse then comes
the night the temperature plummets to
minus 40 degrees and I’m still sleeping
in a tent now sleeping was okay had an
Arctic sleeping bag three season
sleeping bag and I was wearing my
clothes inside I was I was warm I slept
well but then you come to waking up and
you can see but that’s my breath frozen
on the inside of the tent it’s frozen on
everything and then the worst part I’m
doing the first sleeping bag dropping 30
degrees I’m doing the second sleeping
bag another 10 degrees and the first
step once again like leaving England the
first step out of the tent was always
the hardest to go from this warm cocoon
that’s kept you safe through the night
and step out into this frozen world
outside but we do what matters and at
that time nothing mattered more than
survival I had to keep going I stepped
out and I continued to push myself I
push myself into some of the largest
environments in the world and on the
positive side it was incredibly humbling
to find how small one man is when you’re
faced with such big mountains
it put all of my worries for my youth in
perspective when I was worrying about
how am I gonna pay the bills what my
friends think of me suddenly it didn’t
matter compared with how am I going to
survive
just through this day but having the
weight of my own responsibility for my
own life on my shoulders was incredibly
difficult to and find myself just stood
still when a climb became too hard or
when the wind picked up in the sandstorm
hit my face and I just begin to cry
there were times some days when I pushed
the bike for six hours through snow
through sand and then at the end after
all of this hard work I could look back
and I could still see the place where
I’d packed the tent that morning I was
pushing myself through limits that I
never knew existed before my time in
Tibet came to an end when I met this man
who I could probably introduce as the
most expensive taxi driver I ever took
it turned out that it’s forbidden to
ride a bike through Tibet but the police
found me and they needed to remove me
they wanted to take me back to that
desert way I started the journey now for
me that was impossible I didn’t have a
visa that was stretched long enough to
go back there I needed to go forward
they detained me for a week and at the
end of it they came back and played this
good cop bad cop routine so when I get
the good cop alone I start to tell him
you know I can’t go back that way it’d
be impossible I need to go forward to
Nepal how are we going to do it well it
turns out that if you’ve got 200 pounds
and it slips into the right persons hand
you can go quite a long way through this
part of the world so with that in mind I
took the last few hundred kilometres
through Tibet in the back of a police
car I descended and came to the
Friendship Bridge I pushed my bike
across it into Nepal I found the first
wooden shack that I came to lent the
bike against it and looked around and I
had a moment that brought me to tears I
realized that I’ve been in this frozen
world it was lifeless for so long I’d
pushed my limits to survive and now I
found myself in this beautiful area of
life I looked around
there were trees with green leaves there
are red flowers I took a breath I could
smell the food cooking in the local
cafes down the road I could smell the
the shampoo of people washing in the
street and as I turned I could hear the
children playing in the school down the
road in that moment I realized what I’d
done I’d ridden a bike from the
industrial heart of the UK to the prayer
flags and the incense of Nepal in that
moment I realized that I had gone from a
time when no one believed in me to
pushing my limits way beyond what I
thought was possible in that moment I
thought about every country I’d been
through and all of those cultures that
had been different and I’d had to adapt
to and through adapting I’d got myself
through situations that I never even
thought and get myself into and in that
moment I knew without a doubt that I’d
go on to ride a bike around the world I
knew that I’d built something inside
myself that was that strong and all
clicks back to this moment as a child
that sensory explosion that feeling of
adventure and I was big again in my own
life it turned out that all I needed to
do in order to discover my place in the
big wide world was that I just needed a
bigger bunny bike now what I’d hope to
leave you with from my adventure around
the world is that I didn’t get to ride a
bike around the world by playing it safe
and conforming to society I didn’t get
to find my true place in the world by
conforming or playing it safe either I
would say that if you truly want to find
your place in the big wide world you’ve
got to step out of your comfort zone
you’ve got to go into the unknown and
harness that childlike adventurer inside
you and maybe more importantly like I’m
doing enjoy the ride
thank you
[Music]
you
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