Will Gadd on Risk and Reward
Will Gadd is a professional mountain sports athlete, speaker, guide, writer and TV guy. He shares the lessons he’s learned leading teams into high-risk environments through presentations on risk, resiliency, chaos and leadership.
Will had a number of amazing insights during our conversation. Some of them include:
“I’ve made an effort throughout my career to do dangerous things, rewarding things, and important things as best I can, while recognizing the goal is always to come back [alive]” (7:15).
“How do you move forward and how do you thrive with that damage?” (8:30).
“I’ve always set out to do cool things… what could I do today that would be cool?” (8:45)
“That is the coolest thing in life: becoming the best version of yourself, whatever it is” (12:10).
“That’s who I admire in life: people who are trying to be who they are” (14:45).
“One of the most important things I’ve learned in my life is that everybody has something that blows their hair back… that fires them up” (16:50).
“The people that make the world go around are the ‘normal people’” (18:00).
“It’s almost like we’re programmed not to be happy or satisfied as human beings” (22:50).
“I don’t really want to be happy; I want to do things that make me feel alive” (23:15).
“If I can do the things that have massive amounts of meaning to me, then I function better in normal life” (29:05).
“I’ve never walked into a competition with the idea that I’m going to beat anybody, but I do walk in there with the idea that I’m going to do my best and I’m going to throw down and I’m going to get everything as well integrated as I can to perform well” (37:30).
“How do the best do it? If I really want to get better at this, how can I pull from that?” (41:30).
“Can you be better today? Can you be better next week? Can you improve? Can you go to your training even though you don’t really feel like it? Can you make life decisions that get you to where you want to go?” (43:00).
“Being better leads to happiness” (43:20).
“We all need optimism to do things… [but] you need some pessimism, some realism in your life to keep things working” (52:20)
“To tell stories you’ve got to have your heart, mind, and action involved” (58:40).
“The future is way more interesting than the past” (1:09:15).
Additionally, make sure to follow Will on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, and also to check out his website!
Thank you so much to Lesley for coming on the podcast!
Lastly, if you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.
Thanks for listening.
-Brian
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