Winston Churchill once said that success is merely the ability to hold on one minute longer than anyone else. I feel that recently Ben and I have been testing that out.
We’ve met some incredible people over the last six months from some of the most powerful media players in the world to ultra-connected corporate operators. We’ve met kit manufacturers who have come up with fantastic new ways to create equipment that will keep going for as long as we need it to, no matter what the conditions. We’ve met and been inspired by teachers and educators who saw in SOUTH something of the dream and passion that they wanted to instill in the children in their care. However, we also heard a consistent refrain: ‘Do you know what we could do with this, do you know what we could do if we had a little more time?’
A huge part of us both, the part that only truly feels alive when standing at the precipice of our abilities, is in anguish right now. But we know we have made the right decision: we are postponing SOUTH until October 2007. From the kernel of an idea that I had when being thrown around by waves far south of Cape Horn, SOUTH has grown into something far bigger than I ever imagined. It has become about more than two men seeking to understand and extend the limits of their own potential, it has, for us, become a chance to inspire people to seek out the edges of themselves, to approach their own limits. Maybe this wider vision is too ambitious to be a reality, but it is not too ambitious to be a goal. We get one chance at this and we will do it right.
We won’t be spending this year sitting on our butts, waiting for October to come around. We have a lot of work to do to make sure that we don’t limit the potential of SOUTH itself. Ben is heading down to South Africa in the next few weeks to build on relations wth local schools there, and I am making preparations to move to New York in the new year, where I will be able to work more closely with the people who have put their hearts and souls into SOUTH. I would like to thank you all for all the support you have shown us thus far, and I hope that next year our legs will do the talking.
4 responses to “Inching SOUTH”
“Anyone whose goal is ‘something higher’ must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves.”
I know you’ll both achieve exactly what you want because you have the strength and the ability to stare into that emptiness and jump. And it sure as hell takes guts to do that.
Tony,
Couldn’t agree more – there is so much you can do with this – you could have the whole world behind you, willing you on.
One simple idea can take you many places – I recently watched ‘Peace One Day’ (www.peaceoneday.org) and was blown away – I think you will love it.
Well, that at least gives me another year to pay off my mile… I still want 11.
And I can’t wait to hear your new adventures.
If you’re in NY, I’ll see you in Jan for pancakes at the Pershing Square Cafe.
x
what is south?