JAMES KETCHELL - Adventurer

On 1st February 2014, James became the first and only person to have rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, successfully summited Mount Everest and cycled 18,000 miles around the world. James also successfully completed the first circumnavigation of the world by gyrocopter.

Prior to all of this, he was recovering from a serious motorcycle accident that left him with broken legs as well as a severely broken and dislocated ankle. The prognosis was that he was likely to suffer a permanent walking impairment and would certainly not be able to continue the active physical lifestyle he had enjoyed up to that point. 

Having also survived two mid-ocean rescues, James found himself clinging to a rope ladder on the side of a 100,000-ton crude oil tanker as he climbed to safety in storm force winds. No stranger to overcoming adversity and dealing with setbacks, James’ lectures include the importance of Risk Management, personal resilience and dealing with setbacks. 

James describes his approach to these extraordinary tasks, how he continuously set incremental and achievable goals, how he drew upon a capacity for making and cementing contacts to secure the necessary support and how he prepared for and experienced the physical effort these challenges demand. As James tells his story, the listener will often find it easy to believe that they too could achieve the extraordinary. 

The key message that James reveals is that we can all potentially set ourselves difficult goals and achieve them: the capability to succeed is within everyone. His practical and pragmatic lessons include the importance of interim goals, breaking the task down into small, achievable steps, each one of which increases the commitment to the overall goal; the need for self-belief; the willingness of others to help if only you dare to ask and finally, the value of persistence.