By Grant

Lately I have been reflecting on life, work and our little journey. 

I am writing this after just leaving Musket Cove off the main Island Viti Levu in Fiji which certainly feels like the closest we have been to civilisation in almost a year. It has been a truly adventurous year of exploration in some of the most remote places in the world. Places that you really don’t want to make a mistake or have an accident or drama because it is a very long way from real help. In actual fact there is no place I have found from Panama to Australia which could even lift our little boat out the water. We now only 1500 nautical miles away from Australia and we plan to be there by the middle of August. So still a few challenging passages over the next few weeks. But at this juncture I realised that I’ve been having some strong feelings and that I should try and write them down. So here it goes.

Many years ago when I left South Africa to go to China, I embarked on a crazy adventure into the unknown. Not so dissimilar to my journey today. I had no idea what to expect, I had no real safety net and when I arrived in China I realised that being in China was really the journey. Like the old saying, ‘It is the journey, not the destination that matters” and how true but often lost when we are in the thick of life.

When we embarked on this adventure, I fear, we also had no idea what was to be expected. Which in hindsight is not the best seamanship or leadership on my part but that is exactly what I wanted to explore in this writing. How do we embark on life and its journeys without taking some risks? Calculated and not. Isn’t life set out in a way that gives us choices which we must calculate, decide a path and overcome in some way?

For a young South African, or for that matter any foreigner, China can be a terribly challenging place. Often extremely binary for most. Either they love it and embrace the culture by letting down one’s barriers to learn the Chinese way or they hate the place and think China is backward and has nothing to offer. I obviously fell in the first option. And it is precisely this attitude I think we need in order to thrive both in life and/or at sea. Now this sounds a little cryptic and I hope I can elaborate.

In China I was lucky enough to build a business which is still thriving today. I can safely say that I endured terrible challenges along the way but I could never have achieved any of it without the love and support from many people around me. And many of these were obviously Chinese. Through opening oneself up and allowing those who you perceive to be different, into your thinking and actions, allows for true learning. Many of you would have heard that a smart leader shouldn’t surround himself with people who agree with you on everything. I obviously agree with this but more importantly is the need to not surround yourself with people who don’t think like you because true innovation comes from different perspectives, different cultures, different outlooks and different viewpoints.

My journey around the world with my family has offered me so many more new perspectives. On the environment, on parenting, on sailing, on global geopolitics or on simply how far to troll a lure behind your boat when fishing. After surrounding yourself with different personalities and viewpoints it is the arguments, debates and discussions which are the solvent for this new creative wisdom. I can’t say I am any wiser through my experiences but I can say that I realise more everyday the need to put ourselves outside our comfort zones in order to learn and LIVE. This can be a challenge for some but luckily for me it was something I always knew I loved.

Recently I heard this quote from Confucius

I hear and I forget

I listen and I remember

I do and I understand

Never has a quote resonated more with me. Let’s do in order to understand. Let’s put ourselves in other shoes and try understand. Let’s find empathy by seeing through their eyes.

So what does all this mean in terms of life. I guess my takeaway is that we ought to take a few risks, put ourselves out there to truly live and learn. Both in terms of viewpoints, opinions and actions.

The world seems very polar at the moment. Disagreement equals hatred. Everything seems so binary. But there is no binary in the world. Nothing is ever black or white. I hope and believe in the future and the more I travel the more optimistic I am for the future.

So thank for taking the time to read my ramblings. Here is a poem (or a close version of the first version) I wrote when I was 16 years old. And perhaps it will shed some light of how I got here 30 years later.

Here I am,

46 years of age

And never having gone to work in ladies underwear

Never run naked at night or made love to a girl I just met on the plane

The dragons un-chased

The girls un-kissed

The oceans uncrossed

The mad urges lost

At this awkward age now between birth and death

I wonder of all the opportunities missed

The dreams dodged

The passions forgotten

The energy dwindled

Here I am,

getting on for 70 and never gone out for a fight?

Never risked it all on red or black

Never swam with deadly sharks

Pretty dull for a poet aye?