Jon Boudville: You will do whatever it takes when you have to survive (My experience)

I have always love to share my experiences with others and that's the best part about blogging, you get to tell it as it is the way you want it and by the stories they share you can gauge the authenticity of the story and writer. That's what is I don't see today, in my experience as an entrepreneur in the people development industry, a few that I find shares their personal experience of how they started of in this industry, to be honest this industry does not require a high capital outlay, you just need to love talking and training and you can be a trainer but it's an industry where it's very gray as compared to many other businesses in other industries. It has a clear platform that you can see and make your way up but anyway, it's still a business, you can have all the skills you have as a trainer but if you don't have perseverance and determination, just close shop la, don't waste your time. Honestly.

I wonder why these trainers hardly share their experiences of how they made it, maybe it's just me. I've met some of them, their concern is, too time consuming. Very good excuse. Yes it is I have to agree because you really need time and patience to get it started. They must know that their stories can inspire the emerging entrepreneurs, today businesses must thrive on a story because a story is built upon a legacy,values and passion of the founders. Anyway, that's not what I want to share about today, my story today is going to be about my recent experience at the Outward Bound Sabah Classic Challenge Course Certification.

I don't know how I'm going to compress all these 3 weeks of experience which I can clearly remember every detail of it and the awesome team I was with. They were all magnificent young and upcoming future leaders. I guess I have to split this into few parts but I promise i'll share the pictures with you.
This posts i'll share about the 5 things (for todays post) I've learnt during the 3 weeks of the OBS experience.

1. You've got to be prepared all the time because you wouldn't know whats coming ahead.

This was during the rafting experience where earlier in the day we had to build our own raft and we had to find our way to the next destination. The journey wasn't an easy one, it's a challenge because of the rapids and the best part is we don't know how long and where we are heading, all we know is to follow the river. Everyone must play a role because at certain parts where there is no current, you must paddle and bear in mind that the oars are not light! We break for lunch and I asked the instructor how long more, all they said was I don't know. That "I don't know" lasted another 4 hours in the sharp hot sun and by the time we reached our check point, I saw our pickup van where all our gears was. Woohoooo! Not till the leader of the day was called and we were then told then we would be camping near a construction site. First thing, how in the earth are we going to raise our camp on rock solid ground. Well, thank goodness we found our way.

2. Success is just one step before giving up.

This was a whole day event the following day after rafting. Again we had to kayak to god knows where. We started at 9 and reached our location at 6pm. Not realising just before the final corner after coming out from the crocodile prone mangroves, me and my partner decided to stop because our kayak was filled with water that the kayak almost capsize a couple of times. It took us about 30 minutes to unload while the rest overtook us. Just imagine at that point in time after almost 9 hours kayaking, you still don't know where is your base camp and that is why we decided to stop, the only thing you want is to get off the boat and rest! After unloading, about 20 meters of rowing, we saw everyone there. We were initially leading the pack and at that point I realise that if we had just continued and risk capsizing we would have reached first and get done with it. So it was like a chicken and an egg situation but a decision has to be made.

3. You will do whatever it takes when you have to survive.

We had to build our camps at the construction site and it wasn't easy after 8 hours of water rafting, but we did it because of food and rest. No campsite and kitchen means no food. It was just oneness in mind that let's work together to do our part to rest and eat. At that time, I was in-charge of setting up the cooking area and I had no choice but to master my basic knot skills, we were thought that during the earlier part of the course but I hardly paid attention to it and amazingly I wasn't assigned to handle any tasks that requires knots until this time. Because of wanting food and rest, I manage to recall the lessons and I made it.

4. Your team keeps you going.

This was during the Crocker Ranger Expedition where we had a load of about 20 kg behind us and we had to hike up 5500 feet above sea level. You are looking at gradients of 70 degrees before reaching the peak and the support while climbing is to hold on to trees. You have to stop halfway and many times you'd one to give up when you look how steep it is, we all agreed that we will hike for 5 mins and stop but the 5 became 3mins. We all encouraged each other and made sure no one get's left behind especially the last person, if someone is tired they'd shout and we'd all stop and wait but when time was getting dark we had to push our team harder and this kept us all going till we reached the peak.

5. "Don't shit where you eat"

It's a Chinese proverb and I'm just translating it directly here. Imagine when you are in the jungle where you have no facilities to do your "business" but to find a place and do it safe so that you don't harm others. At Crocker Range, there was a designated "business" area which is at least 30 metres away from the campsite and if you'd want to do it you have to bring a partner with you at night. This happen to me when I had to answer my call in the morning after breakfast and so I rushed to it and did it and a word of advice make sure that you don't trespass any territory. Don't ask me how, times like this you've just got to be lucky. While answering the call, bees came after me and I had no choice but to run with my pants down, I didn't dare go back to the same place to clean up because of the bees but I did inform my team to not go there. She must have over heard and went exactly where I marked my territory and from a far I couldn't do anything but just hope that she didn't get herself in trouble.