Monday, January 25, 2010

Circling the Globe and Talking About Life

Do you want to go very fast in the wrong direction,
 or slowly in a good direction?

Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard went around Earth nonstop in a hot-air balloon. Now he wants to do the same thing in a solar-powered aircraft. He's been told this cannot be done.

"Cannot" and "No": These words, quite simply, are a challenge that Piccard wholeheartedly accepts.

Using his odyssey in a hot-air balloon as a metaphor for life, Piccard describes in this video how any of us might find motivation in the seemingly impossible, if only we get rid of unnecessary ballast.

As you watch, imagine that unforeseen, even pioneering, direction in which you might fly with just a change or two in altitude.

An article about Piccard's record-breaking balloon flight in Breitling Orbiter 3 is here.



5 comments:

katdish said...

I think we all have to get outside the box sometimes and dare to believe what others deem impossible.

sarah said...

Wow, really cool.

You know, sometimes I want to go very fast in the wrong direction, even though it means I have to make the long miserable slog back the right way - because sometimes the speed and the wrongness are what I need to strip heavy layers away. But I'm contrary like that ;-)

L.L. Barkat said...

"Do you want to go very fast in the wrong direction,
or slowly in a good direction?"

Love this quote. Maybe I will find a way to use it in one of these many talks...

(I can always depend on you for the coolest quotes :)

Louise Gallagher said...

Great find Maureen! Rather inspiring.

Kathleen Overby said...

I liked his definition of a pioneer.