Case - Be fearless: five principles for a life of breakthroughs and purpose

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To each person who has heard that voice whisper,

This is your moment

and is choosing to heed the call.

And to all of those who have inspired and supported my own fearless journey.

If you added up all the times you failed,

all the times you came up short,

would you try again?

What if failure wasnt a limitation?

What if taking risks was your status quo?

What kind of world would you imagine?

When the challenges we face seem overwhelming,

we need to experiment with new thinking and try new things,

create unlikely partnerships

and set audacious goals.

To build a better world,

to make a real difference,

we have to take bigger risks,

make bigger bets.

And if we fail and fail again,

we have to get right back up and dream even bigger.

To live in a world worth living in,

we have to let challenge inspire us.

We have to take risks, be bold, and fail forward.

We have to Be Fearless .

One of the most important messages that I share with people as I travel around the world is that each one of us has some role to play, each one of us makes some impact on the environment, on our community, every day. And we can choose what sort of difference we want to make.

As you read National Geographic Society Chairman Jean Cases Be Fearless: 5 Principles for a Life of Breakthroughs and Purpose , youll see this is one of the key messages to her readers. This message resonates throughout her call for each of us to be fearlessor rather that we must, when necessary, overcome our fear to do what we know is right.

I know the importance of these messages, as the call to Be Fearless has been at the center of my entire life. I was fortunate. By the time I was ten years old, I knew I wanted to go to Africa to live with wild animals and write books about them. Fortunately, I had a wonderful and supportive mother. When everyone else told me to dream about something I could actually achieveafter all, we had very little money, World War II was raging, Africa seemed very far away, and I was a mere girl my mother simply told me I would have to work very hard, take advantage of all opportunitiesand never give up. I wish she was alive now so she could know how many people have said to me, Thank you, Jane. You taught me that because you could do it, I can do it too.

Well, it is well-known that I did get to Africa and that I had the amazing opportunity to live and learn from the animals most like us, the chimpanzees. No one had done this before. People often ask me, Werent you afraid when you were out there alone in the forest? Of course I was sometimes. We are meant to be, as fear gets the adrenaline flowing through our veins and gives us the courage to do what seems impossible. I was afraid when I heard the strange growling, roaring call of a leopard at night when I was sleeping alone under the stars to be close to the chimps when they woke in the morning. I told myself it would be okayand pulled the blanket over my head! I was afraid when two bull buffalo charged out of the undergrowthit was the surge of adrenaline that enabled me to climb a seemingly unclimbable tree. (It took more courage to, eventually, climb down, not knowing if they were still hiding, waiting for me. Luckily, they were not!) I was afraid when a group of chimps, having lost their fear of me, treated me like a predator, screaming, shaking branches, and charging. I acted as though I had no interest in them, dug a little hole in the ground, pretended to eat leavesand eventually they went away!

Finally, all the chimps got used to me, so I could move right up to them. I soon recognized them as individuals, gave them names, got to know their very different personalities. And I learned that their communication gestureskissing, embracing, patting one another, begging with outstretched hand, and so onwere almost the same as ours and used in the same context. I watched them use grass stems to fish for termites. I noted that their emotions, too, were similar to (or maybe the same as) ours in terms of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, depression, and grief.

It was a magical time in my life.

Then, after I had been with the chimps just over a year, I had to go to Cambridge University to work for a PhD in animal behavioreven though I had never been to college. There I had to Be Fearless and overcome a very different kind of fear: imagine how I felt when professors, of whom I was in awe, told me I had done everything wrong. I should not have given the chimpanzees namesnumbers would have been more scientific. I should not talk about their personalities, minds, or emotionsthose were qualities unique to humans. Fortunately, as I had not been to college, no one had told me this! Moreover, I had a wonderful childhood teachermy dog, Rusty! You cannot share your life in a meaningful way with any animal and not know that we are not the only beings with minds, personalities, and, above all, emotions. My mother always told me that if I believed I was right, I must have the courage of my convictions. So it was Rusty and my mother who helped me overcome my fear and stand up to those professors.

Today Mother Nature needs our help. Chimpanzees, who have taught us so much, are in desperate troublealong with so many other wonderful animals and plantsas their forests are disappearing. It is the same with woodlands, wetlands, savannas, and virtually all habitats. We are losing biodiversity. We are polluting land, rivers, and oceans. Human populations and our planet are plagued by numerous challenges, with a great need to find sustainable solutions for the future.

And that is why this book is so timely. There is no point in history when it has been more important to Be Fearless, overcome our acceptance of the status quo, and for each of us to step up and take action to make a difference in our world.

We must work to empower everyone to take action to improve bad situations, right perceived wrongs. And Be Fearless brings together the tools and stories that can inspire and empower everyone to take exactly that kind of action.

I see the value of this message every day through the work of Roots & Shoots, the Jane Goodall Institutes environmental and humanitarian movement for young people around the world, from kindergarten through higher education, that I started in 1991. Today there are more than 100,000 active Roots & Shoots groups in seventy countries, comprised of young people working to improve things for people, animals, and the environment. The most important message of Roots & Shoots is that every single individual makes a difference every day. And in some cases this means overcoming fear. We must not be afraid to stand up for what we believe in, to make the right choices. And when millions and millions of people make ethical choices, this will, cumulatively, move us toward a better world.

So now, as you read Jean Cases book, Be Fearless , I hope that if you are not already engaged in some activity, you will hear the call to action and know that you, too, can change the world. The stories Jean has brought together in this book to bring the Be Fearless principles to life prove that everyone can make a difference. It does not have to be earth-shattering. Try volunteering to help organizations that are working in areas that you feel are importantlike clearing trash, visiting old people abandoned by their families, or working in animal shelters for homeless dogs or cats. Get active in campaigns to protect an environment under threat from development, or from fracking. Try to learn more about what is going onaround you, or in the wider world. Sooner or later, you will discover the issue that truly rouses your passion, makes you sad, indignant, angry. And then, roll up your sleeves, take action, and BE FEARLESS.