I recently gave a TED talk at Tedx Amman, in the 2000 yr old Roman Theatre to 4,000 people. It was an incredible event but the message I had about The Grit Code was what I wanted to share here.
So here's my speech:
Imagine a doctor telling you that you have exactly one minute to live. What would you do?
You'd use every single millisecond to prove that doctor wrong.
I know this because I lived it. Nine days into rowing 4,800 kilometers across the Pacific with three friends—Oli, Harry, and Barney—we found ourselves staring down a massive cargo ship bearing down on us.
We had sixty seconds before our tiny rowing boat would be crushed like driftwood.
"Oli, get the flares! Barney, on the radio! Harry, life jackets!"
And me? Someone has to hold the camera, right? [gesture toward audience with a grin]
We frantically radioed: "Turn port side! TURN PORT SIDE!" To our horror, it turned directly toward us. "No, no—the OTHER Port Side!"
For a terrifying moment, as that steel wall grew closer, I felt the crushing weight of my own stupidity. What was I doing out here?
The ship turned at the last possible moment. We erupted in nervous laughter, masking our hysterical relief.
That wasn't our only brush with disaster. We weathered storms with 40-foot waves and faced challenges that tested every fiber of our being. But stroke by stroke, we made it to Kauai—our dream destination.
This Pacific crossing culminated a 10-year vision to create a life of adventure while documenting it for television. I'd learned to fly planes, dove to shipwrecks, and ran seven marathons across seven continents in 5 days, 21 hours and 51 minutes—all testing the limits of human resilience.
But here's what fascinated me: I'd never rowed across a river before taking on an ocean. This wasn't about natural talent. It came down to grit.
This led me to ask: Why do some people have grit while others don't? Can it be developed? And how do we cultivate this resilience in the next generation?
Through years of research, I developed "The Grit Code"—principles I relied on to persevere through impossible challenges. What surprised me most: not one principle is a talent or unchangeable attribute.
They're all simply the way we think.
Changing how we think isn't simple, but it's entirely possible.
· Principles like having a clear long-term vision aligned with your passion and purpose.
· Mindsets like preparing meticulously while adapting from learned models to creative solutions when facing the unknown.
· Positive thinking
· Surrounding yourself with people who exemplify grit, and
· getting comfortable in unfamiliar situations.
The world is facing it’s own impossible odds right now. Climate change, technological disruption, global health crises—these issues require leaders with unshakeable resilience.
The principals of the Grit code can be applied by anyone. I propose a rewiring of how we think about learning, from school to professional development, to rebalance it from knowledge and skills to build mindset characteristics that create strong, capable, resilient leaders.
When we look to the future the question isn't what challenges we may face—it's whether we'll have leaders with the grit to overcome them.
Thank you.
Paris Norriss
Keynote Speaker, Adventurer & TV Host
