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THINKING BUSINESS
a blog by Chris Barrow

Some lessons from 6 years ago today


1st February 2014 I landed, along with 12 other British men, on a remote and uninhabited Pacific Island, with 24 hours of water, no food and very limited supplies.


What happened in the following month became a BAFTA-award winning reality TV series.


It also became a topic on which I would dine out for some time afterwards (and still occasionally do).


As time makes those memories ever-distant, it will always be this day that I cast my mind back and, most often, think about my fellow survivors and what they are up to now.


We chistened ourselves the "Sons of Surely":


Surely we will find some water over the next hill?


Surely we will find some food today?


Surely there will be some fish in the net tomorrow morning?


We discovered that "surely" was never enough.


We had to do something about it.


Today, I reflect on the lessons I learned during those 28 days:


  • That 800 million people wake every day with nothing to eat;

  • That we are destroying our environment and our climate (our western beach was a refuse heap of tidal human detritus);

  • That we achieve more when we collaborate than when we try to go it alone (an auspicious moment to say that);

  • That each of us is a survivor and that we are always capable of more than "our chimp" would have us believe;

  • That if we can live above level 2 of Maslow, we should count our blessings every day.


The island changed me forever and I will always be grateful for the opportunity I was given.


Today I remember my friends and my blessings.





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