It takes a million small steps to achieve big dreams | Jane Amelia Harries | TEDxWandsworth

Success is so often labelled as winning, but there can only be one winner. Does that mean the rest of us are failures? It’s a theme adventurer Jane Asurmelia Harries explores in a talk filled with striking landscapes and human drama. In an intertwining personal journey, she revisits events that stalled her dream of competing in the famous Marathon Des Sables footrace in the Sahara; and how those disappointments and self-doubt ultimately propelled her when her time to compete finally arrived. Her simple message is not about winning or even taking part, but about never giving up. Jane is a training consultant and presenter who originally qualified as a solicitor. Specialising in tax enabled Jane to mix work with pleasure, as she indulged her passion for travel whilst working with some of the Big 4 Professional Services firms on three continents.

Jane describes herself as a ‘soft’ adventurer. Her adventures have included hiking over 750 km along an old pilgrim trail from France and across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostella; rafting and canoeing for 17 days on the Zambesi River; and travelling across China by overland truck before heading down Pakistan’s Karakorum Highway to Islamabad.

She’s been a runner-up in veteran women’s team competition at the Australian 24-hour Rogaining Championships; raced across New Zealand’s South Island on foot, by bike and by kayak; and sometime ago, found herself in Venezuela during an attempted coup, as a passenger in a six-seater, flying below radar detection as planes were being shot at! This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx