The Less-Travelled Road
Life should be nothing less than an adventure, believes philanthropist Christine Amour-Levar.
I am convinced that we are all meant to be explorers, pioneers, and treasure hunters of the soul. We are not supposed to be sleep walking through life, caught in a routine, ambivalent to the possibilities that lie waiting all around us. The world is a dramatic arena, and each of us is meant to experience it in the best possible way.
I believe we are here, on this Earth, to live a grand and exciting adventure made up of a series of smaller adventures. We are here to discover, grow, be creative and to have a positive impact on the people and the world around us. Anything less feels like such a missed opportunity.
These past few years, thanks to my work with my two NGOs, Women on a Mission and HER Planet Earth, I’ve had the great privilege of taking hundreds of women of all nationalities, ages and backgrounds, to off-the-beaten-track locations around the world on challenging, often pioneering, expeditions that really push them outside their comfort zone.
I’ve run expeditions to some incredible places, from regions of the Arctic circle to the coldest, windiest, and most remote continent on Earth: Antarctica. We’ve traversed the largest caves in the world in Vietnam, so big in parts you could fly a 747 through them. We’ve sailed around remote islands in Asia and experienced real Robinson Crusoe-like moments. My teammates and I became the first all-female team to ‘fatbike’ across the frozen Arctic Circle Trail of Greenland; the first group to stand-up paddleboard down rivers in the Kingdom of Bhutan; and bike across the Danakil Depression of Ethiopia — the hottest place on Earth. We’ve migrated with reindeer herders in the middle of the Siberian winter, ridden semi-wild horses near the Altai region and climbed many mountains in the Himalayas, Iceland and Africa. All these expeditions have had a mission to raise awareness and funds for vulnerable women.
As you can imagine, these unique experiences with teams of women to some of the most inhospitable and remote places in the world have truly been incredibly humbling and formative experiences for me personally. They have forced me to push my limits on multiple occasions — really testing my mental, physical and emotional resilience — while allowing me to grow, succeed and fail in countless ways.
Throughout these travels, I’ve also spent precious moments with many indigenous peoples such as the Kazakh eagle hunters of Mongolia; the Samburu and Maasai tribes of Kenya; the Inuit people of Greenland, the Bedouins of Jordan; the Afar of Ethiopia; and many other fascinating individuals in Siberia, Nepal, Bhutan and the Philippines. Time with them has been incredibly eye-opening and has made me realise that ancient wisdom and unique ways of interacting with the environment can help us discover more about everything, from mitigating climate change to leading in times of crisis.
As I take stock of these past few years and plan the next stage of my career in this post-pandemic world, I realise that I’ve learnt more about myself and about what really matters in life, through these experiences, than in my 20 years in the corporate world. As a result, I’ve found my own brand of leadership. I call it wild wisdom: the knowledge, self-awareness, and perspective you gain from spending time exploring the natural world and from having a full spectrum of life experiences. Wild wisdom allows you to understand yourself better, makes you a more courageous and compassionate leader, and sheds light on the relationship between nature and humans.
Christine Amour-Levar is a French-Swiss-Filipina philanthropist, adventurer, human rights and sustainability advocate. She has built a global career as a marketing and communications expert and social entrepreneur intent on solving some of the world’s most pressing issues. Her new book, Wild Wisdom: Life Lessons from Leading Teams to some of the Most Inhospitable Places in the World is published by Penguin Random House and can be purchased here.
This article was originally published in Billionaire's Explorer Issue, Autumn 2022. To subscribe contact
