Brace up for challenges and not get intimidated by them, is what the wise men say. However there are a few people in this world, who not only take the challenges head on, but push themselves to unbelievable limits, time and again, to derive that elusive personal satisfaction.
This is the story of a man who defied the odds, defied the risks, defied the nay sayers to transcend human limits . This is the story of Felix Baumgartner, a skydiver and BASE Jumper, who created a world record on 14th October 2012, when he ascended to 1,28,000ft into the stratosphere in a Helium balloon and jumped in a free fall over New Mexico, USA with a speed, breaking the sound barrier. It was the culmination of years of hard work and eventual success of the Red Bull Stratos- a high altitude sky diving project.
Born in Salzburg , Austria in the year 1969, Felix Baumgartner took to jumping when he was just 16 at the local skydiving club in Salzburg. He joined the Army and made his way into the Parachute Exhibition Team. He jumped daily and mastered the skill of skydiving. However this was not enough for Felix the daredevil, he wanted to make skydiving his profession. He left the Army, returned home and worked as a machinist in Salzburg to fund his skydiving.
However, skydiving did not attract much spectators and was not a well paying sport and Felix started looking for solutions and he soon stumbled upon one. In 1996, he decided to jump from tall Buildings, bridges, cliffs and other structures. Since this was much closer to the ground as compared to skydiving, it was visually dramatic and pulled in the crowds. In spite of the fact that the sport was extremely dangerous where a slight mistake or malfunction could kill, Felix with his immaculate skill, courage and control, was able to wow the spectators.
Felix had arrived and he continued breaching limits in BASE (Building, Antennas, Spans/Bridges, Earth/Cliffs) Jumping. In 1997, after an earlier refusal, Red Bull decided to sponsor Felix Baumgartner and later launched the successful Red Bull Stratos project with him.
Felix Baumgartner is no ordinary human being. He is not only courageous but has a streak of carefree defiance of the human limits. Let us try and push our own limits so that we become better and better at what we do.
So don’t rest . Keep improving… Carefree defiance is not always bad.
You need guts to develop that streak of carefree defiance . To swim against tide is the new norm and only people who are headstrong accept challenges , overcome them and emerge eventually as winners in long run ..