Fifteen Years of Life‑and‑Death Decisions

 

Long before I was trusted with large sums of capital or ultra‑luxury journeys, I was trusted with something far more unforgiving: other people’s lives.

 

From my teens into my early thirties I competed as a lifesaver at national level in South Africa, spending countless hours on beaches and in the surf, learning how quickly conditions change and how thin the line between “incident” and “fatality” can be. That commitment to service evolved, in 1986, into joining South Africa’s Air and Sea Rescue.

 

By 1992 I had been asked to lead it.

 

For the next eight years—through to 2000—I headed up and ran air and sea rescue operations, coordinating responses along mountain, coastline and open water. In total, I logged over 3,750 hours of rescue service and personally led more than 250 successful life‑saving missions. For this work I was formally honoured by the Mayor of Cape Town.

 

The work was unforgiving:

• Deploying teams by helicopter, boat and land in extreme conditions

• Making rapid, high‑consequence decisions with incomplete information

• Balancing the safety of rescuers against the urgency of those in distress

• Remaining calm and decisive when there was no margin for error

 

Most of it was voluntary. All of it was demanding.

 

That experience permanently shaped how I think and act under pressure. It taught me:

• To plan meticulously, then adapt instantly when reality shifts

• To recognise when to push forward and when to abort

• To be unemotional about risk while remaining deeply human about people

• To take responsibility without drama and to prioritise safety above ego

 

Today, whether I am structuring a complex investment, designing a remote expedition, or hosting a family in the bush, that rescue mindset is always present in the background. Clients may never see it overtly—but they feel it in the way risk is anticipated, contingencies are built, and decisions are made quietly, quickly and in their best interests.

 

For a decade, other people’s safety was my primary job. That is not a line on a CV; it is a way of moving through the world.

​