Alex Harris has spent thirty years in places that weren’t designed for people, and he has come back with a simple conviction: most of what we call impossible is decided in an instant, inside our own heads.

In 2008 he became the first African to walk unsupported to the South Pole, a 65-day journey with his expedition partner, pulling everything they needed. A six-day windstorm early on left the team rationing for the rest of the trip, and they reached the Pole with two small bottles of olive oil and a bag of pasta to spare. In 2013 he led a team of three on the first unsupported, unassisted crossing of Arabia’s Empty Quarter on foot: 40 days, a cart weighing over 400 kg, and five litres of water each a day in temperatures above 40°C.

At 25 he led the first South African expedition to the North side of Everest, at the time the youngest person to lead an Everest expedition. He returned twice more, spending 187 days on the mountain before standing on top. He was the first South African to climb on all seven continents.

On a bike, Alex is a former national track sprint champion who became an ultra-endurance specialist. He is the only person to complete the Freedom Challenge Race Across South Africa in under ten days, a record that still stands, and a four-time winner. He finished third (2013) and fifth (2015) in the Tour Divide, the 2,700-mile race from Canada to Mexico, and led the team that set the world record for cycling from the summit of Kilimanjaro to the sea in under 24 hours. He founded The Munga, a 700-mile non-stop mountain bike race through South Africa’s Karoo that now has events in Texas and Michigan.

A sports psychology graduate who finished top of his class, Alex found that the textbook didn’t survive the ice. So he built his own tools: Choose Your Risk, What’s Your Inch? and Choose What You Repeat. His signature keynote, Making the IMpossible, gives audiences those tools for the moments that matter in business.

He has given more than 500 talks to audiences on five continents, for organizations including Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Deloitte, AT&T and Barclays, and has spoken at the same event as John Maxwell. He received the University of Johannesburg’s Dignitas Award for a lifetime of achievement. He is the author of Rocks and Hard Places and Silent Heart, and lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife and four children.