Transcripts

Laurence Gonzales, author of the book Deep Survival, has studied what makes real survivors survive.

It starts with an ability to stay calm in a crisis; another thing is these are people who do not engage in denial. If something bad is happening they see it, they accept it.

You may remember Aaron Ralston, who was recently trapped in a canyon and amputated his own arm in order to get free. He's a survivor.

I think Aaron did some rather reckless things to get himself into trouble, but once he got trapped in that canyon in Utah, he sat down, assessed his options, he admitted what was going on, he just made a plan, and he executed it finally when he realized it was his only way out. In the World Trade Center there were a lot of people who died just because they were rule followers. People told them, "Well, stay put, you know, it's safest where you are." And instead of looking out the window and going, "Hey this is crazy, I'm getting out of here," they just did what they were told, and it killed them. Survivors tend to be a bit rebellious in that way.

A crisis, says Laurence, will always show who you really are.

Our society encourages us to give up responsibility and let others take care of us, and it's a dangerous thing. Well, we need to change the way we think, so when that crisis comes we're thinking, "Okay, here it is - I can do it."

You can link to Laurence's website from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net. I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.