Your Goals Should Be at the Level Where You Start to Smile

Some men chase power.  Some chase fame.  Marc Hauser chased the jet stream.

His goal - to discover how far horizontally it’s possible for a human being to travel at over 100 mph while also plummeting toward Earth, all with no artificial propulsion. No instruments. No electronics. 

“There were times the pressure was so high my visor pressed into my nose. The sound at this speed is incredible,” he says, “massively loud. Like being inside a jet engine but your body is the jet. At this speed, you steer just by your thoughts alone. You have to judge in midair at these speeds. You think about a turn and your body starts turning. All you have is your eyes, your body.  You don't have to make any movements with your body. It's just the thought”

Indeed, Hauser has set the world record for horizontal free flying at over 3.5 miles before opening his chute at 2000 feet. “To fly inside the jet stream without an airplane around you, I couldn’t ask anyone for advice, because no one’s done it. And let me be clear, I’m scared sh*tless just to step out of an airplane.  I’m scared of heights”.  

When, in a recent interview with Ken Rutkowski, the Founder of METal, the global entrepreneurs’ group, asked why he didn’t simply choose eating the most hot dogs to snag a Guinness World’s Record, Hauser said, “It’s like living my kid’s dream.  To break into new fields, new grounds.”

But he has a larger goal as well - to highlight new ways of harnessing energy. In the case of the jet stream, it was wind energy. “Throwing myself into this thing may be like Jackass for adults. But it's also about action for the planet.  Like all superheroes, I want to save the planet.”

Hauser specifically aims to encourage tech startups. “I want to spark enthusiasm for technology with as much courage and as much energy as I have. That's the mission.”

Watch Marc Hauser at METAL

By flying through the air, he sees his efforts as a wake-up call to the feeling that you can do anything. “To remind people to be the superhero of your own life. To be playful, to go into the unknown. I mean, yes, you have to progress in small steps, to test and measure.  You have to be serious in doing that. But you also need some humor,  some fun, a sense of adventure, and a kind of lightness.”

Hauser often speaks to business groups. “If you have any kind of business or private goal, raise the bar a bit more, then a bit more until you reach the point where you start to smile.  That’s your target altitude, that’s where you should aim, because then that ignites the fire in you and in your teammates.”

Will you find Hauser speeding above you these days as you whiz down the highway? Nope. “I’ve switched elements,” he reveals. “I’ve gone to the ocean to set a new world record as a free diver riding the strongest currents on just one breath.” Smiling, we imagine, all the way.

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