TEDxNicosia Devrim Celal December 23, 2011

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Devrim is an entrepreneur currently focusing on businesses in Cyprus and Turkey. Since graduating from Yale University, he has specialized in business and digital strategy and corporate finance having worked with A.T. Kearney, SapientNitro and Lansdowne Capital at executive roles. Devrim had always been a runner, having been a regular participant of the London marathon and others such as the Istanbul and San Diego marathons. However, his move to Cyprus in 2003 took things to a more serious level. Suddenly 42 kilometers was no longer enough. He needed an activity to counter-balance work. That's when he was introduced to the concept of ultra-marathons. An ultra run is anything more than 50 kilometers. However, the need was such that he started with 250km long self-sufficient desert ultras. He has now competed in 4 desert ultras in some of the most grueling conditions, ranging from +60 to -20 Celsius, from the high planes of Atacama in Chile to the depths of the Gobi in China, from the sandy dunes of the Sahara to the ice fields of Antarctica. In 2011 he became the 14th person ever to complete a desert ultra grand-slam, having run 1,000 kilometers across 4 deserts in 9 months carrying all his own equipment, water and food on his back.

In this TEDxNicosia Talk, Devrim Celal shares his ultra marathons experience and how he managed to run get through 1000 kms of running through four deserts ( distilling the following message: You can achieve anything if you have three things:
a. know how to enjoy what you are doing
b. be able to control your emotions, high and low and
c. and have friends to do it with

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. * (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)