#18 - Sebastian Bates - One Minute More…

In this episode, I’m talking to Sebastian Bates, founder of The Warrior Academy, an award-winning global martial arts organisation which has so far been responsible for developing the character of 25,000 children across three continents. Social enterprise and philanthropy are a part of Sebastian’s charity work at the Bates Foundation. He is also a two times best-selling author in the field of character development and anti-bullying. 

Having studied six styles of martial arts for 25 years and competing in four of them at a national level, Sebastian is a former international professional fighter. He is also an experienced wingsuit base jumper with over 500 jumps worldwide to his name. He was part of an elite group of extreme sports athletes pushing forward human flight until July 2014, when during a wingsuit base jump in Switzerland, his parachute collapsed when he was 50 feet from the ground.

He survived the fall but not without devastating damage to his lower body, prompting surgeons to say that he would never walk again. Unsurprisingly, Sebastian defied the odds by rebuilding his body piece by piece through a gruelling rehabilitation process and made a full recovery. He is now on a mission to inspire a generation to make a global impact.

In our conversation, he discusses,

• Why he is thankful for negative thoughts,
• How he translates pressure into performance
• And, what happened when he came upon a group of gamblers in Thailand