During World War II, Laurence Gonzales’ fighter pilot father fell 27,000 feet from his airplane into Germany without a parachute. Miraculously, he survived. As a result, Gonzales developed a lifelong fascination with survival—as well as a penchant for adventure. In this fascinating exploration of what makes a survivor, Gonzales intertwines real-life examples of adventures gone horribly wrong with psychology and brain research to probe into the mystery of how and why we react during a crisis. He searches for the answer to a fundamental question: do random acts of fate determine who survives and who dies in a life-threatening event—or is the key to survival the content of a person’s character? Gonzales’ research shows that in fact, survivors tend to share personality traits that make them better able to withstand disasters. Those common characteristics include humility, patience, flexibility, perseverance, and humor. In addition, their inner minds “split” into two distinct personas: an emotional, irrational victim and a logical taskmaster (often identified as “the Voice” by survivors). It is the Voice that gets victims out of their desperate situations alive by creating forward momentum with decisions, tasks, and goal-setting. The book concludes with guidelines for both avoiding and surviving disasters. Find more insights on survival from Laurence Gonzales here. Review by Kali.
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