Readiness is readiness wherever you find yourself.

As a “Survival Expert” I’ve always expected survival and emergency preparedness to focus on being stranded in a wilderness without food, water, shelter and the most basic of amenities. Crossing a desert, buried in an avalanche, hiking in the wilds of Alaska, wading the gator filled waters of South Florida required a certain set of skills along with physical and mental stamina and a strong drive to survive.

Of late, I’ve realized that survival skills are necessary to navigate from the extreme backcountry to the executive boardrooms, from Wilderness to Wall Street to Washington DC.  Now-a-days survival techniques are needed in both jungles of concrete and trees. We could very well be marooned a good bit closer to home.  Thankfully, readiness applies to an entire spectrum of disasters both natural and manmade.

Venturing into your jungle with a briefcase or a backpack, a calculator or a compass, if you smell of cologne/perfume or of bug spray and sun block, whether your forecasts are written in dollars and cents or rain storms and wind, the skill sets needed are one in the same. In the hands of “professional climbers”, the differences between scaling markets with portfolios or mountains with ice-axes, ascending elevations with slip-ons or crampons are really rather negligible. Survivornomics apply equally whether you are wearing Gore-Tex or Gucci.

Did you ever think survival and preparedness would become so domesticated, that urban survival would become tops on the list?

Good news, the drive to survive and the requisite skill set is latent, buried within each of us. The intangible characteristic of a true explorer (be they an urban or a wilderness explorer), is the innate ability to rely on yourself while thinking on your feet then instantly applying those “gut feelings” to meet your situation and surroundings. Business administrators and wilderness adventurers alike thrive while keeping on their toes. Their techniques are unaffected by changes in terrain.

Preparedness isn’t mechanical, it’s a mindset. It’s not about technology, it’s about temperament.