Xhizors: #PRU4Antarctica: Finalist Announced and How I Creeped Robert Swan in the Gents

When all hopes were thought lost for Antarctica, an unexpected email that came into my inbox that late evening somehow became the silver lining of the collapsed dream of going to the southern polar ice cap. It was an invitation to go to Robert Swan's Leadership on the Edge talk at Shangri-La Hotel Kuala Lumpur. I quickly forwarded the email to my bosses with a devil's deal of trading 2 days of my annual leaves for a 4 hour time off to attend the talk.

Knowing how I had babbling about how I was going to win the trip to Antarctica on an all expense paid trip and how gloomy I was when I learned that I was not selected, my boss agreed that I take the afternoon off to enjoy myself there at the talk.

4th December 2013 came quickly and I was not really working that morning. All available hours was spent on coming with scheme to convince Robert Swan to take me along with him on the expedition. At 12pm, I had my PC shut down and I went downstairs wearing the #Pru4Antarctica tshirt with another raglan tshirt underneath it and a permanent marker pen, I slowly moved towards Shangri-La on my old faithful ex5.

Upon arriving there, I quickly made my way to the Grand Ballroom at level B2. I was told that there would be food (or some light refreshment as they have put it in the email) but I was not all expecting this:

I mingled around with some familiar faces right until a hotel staff walked around the ballroom lobby ringing a bell in his hand- it was time. I felt like a suicide bomber on a one way mission.

Without the dinning tables and chairs and the buffet table at the sides of the room, the grand room seemed somewhat more spacious than what I remembered. Quickly I scanned for the perfect seat. Since I was amongst the first to walk in, centre seats was still vacant. This was the perfect spot.

Quietly I sat and scanned the room for Robert Swan. Since 99 percent of the people in the room were Asians, I was very confident that it will not be that hard to spot a 57 years old British explorer. Other participants started to flood the room from the entrance at the right side of the room. Eager, excited and unorganised, they helped themselves with a seat. I was surprise at what I say at the opposite of the room.

Semi finalists! There they were. Just a few steps away.

They were then called onto stage for a photo session. It was when they were done, I noticed a tall well build Caucasian man sporting a hiking bag being escorted to his seat. I was really disappointed with the result of the image captured by my camera.

Clearly (ironic to use this word) I had the wrong setting on my camera at the point of time. The session began with the emcee welcoming guests and calling upon the CEO of Prudential Malaysia, Philip Seah with his opening speech who then passed the mic to Robert Swan.

All this while, I have been practising my interview speech (it was mentioned in the terms and regulation for this competition that there might an interview session with Robert, should there be more than 2 suitable candidates for the final 2) beginning with "Hi Robert Swan, truly privileged to be seated in a room with a living legend; I could not believe myself that that was actually happening. I was seating in a room looking, listening to a living legend; the first man to walk on both North and South Pole.

He started off his talk with a bit of stand up comedy with saying that he hates walking and how he thinks he has done enough of it, he hates cold weather and he hates ice in his underwears and how he hates gloomy people. I sat there listening to every word, like a grandchild listening to his grandfather about how the world was like back then.

He shared that he has always wanted to become a polar traveller ever since he was a kid, how he raised he had to raise USD 5Million at the age of 23, how 7 years later he succeed to gather the fund to buy a ship, how he and his team had to battle through the rough sea to get to Antarctica from New Zealand, how it felt like to arrive there for the first time. the difficult times the occurred throughout the long walk to the South Pole and how he learned that his ship sunk when he got back to his base and was immediately bankrupt.

He also mentioned that;
**humour is essential in a team,
**a leader should not lead all the time, he should step back, allow another person to take over and provide support,
**being truthful when working in a team allows plenty of room to avoid unwanted error,
**everyone should chase their childhood dream.

The talk ended about 50 minutes later. As the participants moved towards the buffet of French Pastries at the lobby of the ballroom, I noticed that no one made an attempt to approach Robert for a picture. Robert took his backpack and quickly walked towards the exit. He made a few occasional stops to shake hands with some prominent Prudential figures before he made his way through the lobby.

A sudden rush of adrenalin pumped through my veins as I mustered of whatever was left in my confidence jar to approach him. I widen my stride to catch up with him. That was when a random dude out of nowhere came up to him acting all important suddenly discussing something that was not all important but he acted as if was a big deal by nodding his head, making face expression that I thought was unnecessary. Who the cock was this cockblocker? He then left Robert after shaking his hand and that's when the polar traveller asked "Where's the loo?"

This was my chance. I quickly followed him and showed him the Gents when was poking his head into the hallway to the Surau and a "oh its thata way?" was his reply. He went in and I waited at the wash basin. My head ran all sorts of possible script that I could use to get him to sign my tshirt or maybe convince him to take a selfie with me.

The autograph happened but the thought of a picture was lost in the excitement.

"Thanks Mate" was what he said he left the Gents. I was not sure if he was flattered or he was creeped out.

I joined the crowd back in the lobby sporting the only Pru4Antarctica with the legendary polar walker's autograph.

Prudential has decided to add another spot for the finalist and they are: