The exploration is for the explorer
Back in 2019, when I was still working for Jaguar Land Rover, I received an email about The Last Overland – a project that aimed to recreate the historic First Overland expedition of 1955 by driving a 65 years old car for 19,000 km from Singapore to the United Kingdom, in 111 days.
In that email I was being asked if me and my teams from the countries through which the convoy was going to pass wanted to get involved through a PR campaign. I said yes without any hesitation, thrilled that I can contribute in any way to this adventure. I met the team on a very cold and foggy morning, in Bratislava, at the Land Rover plant where the new Defender was being produced. And to my surprise, I discovered that a joyous, effervescent, elegant woman was part of this team – Thérèse-Marie. Needless to say how fascinated I was by her ability to drive this wreck of a car, her knowledge about engines and anything cars related, her resilience to the harsh conditions of the expedition, and her excitement about everything that surrounded her.
Up to this day, I keep on being fascinated about her adventures and life plans, which are in contrast with her feminine and elegant appearance.
So it just came natural to have her story shared with you. Here it is, an open hearted introduction letter for the SWS community.
Enjoy it,
Lovely to meet you, I am Thérèse-Marie Becker. A 20 almost 30 something Belgian.
I spend my life between France, Belgium and the United Kingdom and I work as a Digital Executive Coach where I help CEOs and managers create better strategic thinking patterns for the growth of their business. As far as I can remember, I have always been interested in working. Or should I say in challenging myself into achieving, not necessarily work related stuff. Just anything I would read or see and thought it was grand enough for me to give it a go.
I had my first job as an 11 years old dishwasher in a hotel that was owned by acquaintances of my parents. I had strategized that every time dirty dishes were coming in the kitchen, I had to have the previous ones completely cleaned and dried. My sole objective was do to my job really well. That meant: quickly, efficiently and with minimum physical burn out. Nailed it!
I grew up in a loving family with 4 siblings and very loving, hard working parents. I went to school 400 km from my house, in the Flanders in Belgium and was staying in boarding school.
When I was 16 or 17 years old, my back decided to not be too cooperative with my lifestyle and forced me to be chair bound for a year. I became so inventive with finding a new seating position that would allow me to sit for more than 5 minutes without feeling pain that I could have become a chair designer! Haha. After almost 1 year of suffering and with a health that wasn’t ideal, I started climbing. It became life changing.
I finished high school at 17, studied International Trade in Brussels and dropped out after 4 years of not being convinced at all by what that piece of paper would eventually bring me. (Plot twist, to this day, I never ever ever needed a degree). It was also at that time that I decided to take on board solely English speaking clients, as an act of revenge to my English teacher in High School who had assured me that I had passed my exam but would never be able to speak English without a French Accent. (I was furious in 4 languages that day!)
Long story short, when I stopped university I started to climb a lot and immerse myself in the Outdoor industry. Almost all my clients were working in that field. I was learning and training professionally a lot, but I was also traveling and climbing so very much everywhere.
The more I was going on adventures the more it was confirming my path of everything but working in an office or corporate set up.
In 2019 I got a phone call which gave a true spin to what my life was. I had been asked to work on the Last Overland expedition as the head of Digital Marketing as well as digital storyteller. The boys would be driving from Singapore to London in a Land Rover Series1 and I would be, from France, telling the tales from the road. I was 24 and very much ready for it. In June, I got to hear that the team wanted me on board of the convoy. « You’ll join us for a bit but probably not for the entire journey ». So I left France, kissed my parents goodbye and told them I’d be back soon. Ha! Fast forward we are 111 days in the expedition, and I am crossing the finish line with the team in Folkestone. I had left my « daily » life to cross the world in a 65 years old Land Rover with a team of 7 male all perfect strangers to me.
View this post on Instagram
3 big things happened that year: I met my Love Alexander, crossed the globe in a 65 years old Land Rover that did that expedition 65 years ago and became the first ever and only woman of that very special expedition.
I can do everything as long as I put my full self to it. I was quite well traveled before as a single woman, had a van before it was trendy and was climbing everywhere in Europe and Asia. But I had never driven 19000 + km in a 65 years old Land Rover (as well as a Defender 110 from 2015) with 7 strangers. (That is during that incredible journey that I was fortunate enough to meet Raluca)
In 2020, the world started to shut down and I was getting extremely impatient. I had bought my fifth Van (an Iveco Daily 35S12) and was eager to go on new adventures. So I built my van, converted it and put a team of 7 people together. I took them to Italy in the middle of Tuscany and directed the production of advertising and social media content for 6 brands. The rest of the year happened peacefully despite the global situation and the forever feeling of being impeached of my movements.
That year was the year I decided to start a (re)brand of my personal brand. In 2021 I was bored of the general situation and the impossibility of easy movement (my Love Alexander and I have been long distance all of that time, he is from Northern Ireland). I sold my van, bought a wooden boat and my Range Rover P38. Then in August I decided that I wanted to go back to Kyrgyzstan to spend some time with my friend Shamurat who I had met during my expedition of 2019. I wanted to make that journey count so I bought a Land Rover Defender Snatch Vixen and collected a lot of gear from the French Mountain Guide Federation. Flew into Kyrgyzstan for 72 hours to drop off my little brother there for a month and flew back to prepare my Defender for the expedition. In December, Alexander and I hit the road for his first ever expedition.
This is not the end, as I am still sitting in my little cottage writing these lines, the Defender is parked right next to it and I have the P38 just in front of me. I need to finish the renovation work in the houses and need to get the boat on water. By the look of things Alexander and I will be back in Kyrgyzstan at the end of December of this year. In the meantime, I am preparing my first Digital Executive Coaching Retreat.
All is quiet and my urgency to live is boiling.
Dear Raluca, you asked me what my definition was on being an accomplished woman. I genuinely wouldn’t know how to qualify it differently than as follows: always live with the urge of taking full ownership in every task that you do.
For me, being accomplished really means that you live your life at its fullest and take full responsibility for everything that you do, eat, see, engage with, etc…
View this post on Instagram
Chosen ignorance is a plague that makes one drift through life without letting it taste its fullest flavours. When you make the choice of knowing, there are 2 things I can guarantee you: the first is – it is not easy. The second is – you will grow and achieve so much more than what you imagine you can.
When it comes to knowing what my calling is, I don’t know. I live with the following idea in my mind, for everything that I do: I keep my feet anchored to the ground for a good foundation, knowing where I come from and choosing where I go. I keep my hands in motion, at work, to remind me to always work hard and with respect for myself as well as the surroundings to live well. I keep my eyes looking up at the sky so that I never forget to aim for the Greater. Reminding me always of the greater horizons ahead.
Overcoming obstacles has always been part of the journey.
By nurturing a strong interior life of prayer whilst always living with great responsibility for every thing that you do, you will find it easier. I would like to add to this that it is so important to be prepared. Always be prepared. For every aspect of your life.
There are 3 things to consecutively nurture as human beings: we need to feed our mind/intelligence, our heart/soul and our body. Challenge your ideas and talk about them with other people, engage in discussions to hear what other people think or how they would get it done. If there is one principle to remember: Don’t Ask, Don’t Get. Get yourself out there, always respectfully and listen more than you speak. Ask and you shall receive (Matthew 7:7)
The roles my mentor played in my life. I have always looked for mentors and people who would embody everything in one being. With maturity and time, I learned that I had to meet people with simplicity and try to always find at least one thing that was making them really good at who they were. With time, I found it harder to find only one thing and saw that I could find several in every individual I was meeting. Finding inspiration and mentoring in both living and passed people is important. I find that a healthy mix between the two is good. I can always read and look back on what great profiles have done, meditate on them, go and read about them and keep them in my heart for personal growth in the long run. And finding inspiration in living beings is good to help you do more daily applications in real life of your learnings. It helps you navigate the complexity of our current world.
View this post on Instagram
My definition of success: Did I do at my fullest what I have said I would? Did I do it the best I could? Did I learn something from it?
Oh, celebrating success can be for me done with great simplicity, by pronouncing the words I did it! And having a big smile on my face already elaborating on the next is probably what I like the most. In those moments I have butterflies in my body and am full of excitement and joy.
Inspiration comes to me naturally. As I am a curious being who reads a lot and loves to hear other people’s stories, it doesn’t take long for stories to elaborate.
I find that I am the most inspired when I am researching the possibility of making something happen. At the very first stages of the idea.
Empowerment. I am not sure how to navigate that term… I feel the most comfortable in my growth when I can feel internally that what I am doing is right. There is a big difference to feeling what is right and doing something because it is easy. Funny enough, I think the most empowered I feel is when the hardship has just passed – most of the time I am navigating new things in life that thoroughly motivate me and scare me by how bigger they are than what I have done previously. « I am doing it but I am scared. But I know it is the right thing ». What does help a lot to feel empowered is for me to read Marcus Aurelius Meditations or Psalms of Battles. Always good to get a good bit of adrenaline to get you going in life! (It’s actually much more effective than caffeine !)
These are a few of the many women I look up to and why (these are almost all about adventures only!):
- Joan of Arc: Her persistence and insistence in times of true adversity are a good lesson of resilience
- Marcelle Auclair: a formidable french novelist, biographer, journalist and poet, she is the author of many incredible books but 2 are specifically talking to me: La Fabrique du Bonheur & Le Bonheur est en vous.
- Marylène (and husband Jacques) Ducoin: she led with her husband her family through the Zanskar by foot. She embodies contemporary womanhood at its best
- Nicole Merlo: a fantastic Belgian woman, born in Africa and who lived there for almost her entire life. She wrote several books about life in Africa. 100 % recommended.
The book I always return to:
- The Rules of Work by Richard Templar – favourite business improvement book
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – favourite meditation book
- The Song of Songs (or Canticle of Canticles) – favourite love poem ever
With love,
Thérèse-Marie
Photo credits @tomwheatley