Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker on Overcoming Adversity
There is a difference between a speaker who studied adversity and one who survived it. Yossi Ghinsberg spent 20 days alone in the Bolivian Amazon with no food, no shelter, and no guarantee of rescue. He is not speaking from theory.
20 days alone in the Amazon
1M+ books sold
Voted Most Unforgettable Speaker
Google / Apple / Microsoft / BMW
Overcoming adversity is a phrase that means almost nothing until it refers to something specific. Yossi's specific is 1981, the Bolivian Amazon, and 20 days without food, without rescue, and without certainty. Not a hardship story. A working model for what the human mind does when the situation becomes genuinely critical.
The difference between a speaker who studied resilience and one who lived it is not rhetorical. It shows up in what the audience does after. When the evidence comes from lived experience, people don't just feel inspired. They recalibrate. They re-examine the pressure they are under and find that they have more capacity than they thought.
Yossi speaks to audiences of 10,000 at MDRT, to senior leadership teams at Google, to corporate groups at Microsoft and BMW. The question he is always answering is the same one: how do you keep going when conditions are genuinely bad and you don't know how long they will last? He answers it with something that actually happened.
Three moments from the Amazon that map to business adversity
Every keynote draws on specific events. Here are three that audiences consistently say stayed with them.
Day 3: The guide disappears
The person you trusted to lead you stops being trustworthy.
Their guide showed signs early that something was wrong. The group argued. The decision to keep going was made anyway. In business, this is the sunk cost disguised as loyalty.
Day 6: A jaguar watches him sleep
A threat you can't outrun with effort alone.
Yossi had no weapon. He had mosquito repellent and a lighter. He made a flamethrower. The lesson: you don't need the right tool. You need the willingness to use what is there.
Day 14: He stops and thinks
The moment when the only productive action is to stop acting.
He was exhausted, feverish, and moving in circles. He stopped. He sat down. He made a plan. Teams that can't stop during a crisis can't see clearly enough to get out of one.
Keynote programs
Yossi has three keynote programs, each drawing from the same Amazon experience and tailored to your audience and event theme. View full program details, including learning outcomes and typical duration, on the keynotes page.
View all keynotesWhat your audience walks away with
The story opens the room. These are the tools that stay after it.
Snake Breath
A breathing technique for acute stress, born in the jungle and taught live on stage. Your audience uses it the same day.
Full Sensory Activation
A practice for presence under pressure. The antidote to running on autopilot when the stakes are highest.
Real vs. imaginary survival
A framework that separates true threats from the manufactured stress that burns teams out. Most pressure is imaginary. Knowing the difference changes how people work.
A shared language
Teams quote the story for years. The next step, the river, the jungle. It becomes shorthand for how the team faces hard things.
Best fit
- Annual kickoffs and sales conferences
- Leadership summits and executive offsites
- Insurance and financial services (MDRT main stage, 2025)
- Resilience, wellbeing, and change programs
Formats and fee
- Keynote. 60 minutes, tailored to your event theme
- Keynote + fireside chat. Adds 20 to 30 minutes of moderated Q&A
- Workshop. Half day or full day, hands-on with the techniques
Most engagements fall between USD 30,000 and 50,000, depending on format, location, and travel. Every enquiry receives a tailored proposal within 48 hours.
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