This is an AI transcription, apologies for any typos.

I'm going Why is our chief officer coming out in his pyjamas? And why is he now running at us? And he was screaming. This is not a drill. This is not a drill.

When you're young and you've barely got any responsibilities, sometimes you can find yourself in relatively dangerous environments without truly grasping the gravity of a situation. From a young age. Will it always be obsessed with boats, reading about them in magazines, going on trips with his family. Fast forward to being 21. carefree and working on a super yacht of all things, going from Malta to the Maldives? What a life a he's got his whole life ahead of him.

00:41

It's a boiling afternoon, we're scrubbing the decks. I'm out there with Alex, who's my boson is basically the boss that that's in charge of me. We're always having a laugh, always having a good time. And it'd be quite nice to get down for lunch now, like it's air conditioned down in the crew mass. The chef has probably cooked us up something nice and delicious. And all of a sudden, the fire alarm goes off and it's this ringing piercing sound across the bow. And I'm like, Ah For fuck sake. Not another fire Joe, you know, you gotta get in your care. It's super hot. It's a real pain in the arse. So yeah, I remember hearing that. That's a click of the Chrome app store. And I go oh, shit, Martin's coming out to tell us off because the click of agreement store you know you're in trouble. And I see Martin come out in his boxer shorts. He's wearing his sort of pyjama pants Spongebob, SquarePants, boxers, with a sort of dressing gown coming on? And I'm going Why is our chief officer coming out in his pyjamas? And why is he now running at us. And he was screaming, this is not a drill. This is not a drill. So we're then rushing down the corridor to go get the fire kit and the muster station. And with that there was this just sense of panic. As we're getting this kit out, right? We're like this is real. This is happening. Having two days before this, bear in mind, actually been watching YouTube videos of superyachts import going from like spark to like a ball of flame within five minutes. I mean, these things are so flammable. Just think about the paintwork, the wood, the fuel tanks for Mosaic, these things go up like a like a ball of flame. So this is what is going through my head now at this point. But then all of a sudden, I had this realisation that actually, I'm fire response team number two. And this isn't my job to go into the front line. So all of a sudden, that fear just kind of evaporated. And I went right, we need to, you know, sort this out for the other team that are going to come along and actually deal with this situation, which is five to one. So we're there. We're waiting for Tom and Jamie. And at this point, you know, the seconds are kind of going past right? Everything's in slow motion. You're kind of counting coming up to probably 60 seconds, then maybe even two minutes. And the chief officer is going where the hell are they he's radioing for them shouting, Tom, Tom, Jamie Jamie, and there's nothing we had no idea where they are. And what happened at that point was the chief officer obviously had to make a split decision he ran right. We have to send someone in fire response team number one are not here. You guys, number two you're going in. So we're looking around everywhere, right? And we we cannot see where this fire is emerging from. We're looking left for looking right. We actually went up because we thought the fire might be there. So we smashed through a ceiling compartment. And there was nothing there. We just ran the billionaire's boat. Basically, we track back again. And we check out the side compartment is the hatch and we open it up and the fire is just raging from inside. So the instant reflex was just to shut it back again. I grabbed my fire extinguisher and I just start spraying frantically all around. And eventually I put out this fire and I'm looking at Alex and it's kind of like holy shit. You know, we actually did this. And Alex and I we step outside. We're merge as heroes from this fire in the for peak of the boat. But we emerged as heroes to asleep and crew. You will not believe it. But fire response team one, were fast asleep during this entire episode. Literally they put their pillows over their head. They're gone. We can't be bothered to do another fire drill. We'll leave it to these guys. And now we were actually fighting a real fire whilst they're all asleep.

What an unbelievable story will to think that you're just gonna be working on a super yacht, and everything's gonna be smooth and you have the This situation that you just could never have imagined what happened? Right?

05:04

Exactly, I think we could have never, never even imagined that in our wildest dreams, you just, you hear stories, anything that's not going to happen to me, I'd sign up for Paradise, I'd sign up for this kind of vision of working on CPR with an awesome crew, I'd probably imagine life more like a guest than an actual worker. But even then this you know, the surpassed everything that I could have possibly imagined.

It's almost like our egos to talk and I'm, I'm feeling like in this situation, and in many other situations is, we want the best things to happen to us. But we don't expect that the worst things will happen to us as well, at the same time.

05:41

The thing is that even where the fire breaking out, right, and even thinking that actually I was gonna die in that moment, I actually thought we are gonna burn into a ball of flame and like sink into the abyss. Like, I'm not even kidding. Even with that experience, and the work hard play hard element of like working on a boat anyway, we honestly had the best time of our lives, you know, it was, we had so much more fun than the billionaires actually even owned the art. And I think it was just that going through those challenging times just made the reward even sweeter.

Do you really think you went through this sort of momentary existential crisis, because I've heard about people being in those kinds of situations in the past, almost death's door, if you want to call it that, where they think actually, I'm not going to be able to survive this and you start to think about all the things that matter to you in your life, friends, family, did you have that kind of experience?

06:38

I suppose it kind of like it crept up on you, right? So initially, you're thinking, this is a drill, then you're thinking this is real. And then all of a sudden that that real fear kind of creeps in, the adrenaline just kind of kicks in and takes over. So I think, at that point, actually, I didn't even have the capacity or bandwidth to think about those things. I've had it once before in my life, but I thought we were gonna crash and the plane come down. And that was that at that time, I was actually writing like, a letter to my family. But in this situation, where, you know, I was the pilot, basically, I was in the pilot's seat, there was no time to write a letter to my family or think about that. It was just the act and take it on.

I'm thinking back to when you were a kid, and you're reading those magazines about boats. And anytime I've heard about people saying they've got a fascination and a love of boats, it's always men. Why is it that men are synonymous with boats and loving boats? Is it this idea of being the leader? captain of the ship, that sort of mentality?

07:44

I think I think you're right, Alex, I don't know what it what is it about men on boats? Like, I can, I can definitely speak for myself. My I think it I think so for me, it was my granddad, like, he was obsessed, like, and still as unfortunately, can no longer go on a boat anymore. Because he's not on mobile. But, you know, he's still read these boat magazines. And I think he was the one that like, kind of passed that on to me. So like, yeah, we'd go like sailing and, and they were kind of, I just loved every element of it, you're out on an island, that's basically it's kind of it's yours, and there's no road. So you can take it anywhere. And then there's kind of the element of like, you know, keeping it working, you know, making sure that everything is intact, and it's a great, it's basically a great hobby. Like, that's, that's how I put out. But it's also a hobby of great privilege. And the owners of this, you know, superyacht that I worked on. And nothing emphasises that more than that, you know, really is a wild for the very lucky, I would say,

Well, it's interesting, you talk about the honours of the super yacht, because I was literally just about to ask you, it gets to that point where people have so much money, they have an obscene amount of money and they think to themselves, what can I spend this on because they've run out of things to buy? And then they think, you know what, I'll buy a massive super yacht. I mean, I heard the story about Jeff Bezos he bought, was it some like a billion dollar super yacht or something like that, and they had to reconstruct this bridge in somewhere near it, was it Switzerland or somewhere like that, in order for this boat to be able to pass under it

09:33

is absolutely obscene. Like, you know, it's become kind of like a deck swimming contest amongst the big billionaires. And I think actually, if you took, you know, a few of the world's super yachts and you took the cost of them, because the running them all of that, you could probably solve world hunger. Like it's it's that is that insane. What I can say is that the The, the the openness of the art that we worked on, right, you're so spot on, like, they've bought everything in the world, there is nothing more that they can buy, like they've, they've literally had the best of everything, they've experienced the best of everything, you know, so nothing is ever enough. And for us as the crew, you know we're living on like the polar opposite end of the spectrum, right? We're literally is our chief opposite put it like feeding off of the breadcrumbs of these billionaires. But what I can tell you for free, is that we had hands down so much more fun than the owners of the CPR as the crew like, yeah, sure we work hard. I'd be up all night scrubbing the decks. I try and you know, cut corners and does that as possible. But then we'd have a great time together, you know, we'd arrive in Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, the Maldives, which is where we went to after the fire in the Gulf of Suez. And it was an adventure of, you know, Next Level proportions with next level people,

I want to go back to what you said about the big swinging competition between these billionaires, because it makes me think, when you think back to being at school, boys are saying, my dad's cooler than your dad, and my dad can do this. And your dad could do, it starts from that. And then it's men go through these stages, and certain men have this competitive this competition in this comparison element. And they've just taken it to new levels, right? They've got to that point, I've got 500 million, you've only got 400 million. And then they become billionaires, my boats bigger than your boat, and I've got more debt cans, I've got more stuff on my on my boat, then you have Where does it all end?

11:50

Yeah, my own experience of that is being being surrounded by really successful people. So my dad sunk all of his savings into starting company, the year I was born. So like, we didn't really have much, but we actually had a piezo with holes is like a Flintstones, Persia with holes in the floor, we have to wear wellies when it was raining. So he kind of, you know, put it all on red like to build a startup. And he actually always said to me, whatever you do, don't start a company. But my mom was working for a Weejun ship owner. And, you know, he was a very, very successful person. And I think there were people around me that were very successful. And I think that it does kind of influence you in terms of what you see is possible and what you think you might be able to achieve. So I think that's maybe what what spreads that the seeing people out there that it made me like you. And then you think, Oh, I could do that. And I think that's what that was that's what probably spreads that that kind of thing. But it's also what spreads are great injustice, right? You know, if all you're seeing is why men who are immensely successful, that maybe doesn't inspire other groups of people to think that this is something that they can achieve. So I think it's, it's steeped in history, it's, it's, you know, there's there's layers and layers and layers of stuff. I think we can unpack around that. We're happy to have a whole separate conversation on it. But yeah, I think that you're right there is that like competition element. And I

think that there's so many different pillars to what ever is considered a good life to someone, you know, good health. They've got wealth, happiness, love, relationships, all those kinds of things. And I feel like some of these multimillionaires, they've got so good at just one game, it's just one pillar of the good life, and they've not necessarily ignored the others, but they could be incredibly overweight, and you really got too good at the money game, but you've not done particularly well in the health game. And this is something that I think, is not necessarily talked about, but you've gone over this sort of this efficient frontier. You know, say for example, I mean, how much money do you really need to live a good life, say an arbitrary number say you save save 5 million or 10 million? These people have gotten so far past that. I mean, there's an example of Bill Gates. You know, you've gone too far in the in the money game when you're spending $32 million a year on security, because you're worried about kidnappings of your kids. You could be shot you could be assassinated, whatever happens you know you've gone too far.

14:56

Now how much you enjoying life when you've got you know, security If your kids ride the storm, I think it's gone too far. The interesting thing for me with that is actually it was my own journey with it. So I think before I went and worked on a CPR, I thought, yeah, maybe I might actually like to be that someday, you know, that was kind of an ambition for me to really be mega successful in the traditional sense. But I think actually, after that experience, I was actually like, that's the last thing I want, you know, I think actually, successes is so different to that. I think it's, it's fundamentally, it's about, you know, being present, enjoying life, enjoying the moment spraying that happiness to others. And I think making a real meaningful difference in the world. And for me, that experience working on a yacht, actually, was what inspired me to create my startup and my company now that I run, where we fund plastic collection projects, all around the world. We've got a whole team of our space in London. And yeah, we're coming up to a billion plastic bottles collected in weight this November. So we will have prevented a huge amount of plastic from entering the ocean. And we would have collected that all around the world. So Indonesia, or the Philippines, India, Ghana, Kenya, actually setting up connection points, and enabling people to earn income from plastic way. So there's this like big environmental impact, but also big social impact, too. And this genuinely, I can say for sure, wouldn't have happened without my experience. Working on a boat. I think, yeah. throwing yourself into that. If you have a real urge to go and do something, go out and do it. Go and take that adventure, because you never know where it's gonna take you. Lean in.

Yeah, absolutely. In in and what you were saying before about the billionaires. I know that, you know, the ocean bottle, kind of the conception of the idea came about from a president of Evian.

17:14

That's right. Yeah. So we were so after the fire broken out, and the Gulf says we survived that episode, we then had a couple of weeks actually, just open ocean, you know, as far as you can see, sailing out to the Maldives. And that, for me actually was quite like an app experience of understanding the scale of the ocean, like, The ocean covers 70% of the planet 99% of the livable biome, like biosphere, every other breath of oxygen that you take comes from the ocean. Like without life in the ocean, there is no life on Earth. So that was like a real kind of awakening for me. That experience but anyway, when we got to the, to the Maldives, so we had the family, the owners of the boat coming out that Christmas, and they actually bought something like it was over 1000 evianne bottles for their family or for that Christmas. That was

18:18

yeah, it's not it's not the it's not the most straightforward present. I can think of a lot of other things that I might have liked, particularly having now started

18:25

at Boston. I can't think of a worse president than 1200 plastic vessels.

Quite strange present to give someone for Christmas.

18:36

100% It's, I don't know. Yeah, I think the funny thing was also because the crew we had a filtered water tap and the crew mass so we'd all be drinking plastic, free water and loving and I think that was just that, you know, prestige and privilege associated with and we have to have me out and we have to have makes logical sense that we will fly in water bustled from, you know, the Swiss Alps, in plastic. Long story short, what happened with this was that they would have a sip of it, they would put the bottles out on deck, they would then heat up and I was the one that would kind of pour out the bottled water into the sea, crushed the plastic into these black bin bags because there's no way segregation handed over to someone that will actually collect the waste and then take it off into the distance to an island called Teva, fishy. And on this island, they literally just burned all of the plastic waste, and along that would just drift off out into the ocean. So for me, it was a bit of an eye opening experience in terms of like excess consumption and what's going on with with plastic waste. So yeah, it really kind of sparks the inspiration behind ocean muscle.

What were your emotions and feelings having to go through that have this sort of this feeling of We don't appreciate the necessities in life. Because if you're just having little sips of a bottle of water and just leaving it there to get hot, you're you're clearly not Yeah, you're not appreciating the small things,

20:15

actually links back to your podcast with Mark go there. And I'd recommend that so it's a mess thing. But that insatiable greed that we all have as humans, like, it's never enough, nothing is ever enough. It's, it's, you know, it's kind of our basic instinct, instinct, right? So think, you know, consider that that's kind of the underlying thing. And then when you add money to that mix, you can buy and you can have, and you can use anything. So it is it's a really dangerous combination. And it's one is really probably driven the planet and where we are, to the situation we're in today, where future generations are completely screwed, I can't even tell you how bad of a trajectory that we're on. And unless we seriously take action now. And really changed change the way in which what we're trying to do is going to change capitalism really from within, like, change capitalism to be opposed to girge. Unless we can really create huge system change within the next couple of decades, we're in big trouble. But I think yeah, you're, you know, to your point, it's, it's, I think it takes an awakening for all of us to go. Actually, maybe even if I do have all the money in the world, maybe I still don't need to, you know, consume everything. And I know, there's one super successful founder, who I think is the founder of tetrapack. He actually drives like a Renault Clio, and has given you know, most of his money to charity. And

I think back to what you said before about the, this, this billionaire boat owner, and the fact that he was not having anywhere near the level of enjoyment and happiness that all the other stuff on board we're having, because you can have all the money in the world. But I'm curious as to whether he had that self reflection to see all of you having, having an amazing time and going actually, they're working for me, and I'm not having a great time at all.

22:24

Yeah, it's, you know, it's a generalisation. Right, it's, it's, that's not going to be the case for everyone. But I think assuming that becoming a billionaire is gonna make you the happiest person in the world is probably your biggest mistake. And the goalposts will always keep shifting, like we hit a milestone with ocean balsall. We had our first job adverts go up in London for the first time. And this is something that I always dreamt off. And I remember standing there on the platform, thinking about, you know, our investor pitch the next day, some other presentation. You know, someone on the team that had an issue or the fact that our ocean plastic was stuck in customs, you know, but then also thinking about all the things that we still wanted to achieve with the company. So you're kind of, you're never at the goalpost the goalposts just continue to keep shifting. And really the goalposts actually right here right now, and no one put it better than someone on our board, who basically said, Look, guys, if you're so lucky that you know, one day, you might sell your company, that's the end of the ride, that's the end of the journey, you know, the journey is, is is getting there. And if you don't at least try and enjoy that and then embrace the ups and the downs and the roller coaster ride that is the way that you're kind of missing the point. Really easy to say, really hard to do in practice,

from the story how to sit back and think how interesting it is that your dreams can turn into a nightmare. I'm sure the magazines and books that will read about bolts as a kid didn't include what to do when there's a fire. But he did what he needed to do in a tricky situation. And he stepped up to the mark to protect his crew and his friends. It makes me think a lot about how people react in dangerous situations. With the with the amygdala firing up in our heads. Our bodies either go into fight flight or freeze response, and will chose to literally firefight also that after you'd finished rescue in the crew. There was little to no fanfare for his exploits no one there to celebrate his achievements. What happened on that day on that boat could be a script out of a Hollywood film, where at the end, he gets the girl and walks off into the sunset. But instead what you got is his mates and his crew members snoring away in their cabins blissfully unaware of what we'll have just achieved, which I feel like we reflects the reality of life. Sometimes it's not all Hollywood films, there are a lot more silent heroes out there than the ones that we hear about. Do we give enough recognition to the unsung heroes in our society was a humble guy and I think that shows, but I hope that he understands the gravity of the fact that he saved a lot of people's lives on the boat that day. And not just that, but Will's gone on to do a lot of positive with his life. His business ocean bottle is something that's really impressed me. It's a reusable water bottle company that has saved over 10,237,000 kilogrammes of ocean bound plastic from destroying our planet. I think we've all been to the beach sometimes and looked out into the sea and seen all sorts of rubbish in there. And think to ourselves, this is just not right. But instead of just looking at that in horror, Will's actually gone ahead and done something about it. So maybe we should get so maybe we should give him the fanfare that he truly deserves. You can learn more about ocean bottle and what we'll does there at Ocean bottle.com