Roald Amundsen had promised his mother he would be a doctor, but when she died at 21 he quickly left University and sought his lifelong dream. Who doesn’t want to explore the world and see what only few people in this world have encountered?
On this day March 7th, in 1912, it was announced that Amundsen and his team had reached the South Pole. The news was proclaimed in Hobart, Australia where Amundsen went directly after he explored the South Pole.
The South Pole is dangerous for numerous reasons: it’s cold, you’re isolated, and there’s not much food. Amundsen commented afterwards that the reason why he had been successful, as opposed to another team which ran into trouble while they were also heading for the South Pole, was because he had planned extensively. To Amundsen, luck was good preparation, and in contrast, bad luck was a lack of precaution.