Dec 4, 2017
Sebastien Sasseville grew up in a small town in Quebec Canada.
From an early age, he was raised with a solid work ethic. This key
characteristic was developed through the day to day work on his
family’s farm that Sebastien was responsible for. In our
conversation, Sebastien explained that those early experiences
taught him that anything is possible, but nothing comes easy.
It wasn’t until he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the
age of 22, that he started to truly understand his
potential. Sebastien initially ignored his symptoms, although
he knew he was type 1 without the lab tests. A few years earlier
his younger brother was diagnosed with type 1, so Sebastien had
intimate knowledge of the disease.
As a result of his diagnosis, Sebastien quickly started to
view his new reality as an opportunity to live a better life. He
saw type 1 as a deep motivator and a source of energy, which gave
him purpose.
In 2008, that purpose led him to realize a childhood dream,
and took him to the peak of Mt. Everest.
In 2012, that purpose empowered him to run The Sahara Race, a
5 day, multi-stage, self-sustaining, 250K race across the
desert.
And in 2014, he used his purpose and platform to spread more
awareness about diabetes by running across Canada in 9
months.
Sebastien is also a six time Ironman competitor.
This is where I had a lightbulb moment with Sebastien. While
all of those journeys are quite amazing, it’s not about the
achievements. Its not about the task of summiting Everest, or
running across the Sahara, or even running across the North
American continent. It’s simply about what they mean.
In this conversation, we talk about the importance of
patience, and we talk about the importance of preparation, and the
details of training and the actual expeditions. But the key message
to pull is Sebastien’s message of motivation, of commitment, and
the benefits of hard work so we can make our impact on this planet
in some way. Ultimately, it’s not about the enormity of the
challenges each of us takes on necessarily, but it is about what
they mean to us, and how those challenges support our
mission.