YouSaid · the spoken record

Russ Cook

lines on the record: 145
first: 2024-05-02
most recent: 2024-05-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Mate, thanks for everything you've done. I can't honestly, I can't thank you enough. You made it happen as well, so amazing.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One of the things that I just love doing the most is mid run, going to Tesco, getting some snacks and just sitting outside Tesco on the pavement eating my snacks. My favourite place ever. Love doing that.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't even know. He just ended up becoming a thing that I was saying towards throughout the mission. I'd be like, get me to Tunisian Beach for a strawberry daku. And it was in my head. And then we finally got it done, eh?”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've worked with the charity for like Yes. I used to before I left I was the adventure guy, so I'd take people, take groups of people up climbing mountains or out into nature and we do stuff. I did stuff with fundraisers who were raising money for the charity. I did the Age to London run for the running charity as well, so I've been involved for four or five years.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Recognizable guy as well because ginger beard and stuff I think it will like Will die down like eventually so. I think it's going to be all right.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I have got a lot of ideas. I think one of the big things that I would be really, what I'd really love to do is. Some way be part of like documenting other people's journeys when they go on, you know, they're starting from somewhere and they've got this big thing that they want to do and just like either helping them or being like in some way do it. So I'd really love to try and do more of that. The last year as well, like one of the things that I struggled with is it. Like it was so much everything was geared towards basically helping me run I've had enough of that, you know, all of my support team were there basically to facilitate me running as far as I can every day. And it would be nice to do things for other people more than just everyone doing things for me.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's fine. I just need to get a few things sorted. I haven't got a place to live yet. I don't know the immediate next steps like career wise, what I'm going to do. A lot of things have changed obviously, so it's just working out a lot of all of this stuff. But I think when there's that many uncertainties in your life, it's always going to create a certain level of like. Mental challenges, so I just need to figure them out, and then I'll be all right.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My body needed it Absolutely, you know, bashed in. It's been quite difficult to. I had such a solid routine every day for a year. It was like get up run, break, eat, run, do the same, you know, every single day. And now the schedule is like wildly different. It's like, okay, wake up, interview here or go and do this and then this. And, you know, meet this person, chat to that person. And I'm kind of missing that. Routine of exercising all the time. Kind of want to start that back up again pretty soon, maybe not 60 or 70k a day, but like I need, I actually need that, you know.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean. People are nice, so like they only had nice things to say to me. It was just like, So much like stimulation, you know what I mean? I was like, I'm not used to this.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“An agent, nothing. I kind of need a moment to work out what I actually want to do. But it's fine. Like, I'm not running Ultra Math and Sarah Desert anymore. It's all right.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah. And it's just like, well, I think there's a lot of things happening as well that I'm not, that I don't know how to handle properly, like emails and all these other things.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, Daphne. Because I'm trying to distance myself from everyone and everything at the moment. I think. Social batteries run out quite quick, and once that happens, I'm just like, well, I need to be alone immediately. Done. Can't speak.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Still thinking common kind of working that out at the moment don't really know. It's definitely different. But everyone's so nice, and I think like the. The stories of people that come up to me and they're like, you know, I was running the marathon on Sunday and people were like, you're the reason I'm hearing stuff. I'm like, that's kind of mad, but that's sick as well, you know.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was totally mad. I think the finish line was one of those things that was just so over. I don't know if you had it like when there's so much going on and it's so overwhelming, you kind of like... It almost feels like an out of body experience.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I guess it's just grateful that it all worked out, you know. Like all the hard work paid off. All the hard times paid off.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ah yeah, I mean that finish line honestly felt like a fucking mystical thing that was never coming for the longest amount of time so the fact that it finally came was just like wow it's finally over you know like we actually did it Yeah, very grateful”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the last day Yeah, we ran a little bit, a couple tears. I don't know, like, I guess it was a signal that it was like, this is actually over now, you know, like my dad's here. Like, you know, everything that I've been through, but also everything he'd been through, everything his dad's been through, felt like it just felt like a moment, you know.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was an emotional day, man. My dad came and ran, he could only bang a two or three k these days, but he came and ran and put his arm around me and that and it was special.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and even if you go through some difficult shit and it doesn't work out, then you've got a few lessons in there, right?”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And I think, like. By the end as well, the team was so. It was slick like the way everyone was operating. Everyone knew what they had to do. No one needed. You know, no one needed telling. We all just got on with our jobs, and the amount of output for four people. crazy.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was a bold strategy. We were strategizing for a couple weeks before that. We are back against the wall here. What are we going to do? And we kind of Gus and Stan were putting together these kind of plans to get residency in Mauritania and then potentially do all of these little things to try and somehow get a visa. Got to a point where I said, like, boys, let's just hail Mary it. Just blast it on socials because it's going to take someone right at the top to say yes. swing for the fences.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Christmas would have been a bit of a weird one for my family anyway, but yeah, like... I mean, it was business as usual. I think it was pretty much focused on the job and had a couple drinks and that was that.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it was more piecing that together. They were very confused about her, why I was there, why I was running in the middle of the night. And yeah, they made sure they did all their checks on me. So that wasn't. Any suspect individual.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The only time I ever really had the thought was in the Congo. On the motorbike, yeah, like that was the only time I actually ever actually thought, why am I doing this? This is stupid. Why am I going to go get myself killed of this? And it was a fleeting thought came in. And then I thought, I ain't got a fucking choice. I've got to do it now anyway.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The back was probably the worst injury. It's not even healed still, but basically my back started season up and I would get like shooting nerve pains coming down my leg. It would just totally jar and wouldn't be able to move. Or yeah, I mean, God knows what happened there.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I tried to kind of put some reorganize, reshuffle things so that wouldn't happen by sending everyone holiday, hired Gus, hired Jamie, another editor to take some workload offs down because the geezer was working like 18 hours a day trying to get two YouTube videos out a week whilst recording it and producing it. I was like, ris, we need to change something there. Gus, X Power from Dutch military. He'd cycled up and down Africa by himself. Absolute beast of a bloke. I was like, he's coming in. He's going to do our logistics and one of the best recruits I've ever made. That's kind of how the aftermath happened.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everyone was an eggshells. We got to Kabinda, which is in an Angolan exclave. And then I said, I was like, Harry, you're going on holiday. And I said to the other boys, you'll all be going on at late at some point. I think at that point I'd realised That for me I'm running every day, my body's very stressed. I'm very stressed in general. I'm managing a lot of things and I can't have the people around me also being at the edge of what they can do because then it just leaves me in a totally fucked spot.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How good leadership would set, you know? So we had a big argument about that. I've obviously just been in this rural village for a couple of days. I'm already, I'm tightly strong already. So is he. And then we get back to the other boys. These guys had no idea what just happened. And they were all struggling themselves. So they were very much, everyone was just concentrating themselves, and they were all kind of like, everyone was a bit pissed off from each other. And then we had a meeting And I just blew up, just blew up, started shouting everyone, throwing chairs about, completely lost my call. Not obviously not the way to act. Yeah, I mean, it was awkward. It was awkward a few days after that. I just went straight back to running, wanted to get out of DRC as quickly as possible.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was a difficult one. Actually, we had a big argument, me and Harry had a big argument on just after this Congo thing, we were traveling back through these villages. He'd obviously had a rough time as well. He'd been scammed for motorbikes, had these dealings with the police chief. And as we're coming back, he was buying fags and alcohol and stuff in all these little tiny remote villages. And I had an issue with it because we're going through some of the poorest places in the world. There's kids running around with malnourished bellies kind of even feed themselves. And as Europeans, if we bowl through these villages drinking and smoking, blah, blah, blah, then it's giving off the sign. We got a lot of money to spare. And that's why we're getting scammed so much for extortionate amounts of money. So I had an issue with it and I told him, and I probably didn't say it in a way that was...”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“African logistics experts. And that's put them in a position. It's obviously going to be really difficult. Yeah, I mean, the whole situation. Could have been avoided with different planning. I recognize that. And I thought, off the back of that, I was like, right, I'm going to get a four by four because the van can't travel up any of these dirt roads. And I'm going to hire two new people, one of which is going to be like a proper logistics guy that's going to get us through these tough situations.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Difficult one to look back, so I don't want to throw anyone under the bus or paint anyone in a bad light we were all just trying our best. I think for me I recognized that I did wrong in that situation was I set us up in a bad way. I'd hired so heavily on content side because I knew that we started with no money, we had to get content out there to get brands to sponsor us that I basically recruited three people that were almost entirely there for content reasons. Able to make YouTube videos take photos for a court documentary, this kind of thing. I completely blindsided the logistics and element and like having knowledge of Africa and all of this kind of stuff. I just thought that's a luxury we can't afford right now. Because of that, I'd ended up asking a support team that was mostly there for content to basically be like...”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That was, I think the hardest point for us as a team of the mission was the aftermath of that. It's very difficult Because I think we were all struggling. Everyone was right at their limit. Probably because no one had any spare energy to think of anyone else in that situation. It was all like, well, I'm struggling. So that's it, you know. Yeah, I mean there was a good few arguments.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean I was thinking of All the things that we talked about our future together and everything that we wanted to build. Like having kids together and all these things that just felt like they were just. How, like, just felt like I was letting her down. I wasn't Delivering the things that I was going to run the length of African, we're going to do this, everything's going to be all right. Like, don't worry about all of these dangers. No, it's going to be fine, babe. How hard that was, that time was for her as well I mean, especially I'm in the thick of it, you know. In the thick of it, she's like at home just think about it all the time. Was a few moments like that when we didn't have signal.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like resentment and pride and Not trying to understand, we're like avoiding things and not trying to connect with people that. love me and these kind of things.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, I guess it's like you said, it was a moment of clarity where I was like, Probably wasted a lot of years there. Holding on to things that weren't necessary, you know, for bullshit reasons. Life's too short, fall that.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about Think about like, oh. The things I wish I had the chance to repair that I haven't relationship with my parents. Thinking about all the things that. I wanted to do in my life that I wouldn't be able to do. Was thinking about what it would do to. Everyone that. I got myself killed in the Congo for just trying to run the length of Africa. I felt stupid because I was like. This These were like mistakes that had been made that were should have been quite easily preventable that we didn't do. And that's openly my responsibility as well. It was a hard few hours.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, it's different, I guess it's different for me. I was just like, You know, if this is the way that God wants it, then I guess it is. That's it, you know. And there's more for me elsewhere. That's how I was how I was trying to make sense of it in my brain.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. I think I don't think so, but I do obviously I'm a human, I do know what anxiety feels like and I do get it sometimes, but I was anxious then for sure.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think they were. I think they were actually just more scared about who I was and why I was there and all the rest of it. I mean, after the phone call with the team, things seemed quite settled. Like they were pretty all right with me. And I think they, you know. It was always just in a state of totally. Tot exhausted but like petrified and I was just very nervous around everything twitchy you know”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Literally going through the jungle, so it's like little tiny paths that are going up and down through rivers, through over mountains.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then they spoke on the phone Basically, we agreed like the boys would come. We've got the money. And then it took the boys like. Think about 36 48 hours to get there because it was so rural. There was no roads going there, it was all dirt paths. They tried to rent some motorbikes, got scammed. Then they ended up trying to borrow the police chief's 4x4, who also scammed us. So then, I mean, the boys got there eventually. Gave everyone some money, and then I was free to go.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know what God has for me has for me, you know, whatever it is, it is, and that's fine. And I was just trying to be like, you know, it's out of my hands. But it was very scary. I was like so. Nervous, like just shaking, they took me to this village in the jungle. Later night, no electricity. It's like wooden little shacks with tin corrugated roofs and stuff. Me off the bike, took me into this little hut. Then loads of the men of the village came into the hut. They were all arguing about money and this kind of stuff. And then the second chief of the village walks in and says to me, like, you speak to me in English very slowly. And he understood a few words. And I said to him, like, this is big mistake, you know, like, call my friend. He speaks French. And then he can come. And like, we've got money and we can sort it out.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Football, I assumed after about an hour and a half that I was like, okay, well, I am getting kidnapped. Then this is it, you know, and then I was thinking rationally I was like, had such limited knowledge about DRC or any of this kind of stuff. I was like, they're probably just going to, they'd probably just want money. But then you also suck, well, maybe they're just going to kill you. The stories that I'd heard about DRC, and that wasn't craziest thing, you know, you like people get stabbed for Fiverr. Literally like a couple of quid people get stabbed, um, people get killed for the, you know, a watch. So I was really trying to be rational about the situation. Just like very emotional as well. And then. I mean, for the last few hours, I was just like.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“While Probably about 20 minutes. So, yeah, got on the bike half an hour went by. Then now went by. I start kicking off. I'm getting off the bike. I'm having a go at them, but the language barriers just no one understands a word anyone's saying. Yeah, ended up spending seven hours on that motorbike going into the jungle, which was like terrible.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Probably no further than 10 or 20k away. So if I get on this bike and I'm on the bike for longer than half an hour or an hour, then I know this bad news. So I thought, fuck it, get on the bike.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Mine's totally gone. They were trying to, I think they were trying to communicate to me like, oh, we're going to take you to your friends, blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking about, I'm like, are these guys, who are these guys sent from? Are they sent from this village or that village? Is there like a Bush telegraph of there's a white guy running around here? He's upset. Like, go and get him kind of thing. So I'm like, nah, not doing it. Blah, blah, blah. Thinking, you know, the boys, they send a note with the driver if it's from them. And these guys had no note. You know, getting later and later, I was like, I've got no water, I've got no signal, I've got no way of knowing where the boys are.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't have a very good understanding of the culture or anything. So I think if I went through it again, a lot of these things would have been rationalised in my mind easier, but because I was so unaware of the situation and I'd had all of these horror stories built up in my head and the first couple of days in DRC was quite rough and I was just like in this spot where it didn't take a much for me to kind of just assume the worst of everything. So it really just got me into a place where I was like. Quite Yeah, I mean, I find this, I see the bit of tarmac. I'm like, right, let's head there. It's about two hours away. I could probably make it there. And as I'm going there, I'm going down this dirt path, another two blokes on a motorbike pull up. I was like, I just don't want any part of this. They're trying to stop me.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pretty much, yeah, yeah. Like it was, they walked me out into the bush and I didn't really, I didn't know what was happening, but I was just so like, like, this is bad. Gave them biscuits and just died. And then, like, I've ran off and I can just hear loads of commotion going on. I'm just running through this jungle. It's all quite I mean, it's all quite mad. I'm like adrenaline going through the roof. I was like I was petrified, man. I was absolutely petrified. I think what didn't help is that. I didn't understand any of the languages like Lingala, the local language. I didn't know any French either, which would have helped.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm really like this bad because I'm about 50 something K in. Dehydrated. I've got no water. I got no signal. And I don't know where the boys are. I don't know how to get to them. I'm in the middle of the jungle. And I know that there's like, I've upset a lot of people in the local area and I've just run away from them all. I'm like, this is bad news. Anyway, I figured out that the tarmac, the last nine bit of tarmac was. Think about 15 or 20k away. And I was like, I reckon I can just about make it there. And if I make it there, then that makes sense that the boys, that's the last bit they could get to.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like the chief of the village kind of got some people away and he got two blokes, took me out into the bush with machetes and I was bricking it. Yeah, I was absolutely bricking it Thinking, like my mind's totally racing at this point. I'm like, what is going on here? Why am I going out to the bush? This doesn't make any sense. Is this a shakedown? Is the worst happening? Don't know. And then got out into the bush. I basically emptied all my bags, had some biscuits, gave them the biscuits, and then just darted. And then I was just like, right, beeline for this meeting spot. And mine's totally frazzed at this point. I've got, I'm hearing motorbikes coming, I'm hearing people. I'm jumping in bushes, like totally just kind of off it here. Of get through this jungle bit, get to this meeting spot. The boys aren't there.”
2024-05-02 · The Diary of a CEO · Russ Cook (Hardest Geezer): I Haven't Told The Whole Truth About Africa!, They Took Me Into The Jungle To Kill Me! · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT