Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - From Overcoming PTSD to Top Photographer in the World! - Amos Nachoum

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

From personal trauma to a world-renowned photographer!Ilana sits with Amos Nachoum explorer, wildlife photographer and TEDx speaker in this super inspiring conversation, as they explore:His true career story. Something you will not hear anywhere! The stories behind his many accolades – his book, TEDx, a featured film, and numerous groundbreaking records. Dive in for a tale of resilience, passion, and extraordinary achievements.Watch This Episode On YouTube - highly recommended to see the photos! https://youtu.be/8UgCtFt8VFsLearn more about Amos Nachum, his mission, his speaking and his incredible trips: Book an expedition - www.biganimals.com Picture of His Life (the movie) - https://vimeo.com/279515135Password: amos22 TEDx   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vjt6Bwtsg2rxOESwyQr9sDKYa4xjt31P/view?ts=63d9f48a Big: A Photographic Album of the World's Largest Animals - https://www.amazon.com/Big-Photographic-Worlds-Largest-Animals/dp/3961713855 About Ilana Golan & Leap Academy:Website - https://www.leapacademy.com/Follow Ilana on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilanagolan/YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@ilanagolan-leap-academy

I decided to go to the United States and study in film and television in New York University. But it was $240 a credit. 1978. I could not pay it. I went to drive a taxi at night. I was a yellow taxi driver at night. And in the daytime, I went to take a diving course in New York. Because diving was part of me. I already knew how to dive.

So I thought if I take a diving course, I'll improve my English. Welcome to The Leap Show. In The Leap Show, we're here to bring experts from around the globe who share inspiring stories, concrete tips, and insight on what helped them become the best version of themselves and who they are today and create the incredible life that they wanted. Subscribe and follow us. Share this with friends who are also driven and aiming for more because you'll hear stories and tips that you'll hear nowhere else.

Hi, I'm Ilana Golan, CEO of Leap Academy, which helps driven professionals reinvent, leap their careers to the next level. Now let's get started. Oh my God, I have a treat for you guys today. I am here with Amos Nahum, who we'll introduce you in a second. He is an adventurer, an explorer. He is probably the top I think underwater photographer in the world and he's talking to us like how lucky do we get incredible now this extraordinary story um I got to meet when I saw his movie actually has a movie And we'll talk a little bit about that, Amos. But he has a movie. I actually didn't know much about Amos. I took my kids. I thought it's going to be a beautiful little, you know, inspiring story about animals and humans breaking barriers.

We couldn't move. And the beautiful thing about Amos is that then he was so humble to talk to us, take a picture with my kids and he got into my heart. And what I want you to understand today, and we'll, we'll, it's going to be a fascinating story about how somebody took some, what we call sometimes the hobby, sometimes craziness. We'll talk about it, um, into an incredible career, but he took it to the next level. He's a speaker. He's a TEDx speaker. He has a book.

He has a movie. He never stops. And if that's not inspiring, I don't know what is. Amos, thank you for being with us here today. Thank you very much. It is a pleasure for me, too, and a honor to be on your channel and reaching with you to your people that follow you for a very long time. Yes. Welcome to The Leap Show. It is going to be so inspiring to hear from you. Amos, how do you even start this kind of a career? Well, for all the people that don't know and hear my accent, I'm an Israeli. I had a tough, I had a very hard time in the war in Israel in 67 and 73 and the war in

between and after. And that's what pushed me eventually to seek, to take care of myself because there was not a treatment at the time for post-trauma in Israel. And the ocean and the water gave me this solace or this peace on mind and no noise, no sound, no fire, no nothing else, no enemies actually. And then I learned how to live with the animal underwater in peace. Oh my God, I did not know that. So you basically, you know, try to solve PTSD, which nobody really had a solution. Nobody really knew what it is, right? Nobody knew how to cope with it. And the ocean gave you that incredible peace.

And first of all, that's super inspiring. And then, but you start, you know, I mean, swimming, diving, photography. But, you know, how does it make you feel like you can actually make a living out of that? Right. Because some of us, you know, we'll go on vacation, but then we come back. How did you want to monetize that? How did you make that in your career? So then I came to the United States in 1978. And the idea was to study film and television. This was my interest in film and television.

That's what I did in Israel before. But it was $240 a credit. 1978. I could not pay it. I went to drive a taxi at night. I was a yellow taxi driver at night. And in the daytime, I went to take a diving course in New York because diving was part of me. I already knew how to dive. So I thought if I take a diving course, I will improve my English in a way in which I can manage better in America.

The instructor saw me in the pool and took me out of the pool and said, Amos, you can teach the class. You should not be a student here. I asked him why. He said because I did the exercise in a way that he realized that I have good experience. To make the long story short, the dive store hired me to be one of the instructors or assistant instructors. In July 1978, the shop had a trip to Cuba. We were able to go to Cuba at the time.

I went and there was another Israeli that came in, Ruby Aviatar, came into the United States to promote diving. He did not know me. I did not know him. But both of us were on the same trip. We saw what Cuba had to offer compared to what I knew about the Red Sea, but Ruby was really a diving instructor in Nevi'ot at the time, at Nueva. So together we said, all right, let's make a safari trip. 1978, I ran the first safari for American. We brought them into Israel.

We took them by jeep and on base of camels because at the time there wasn't much entry or infrastructure to go to the ocean, to go to the Sinai coast. And this is Egypt for those who don't know.

So you actually, yeah, go to the Egypt part. Wow. We had to go to take jeep all the way to the Sinai coast. Right, and this is Egypt, for those who don't know. So you actually, yeah, go to the Egypt part. Wow. We had to go to take a jeep all the way to the village camp, to the Bedouin camp. They gave us camel. We went on a couple with a tank and went to the water. When those Americans told me, Amos, you cannot sell it in America. Maybe to us.

They were a friend of mine. So I came to America, and I decided to do something about it. And at the time, there was a big travel agency in Israel called Coppel Tours. They had a boat that took people only for sunset to the coral island by a lot. I came to them. I did not know anything. But I said, okay, give me your boat. I will train your people.

And we create a dive boat out of this vessel. And we go bring people from America and travel all across the Red Sea. For 10 years, I was running about 10 to 15 groups to Israel. Every month, one or two groups. Amazing. That's how you started. I started my photography. I improved my

photography more and more underwater. I expanded also to other places around the world. Other places like Papua New Guinea, the Maldives, a great white shark in Australia. I started dubbing on other international travel because I had already followers that came year after year on travel.

However, during this time I saw the damage that I created on the reef. I created it because I was leading people, taking them away from home, and dive on really pristine reef, either in Papua New Guinea, either in Seychelles, either in Madagascar, either in the Red Sea. The boat at the time, there was no anchor. We throw anchor in the water. People come in. They did not know how to dive.

Or still, people don't dive very well. They ruin the coral, right. So I got burned. I got internally, I got really burned out. Then I decided I have to do something different. If I want to stay in that, I have to do something different. But I said, I went and asked a friend of mine. One of the questions you asked me earlier, a New York businessman,

because I really got burned out and I did not want to do it anymore. I was really upset. And I sat with a friend of mine. We had dinner with six businessmen in Israel. One of them was a hedge fund. Another one is a jewelry store. The other one is a real estate. The other one had a car shop in New York on 34th Street on 3rd Avenue.

And we're selling Ferrari and Lamborghini there. And we're sitting at dinner. I said, guys, you know me very well. Tell me what you think I can do next. Could you help me? Really. And everybody throw an idea. Ilana, I'm telling you, I came out of it.

I remember that like yesterday. I was sitting in Central Park West, under the tree, it was summertime. I had the book of Kofi, the seven characters of influential people. I was reading the book and I was still hearing what these people,

or this friend of mine telling me. And I could not fathom to do any job that they offer or that suggested I will do. And I said not fathom to do any job that they offered or that suggested I would do. And I said to myself clearly, I've been a commander in the army. I sailed through some of the most difficult time in the world of fighting. I have extraordinary experience in photography of different field. And I have, I had very good, very good record in America already for 10 years,

leading almost 800 people. No more than this. Over maybe 2000 people into Israel. I made a movie about the Red Sea. So I decided I'm going back to the ocean, but I go differently. I go back into the blue water where there is no reef. We cannot destroy anything. But rather to take a big group of people, a small group of people, like television team, like National Geographic or BBC will do, I emulate their program.

But to go and to meet the ocean giant, to meet the big animals, and to see how the big animals behave. At the time, there was not anything like that in the world. There is none. Nobody was doing anything like that. They will see them periodically, maybe by accident passing by, but not specifically to go to see sperm whale, to see humbug whale, to see blue whale, to dive with a whale, to see blue whale, to dive with

a crocodile, with anaconda, with a great white. Incredible. And I want to jump in and say, first of all, you know, when I saw your photos, I had to send my husband to dive with you, right? And I can't wait to join together with my kids. But tell me, Amos, again, first of all, that story is so, so, so inspiring. But I want to also, you know, for everybody that is listening, I mean, your photos are probably some of the most well-known in the world. I mean, I'm looking at, you know, those are looking at on YouTube and not on a podcast. Right, you know, behind Amos, there's a photo of, from the movie Jaws, right? And it's a photo that Amos took. Yes, they adapted it to their own. We don't like that

adaption, but it's taken from Amos photos. So his photos are at that level that a movie like Jaws need to have it front and center. So, Amos, first of all, how do you get so close to the animals? How are you not afraid? And I want you to talk a little bit about some of the doubt and some of those scary moments that would cause any normal human, at least, to stay in the cage and you get out of the cage. So talk to us a little bit about that. Okay, very important to know, and I get this question all the time.

Guys, ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid as much as you are, like every each one of you. Fear, it is the nature in each one of us. I cannot deny my fear. If I denied my fear, I would not be here right now. I'll be dead, clearly. But fear for me, through the experience of being in war or in difficult situation that we've been in, and the counterterrorism activity, whatever I've done, it was fear. it is something that makes me be on alert 360 degrees. I become to alert the sound to every small nuances of change in the behavior of the animal, the movement of the behavior, the wind, the ripple of the water, all those things,

and the people movement. Each and every change that happened or the event that happened around me immediately put me on alert to understand what's going on. What do I need to be aware of? What do I need to do next? And that's how I managed. I learned, and one of the things that I try to impair other people or share with people, that experience and knowledge is the enemy of all fears. Either we'll be in relationship, either we'll be in business, either we'll be in diving, either we'll be with the animal on the land,

the animal on the water, either we'll be a snowstorm, either we'll be even a fire, unfortunately, what happened in Hawaii right now. To be real, really really is to understand that the experience and knowledge can save us I love what you just said almost because the truth is fear is inevitable the question what do you do right um some of us will still stay in the impossible, which you'll share for a second, but also combating the doubt, the fear that what if it doesn't work, you know, it's the last chance. And you speak to it with such integrity and with such honestly, and with such, you know, I mean, you speak your truth.

And I think, first of all, that's incredibly inspiring, especially because sometimes when people are so successful like you, they would kind of rather, you know, hide some of the details. So talk to me a little bit about the picture of his life. How did you get somebody to do a movie? And what was in the movie for those who haven't seen it? All right. I really thank you for that, because I'll go to someplace a little bit outside. In my career, I had mentors, and there are people which I have to draw respect to and acknowledge them. The people that did not work with me directly, but I observed them from far away.

So there was, people don't know, most of them about the underwater Hans Haas. If you Google Hans Haas on Wikipedia, you'll find out more how important he is to the foundation of the modern day diving. The other person I had a chance to work with, fortunately, was Jacques Cousteau. Everybody know about Jacques Cousteau. I had a chance to work with, fortunately, was Jacques Cousteau. Everybody knows about Jacques Cousteau. I had a chance to work with him for a period of time. And then in more modern time, there is the woman that is still today the leading in marine

conservation in the world of wellness is Dr. Sylvia Earle of Mission Blue, which is the largest organization, the most profound organization in ocean conservation. Until today, we work together with them. But there was one more person. And there was a trip, one of the many trips I ran to South Africa. And many of us know the South Africa issue about apartheid and know about Mandela. And I'm traveling in South Africa.

It was a long time ago, probably sometime in the 90s. And I was in Durban, South Africa. And people in South Africa, when Mandela came to be famous, people started to respect him. And especially in part of West Africa, where he comes from. And he came up with something very amazing. And he said the word impossible. But Mandela said, I am possible. It dawned on me, it landed on my heart that I am possible. We each one of us possible. If we really set our mind in the heart of heart to do something and believe in yourself to no end. And this is exactly the last statement or one of the last statements in the movie

that after I, during the movie, the movie was about my career, living home and my hard time with my father in the army, but facing my biggest challenge today, swimming or diving with polar bear underwater. But not only with one, with a family of polar bear, mother and two cubs, which make it much more phenomenal that I was so lucky. There were only six people ever to die with polar bear. And all five of them are filmmaker, only one still photographer. Anyway, all of them took picture only one polar bear.

I had a chance to get that with another person that I had a mentor with Adam Ravitch as a filmmaker to photograph Mother and Two Cubs. So by the end of the movie, when they asked me, I came up and I had tears in my eyes. And I remember sitting on the edge there in the Arctic. He said, all the power of being here, either on this planet where I'm sitting here or together with you or tomorrow

when I'm planning to go to Tahiti, it is believe in yourself. Believe, believe in yourself all the way. We have the power internally, deep, deep inside. And I learned it also from all the people, the unsung heroes that supported me wherever I went in the world. Other will be the Tibetan that ran out of Tibet and took me to Ladakh together with a snow leopard up to 15,000 feet above in the Himalaya.

Others will be the Inuit that took me to be under their hospices, to be I was their guest to take me and to swim with the polar bear. Because without them, I could not do it. There is no way. And they don't have computers. They don't have Apple. They don't have anything else. It's actually amazing because a podcast right before you was Yasser.

He said, you know, a hand can't clap on its own, right? You need both, right? And it's like, there's always a team. There's always more people that have to go together. You have to lean on that. And it was just beautiful. And this is also an opportunity to say to everybody, if you're listening to this in the podcast,

highly recommended to also listen to it in YouTube because we're going to have a lot of amazing photos from Amos here on the YouTube that we're going to have a lot of amazing photos from Amos here on the YouTube that we're going to embed throughout the call. But I wanted to share with me a little bit, Amos, because again, you know, you're, you're, you know, there's some scary moments that I'm sure you're like, is this worth it? Can you share a moment like that, that just kind of got you spooked a little bit? The truth of the matter, if I was scared, that means that I was not preparing well. Really, you eliminate the issue of scaredness by preparing, by studying either the environment,

either the animal or the people I work with. So if did not do that yes you scare because you surprise and surprise usually in every case whatever you look at life is because of people are not prepared so i wasn't there's not a question of being scared yes i was afraid what the animal will do how they will react react, that means that I have to be slow in getting into each situation. It was a chance of development because every time that I go to a new environment, I don't go immediately and come back with the best picture. If we take the picture of the leopard seal feeding on a penguin, it took me at least three or four trips to Antarctica until eventually it took place.

Three or four trips to Antarctica. This is all together, you're talking over almost a million dollar investment. Oh, my God. It is not like diving with a great white and be able to be out of the cage. It took over 1982 to 1993, over 10 years of experience. But it is all in the learning process. This is why it took me so long to get to the point to speak with you. Oh my God, that is so incredible. I want everybody to listen to this because we

always look at somebody and we're thinking this is such an overnight success. And there's always, like you said, there's sometimes 10 years of this overnight success. And there's always, you know, like you said, there's sometimes 10 years of this overnight success, right? Like you've been preparing for it for 10 years. Because again, those photos with the sharks are something that for any normal human, they're looking at it and I'm like, this is insane. But, you know, almost you somehow brought this to perfection like you just know what you're doing in a whole different level that we've never seen before at least i have never seen before what is one piece of information um that you wish somebody told you like now that you're looking back at your life what is something that you wish somebody told you um looking back is the same thing what we

just talked about that somebody told me before that i could trust myself i should trust myself and it took me very long i had if anybody see the movie and i'm today much easier to talk about it i had very hard relationship with my father i left home home when I was very young. He was not very supportive mentoring. For whatever reason, he was post-trauma himself because of the independence war of Israel. So wherever he came from, he was an immigrant. They ran away from the Nazis. So it is all generational and how it happened.

So nobody will tell me that. But today, when the person who made the movie, Yonatan Neal, which is another wonderful young Israeli that was a student of mine. So I had a chance to mentor him. And this is how the movie came about. But I told him, trust yourself. And the same thing with Adam Ravitch. Adam, I met in America.

When I was on my trip to the Red Sea, to Israel or to other places. Adam was a young student that just got a scholarship to study, to work in the ocean. And he came to me and I had a chance to mentor him. And now when we made the movie, Adam was the one that I choose to lead me into the movie to be or swim together with the polar bear. So I had a chance to tell him the same. Believe in yourself. Trust yourself. Trust your intuition.

It is something you don't go, not in Harvard, not in Yale, not in Oxford. They don't teach you that. But the intuition, what we have deep inside, is something that has not been encouraged in any element except at home, what you do with your kids or what people do at home. Absolutely incredible. Incredible, incredible. And I think the other thing that, you know, and I want to just kind of, you know, bring it back to you

and how you do things, right? I mean, there's a lot of photographers in the world, right? But you somehow took it to a whole different level, right? Like, I in some of it is that love, it's true love, like, it's your why, right? Like Simon Sinek is talking about the why it's your why, like, you want to understand the behavior animals, you want to shine the light on animals. You don't want them to look like jaws. Like you want them to look, you know, like that, the beautiful mom and, and, and their cubs, right? Like that's what you're here to show, which is first of all, incredibly inspiring. But I think you also took it personally to a next level in terms of books and TEDx and movies. And like people don't get there.

Like nobody reaches that almost. So first of all, what is your drive? Like what drives you to continue pushing like when everybody else stops? Very good. Again, I'm again, come back to Israel, come back to the religious issue and the effect on society. How my how my father was taking the religion for the society, took religion to support their interest, but not necessarily following what religious has to say. So my mind from very young was asking why, asking why why why and when i got to the ocean i did not

understand why people were afraid of the animal or the wilderness as i was young i had a dog i raised horses but i asked why there is fear why this this concern about the shark going to attack you no they don't they will if we do all the wrong things or if we don't pay attention to mother nature behavior to the pattern of mother nature but we cross the street only in green light but in red light why do we go diving or surfing early morning in where is seals and shark preying on the seals they will prey also on the surfer because it's a mistaken identity clearly but if you swim if you go swimming or surfing or something at 10 11 12 o'clock the chance that you'll be attacked by shark is minimal 95 percent of all shark attack

happen early morning, late afternoon. Only because the angle of the sun over the horizon is so low, so little light gets underwater. So the shark can see the silhouette on the surface. The seals cannot see the shark below. So then the shark comes in and takes the seals. It will happen in Australia, happen in South Africaia happen in south africa happen in california happen everywhere classic when i went to dive with the shark out of the cage we did not put

bait in the water because to attract the shark to the camera in all the movies this is distortion they just they are doing these movies in order to attract money. But throw fear in the public mind. But there's no reason for fear. I can swim with shark. You can. Yes, it's good to have a good leader. He's always leading by example and good leader.

But also the circumstances. So you go to a place, you attract the shark, but not put bait in order. We're not aggravating the animal. But the bait put especially for people inside the cage to take picture of the mouse open. Incredible. But if you don't put a bait,

there's no mouse open. Actually, you had one of these pictures. The shark would... He was smiling. Yes. Smiling. Oh my God. This is to correct the misconception this is the the idea that's what drives me to correct the misconception about the wilderness crocodile crocodile nile crocodile that probably kill more people than anyone else more than sharks

but only on the surface they cannot feed underwater because when they open the jaws they swallow water like us they will drown amazing so we're just ignorant almost that's what you're saying we just don't know we don't know why i did not say they're ignorant but we don't know so i took myself like i took it is, as you say sometimes, naturally born leader, naturally born. And I did not know that. But as I continue to do, continue working in the ocean together with the camera, together with the people, and I see the hesitation

and able to rid them safely in and out, that gave me the inspiration, the message that I got, the feedback of the success in the beginning, and the trust that the American people gave me. As clearly you say in America, God bless America. I will say that clearly today, being a taxi driver in New York to come today with the front of all your people, the trust the people gave me here inspired me to continue to next level and next level and next level. Amazing.

Amazing. Amos, this is such an inspiring topic. And seriously, like for everybody's listening, A, you know, if you are on podcast, I think this one is definitely a YouTube type thing that you need to check out. We're going to have the links. We're also going to have the links for Amos with his books and his, um, for his book and for his movie and, and maybe also for the tours, right?

Amos. I mean, so if you're looking, and I don't know if Amos, you mean for me to say this or not, but if you're looking for incredible, like, this is not a typical, let me walk around. Like, this is like hardcore, you know, go have fun with animals and live, understand their behavior, understand their life, understand how they live and really get up close with some of these most incredible animals in the world. Um, you know, i can't think of anybody else that i would rather trust respect um and go with um so almost last famous words for anybody listening or seeing this few few small ones you use the word hardcore but they are not hardcore swimming with a humbug well is just a swim every person can do that blue well

humbug well sperm well balloon it is all swimming wow everybody can do it that's amazing everybody can do it you don't have to be a diver no certificate okay just for fun the difference the difference that i make a small group of four to six people to give each one a very good time a long time to be in the water with the animal and to see them to see the behavior to see how they act or how they move very similar to us wow and how they become curious listening to the sound where a sperm will click and you can feel it against your body when the orcaca come in and do the pinging at us or the humbug while singing, a male sing for female.

It is like somebody come to take you to dinner tomorrow. It is like phenomenal. Yes, there's the hardcore trip when you go to the high Arctic. That's the one I wanted. It's probably one of them. Yeah.

So this, but there are different kinds of the Gishtas. You go from age six and eight, you can go swimming with a whale. Really? Oh, my gosh. 60 or 70, when you have the mind and the physical ability to be in an environment like Antarctica or the high Arctic. But right now in this time of my life, as everybody see my beautiful long hair, used to be black, black, black so long time ago, but that's changed.

But happily and gracefully is I'm going to make change in all my direction of operation and rather to run, just continue running trip for the purpose of the also education, business and conservation to just continue running TRIP for the purpose of also education, business, and conservation to focus on about four or five TRIP a year that I personally lead for people that are really interested to have top-to-bottom experience of the environment, behavior of the animal, photography, and connecting to the universe that's called planet. So running only four or five trips that I can give the best I have to

give to them. Going after animals that have very little exposure, that's probably difficult to see, one of which, like, for example, the blue whale, the largest animal ever lived on a planet. There is only one place we can see them well, beautifully, but they are far, far away, all the way in East Timor between Indonesia and Australia. Or to go to be with the clouded leopard, only 400 of them left in the world. Who bring the picture from there?

To bring the, yes, you can go to the zoo to see them, but to look at the animal in the wilderness and why they've been hunted badly, to be in the wilderness of Cambodia in a jungle and to bring the images from there and the story of experience and then contribute to conservation. So those three points,

contribute to conversation, to conservation, conservation also, but conservation, education, and personal satisfaction for people that have been successful in their life. Yes, I'm successful. You're successful. The people coming to us, they've been successful. They want to do or willing to have other experience than I've done before and lead them safely in and out. Amazing. Amazing. So seriously, like if you, you want to basically travel with the number one in the world, that's where you need to be. Amos, that was such an inspiring story. I didn't know most of it, even though I did, I thought I did my homework. So

that was incredible for me. I was almost crying here. Amos, thank you so, so much on behalf of everybody's listening to this. Folks, I'll have all the information, all the links, reach out to Amos. It's going to be an incredible, no matter what you do, incredible guy to get to know. Thank you for listening and hope you enjoyed this show. Don't forget to subscribe, follow, share this with friends. I'll see you in the next Leap Show.