Source: www.thestar.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR: The man who needs no introduction for using bare hands to scale world-renowned skyscrapers is the inaugural recipient of the BrandLaureate World Records Awards 2010.
Alain Robert – known as the French Spiderman – received the award on Saturday in recognition of his extraordinary and spectacular feats in his area of specialisation.
BrandLaureate chief executive officer Dr K. K. Johan bestowed the award on the Robert at the Tun Dr Mahathir – The Brandlaureate Lecture Series here, witnessed by one of the board of governors of The Asia Pacific Brands Foundation Tan Sri Dr M. Mahadevan.
Robert, who was also guest speaker at the ceremony, spoke on “Overcoming Your Fear, Climbing Your Way to the Top.”
General Manager of the BrandLaureate Chew Bee Peng said the award was conferred upon individuals and organisations who had achieved extraordinary and spectacular success and feats in their areas of specialisation.
Robert, 47, from France, said he had set his sights on his next project – the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, which was officially launched on Jan 4.
“I will do many other climbs in between. I know the people of Dubai, they are interested (in seeing him scale the Burj Khalifa), but I do not know when they will allow me to do the attempt. “And also the problem in Dubai is the hot weather of up to 40 degrees (celcius), it doesn’t seem that I’ll be able to do it. Then, I’ll have to do it at another year, maybe in between January and April 2011,” he said.
Robert said having a dream come true and achieving the impossible was a way of ensuring that one’s life was not wasted away and for him, climbing skyscrapers and reaching their summit was his goal in life.
“You have a dream, and to make your dream come true, you have to realise your dream, even if (you have to) pay the consequences.
“My biggest fear is to waste my time on earth. For me, climbing is as important as eating, breathing. It is my life. Climbing skyscrapers is my love and passion of this lifetime,” he added.
Robert has scaled over 100 giant structures including many of the world’s tallest structures, such as the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, Taiwan’s Taipei 101, the Eiffel Tower in France, and, Empire State building in New York.
In his lecture to about 200 guests, Robert also shared his experiences and his ‘never-give-up’ attitude after he successfully climbed the Petronas Twin Towers in his third attempt four months ago.
On Sept 1, last year, a day after Malaysia celebrated its 52nd independence and after two arrests in 1997 and 2007, Robert finally made it successfully to the top of the Petronas Twin Towers.
“I only managed to climb to the 60th floor in my first attempt in 1997 and (in) my second in 2007, 28th floor below the top, before being arrested by the Malaysian authorities. But I am glad to have finally reached the top last year,” said the father of three boys.
