Pioneering spirit

Why do some people want to be first? This question sprang to my mind during the first month of 2008. Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to reach the summit of Everest, died on 11 January; within a week Bobby Fischer, former world chess champion, died of kidney failure. I hoped to find an answer to that question by explaining their lives, alongside that of a third personality who also had the drive to be first, Donald Campbell, land- and water-speed champion, who died in January 1967 attempting to set a new water-speed record.

So what drove these leaders to be “first” – from the high peaks of the Himalayas to the deep lakes of Cumbria to the battlefields of the chessboard? Did they have common attributes and characteristics? Were they loners or team players? Did they care for others or only for themselves?