Many successful people understand the preciousness of every second of life you are given. George Lucas had a graphic incident when he was young that made him understand that every day was precious.
Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia of MMA fighter Evan Tanner to further illustrate the point. He was a young man who was excessively prepared ahead of time for a small vacation. That turned into his death. I think this illustrates how precious life is and how fragile it can be. Evan had media coverage overhyping his desert vacation, saying it was too dangerous.
However, I think he gives a fairly reasonable argument that his trip was nothing out of the ordinary in terms of danger level at all. Unfortunately, one mistake lead to another which lead him vulnerable to one of the many dangers of mother nature: dehydration. I think this should be a lesson to seize every day to the fullest because you never know when is going to be your last. Mother nature has the last laugh and she has many forces: disease, flood, natural disasters, etc. Driving a car is a very dangerous this: you’re going 40 to 50 miles per hour or more in a clunk of metal that could hit another clunk of metal going just as fast or faster. It is more likely you will be injured or die from that than riding an airplane. There are many other stories out there about similar stuff. Let this be lesson enough to you.
Without further ado, here is the excerpt
Some people expressed concern about Tanner’s well being going into the desert alone. Tanner responded to concerns about his plans for a desert adventure in a post on August 27, 2008.
“It seems some MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) websites have reported on the story, posting up that I might die out in the desert, or that it might be my greatest opponent yet, etc. Come on, guys. It’s really common down in Southern California to go out to the off-road recreation areas in the desert about an hour away from LA and San Diego. “So my plan is to go out to the desert, do some camping, ride the motorcycle, and shoot some guns. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. A lot of people do it. This isn’t a version of ‘Into the Wild.'”[10]
Tanner had recently purchased a dirt bike, and on September 3, 2008 he rode into the desert region west of Palo Verde, California to go camping.[11] According to Tanner’s manager John Hayner, Tanner called that afternoon to say that his bike had run out of gas, and that he would accordingly walk back to his camp.[11] Temperatures that day reached 118 °F (48 °C), and friends became concerned and reported Tanner missing after he failed to contact them.[11] His body was discovered by a Marine helicopter on September 8, 2008.
The Imperial County coroner determined Tanner’s time of death to be sometime between late September 4 and early September 5, but the legal date of death was recorded as September 8, 2008. Tanner’s body was found near Clapp Spring with empty water bottles. Tanner had reportedly intended to refill his bottles at the spring before heading back to the provisions at his campsite, but the spring was unexpectedly dry, and Tanner text messaged a friend informing him of this. However, Evan felt he could make it back to camp if he traveled during the later hours of the evening, refusing offers at that time to send help. Friends were told that if they had not heard from Evan by the next morning and could not reach him by 8am, they then needed to contact Search and Rescue.
Rescuers found Evan at a spot where he stopped to rest. During that rest, he succumbed to the excessive heat, slipping over onto his side into the position that rescuers found him in. An empty water pouch was nearby. According to the military article that was posted, Evan’s motorcycle was at his camp, and within his provisions were ample supplies of water.[12] The Imperial County sheriff’s office official cause of death was cited as heat exposure.
