THINKDROP 31: You Don’t Race the Dakar Expecting to Crash
- Pierre Stanghellini
- Jan 30
- 5 min read
>The spirit of extreme resilience — from the desert to entrepreneurship.
🎤 From Me to You
🏁 INTRO — The Paris-Dakar Spirit
If you’re building something bold — or thinking about it — this story might hit home.
“You don’t race the Paris-Dakar expecting to crash.”
That’s what my brother told me in the 80s, when we stood on the roadside in Burkina Faso as the Paris-Dakar riders flew by. When I asked if they were not scared of this speed?
They were pushing 170 km/h on dusty trails, across West Africa, for three weeks straight — on nothing but grit, guts, and gasoline.
Back then, the Paris-Dakar wasn’t just a race — it was a myth in motion. It covered nearly 10,000 km from Paris to Dakar, across some of the harshest terrain on Earth, with one goal: survive and arrive. There were few rules, minimal support, and no mercy from the desert.. A raw, unfiltered, almost impossible challenge that pushed machines and humans beyond their limits. For a generation, it was the ultimate test of courage and endurance.
Especially the motorbike racers of the early '80s — to me, they were modern-day knights. Madmen driven by a raw love for wide-open spaces and brutal, beautiful competition.
Their strategies were wild. Risky. Illogical by conventional standards. And yet, some of them — like Hubert Auriol — won. Three times. Not by following the rules, but by rewriting them.
That memory never left me. Because years later, I realized:
That wasn’t just a race. It was a blueprint for building something bold.
It’s exactly how entrepreneurship works — and why not everyone should do it.
⚙️ THE 5 DROP POINTS
1. You Don’t Launch a business to Play It Safe
Founders often underestimate the intensity of what they’re signing up for. This is not a well-paved road. It’s dust, unpredictability, fatigue, and near-death moments — metaphorically and sometimes literally.
>If your default mode is caution, you’re better off spectating.
2. Your Logic Will Look Insane — Until It Works
Just like the rally racers, entrepreneurs make choices that seem irrational from the outside. But context changes everything. Visionaries aren’t always understood. Until they cross the finish line.
>Most people won’t get it. That’s fine. You’re not racing for them.
3. You Will Fall. A Lot.
You’ll lose deals. You’ll burn out. You’ll miscalculate. People will leave. Markets will shift. And still, you’ll have to get back on the bike. Entrepreneurship isn’t just speed. It’s the ability to restart after crashing.
>You don’t get disqualified for falling. Only for quitting.
4. Not Everyone Is Built for the Dakar
Let’s be real. The Dakar has a high failure rate. Injuries. Dropouts. Even death. It’s heroic — but not for everyone.
Let’s be truly honest — entrepreneurship is not for everyone either. The reality is not romantic. It’s not cool. There are no medals. You are alone. Alone with your spreadsheets. Alone with your bank account. Alone managing your time and your energy.
Just like those Dakar motorbike riders. After a full day riding through the desert, they had to fix their bike, care for their wounds, find food, try to sleep, and prep for the next day — often with no technical or mechanical help. Some were completely alone.
Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. Only the mad, the daring, or the rebels dive in. Neither is entrepreneurship.
>Don’t romanticize the risk. Respect it.
5. Your Win Will Look Obvious… Only After
When you win, people will say “Of course it worked.” They won’t see the sand in your eyes, the broken parts, the lonely nights, or the bruises. They’ll just see a headline.
>That’s okay. You didn’t do it for applause. You did it for the ride.
💥 NO TRY THIS — Only If You’re Built for It
This time, there’s no "Try this" section. Because I don’t want you to try.
You should try only if you dare, if you feel it in your bones, if you wake up at night hungry to win like a lion. If you’d do it even if no one claps. If the chaos excites you more than comfort ever could.
This mindset — this inner engine — is one of the most powerful mantras I’ve integrated into my life as an entrepreneur.
If that’s you, welcome to the Dakar.
🧭 FINAL DROP — You Race to Finish, Not to Be Understood
Entrepreneurship isn’t a career. It’s a calling. It demands more than strategy. It demands soul.
You’ll make moves that seem reckless. You’ll fall. You’ll be misunderstood.
But if you’re lucky and stubborn, you’ll build something that matters.
Let's finish this special THINKDROP Edition with 3 humble tributes.
To all entrepreneurs reading this letter: you have my total respect.
From small business owners and housewives building a future from their living rooms while kids are at school, to seasoned founders carrying the weight of hundreds of families — this Thinkdrop is for you.
To my brothers — by blood and by spirit — who walk beside me in my entrepreneurial life. Like those riders, I know I have a pit crew, always ready to help me fix the mechanics, recharge the engine, or simply keep moving.
And to a hero of my childhood: Thierry Sabine, the visionary founder of the Paris-Dakar, taken too soon in a helicopter crash during the 1986 race. He gave an entire generation of young dreamers something to believe in.
To all of you, I offer the words of George Bernard Shaw:
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
Be proud to be unreasonable. May God protect you!
And see you in Dakar.
Pierre Stanghellini
→ Let’s connect, drop me a line directly at pierre@hari.wtf .
Closing this chapter with two significant pictures: On the left, Thierry Sabine, the visionary founder of the Le PARIS DAKAR race, who tragically passed away too soon during the 1986 race in a helicopter accident in the desert. On the right, a snapshot of me at 4 years old with my older brothers, the "Pit Crew," riding my mum's motorbike in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, 1984. Embracing the 80s style of adventure, we were kids in shorts, without shoes or hats, in our African garden, already dreaming of our own Paris-Dakar.
YOU LIKED IT ??
Share with friends and let's expand our community!
Once we reach 1,000 followers on LinkedIn, I'll launch the THINKDROP Conference!
It's going to be amazing!
About the Creator
Pierre Stanghellini is a creative strategist, systems thinker, and curator of mental rabbit holes. He created Thinkdrop Weekly to feed the brains that don’t want the same old Business advice. If you’re building something bold, beautiful, or strange—this is your corner of the internet.
About HARi.wtf
HARi.wtf is a creative strategy studio for businesses that hate business-as-usual.
Born in Hong Kong, in 2017, we work with restless founders, operators, and teams who’d rather break things thoughtfully than grow them blandly. We don’t do generic decks or bloated strategies—we build clarity, guts, and traction.
From street-level restaurants to global brands, from Asia to Europe, we help shape ideas that move fast when it matters, and slow when it counts.
→ Explore more at hari.wtf
Comments