Bertrand Piccard said that, to make the strides in technology to improve the planet's condition, people must face the uncertainties of life - doubt, fear of failure and the unknown.

``Those who dare, become the pioneers, the inventors,'' Piccard said.

But people are often hindered by outside forces - dogma, certainties, habits - that many feel they need in their lives.

``We believe they make us strong, that's not true. They make us heavy,'' he said.

To truly succeed, people have to lighten the ballast and ``go with the wind.'' They must face uncertainties with a sense of adventure, because that is where the answers are.

``We must go into the unknown to stimulate our creativity, to find inside ourselves new solutions,'' Piccard said.

The Swiss adventurer comes from a long line of men who found solutions within uncertainty.

His grandfather, Auguste, invented the first pressurized capsule that took him to the stratosphere. His father, Jacques, was the first man to dive to the deepest recesses of the ocean. With his grandfather going the highest and his father the deepest, Piccard said he ``had to go horizontal.''

So he strived to become the first man to go around the world in a balloon.

In 1999, he and Englishman Brian Jones piloted the Breitling Orbiter 2 around the globe in just under 20 days. It took two failed attempts to achieve this goal but, said Piccard, ``the pioneering spirit accepts failure because it pushes for success.''

He added, ``The definition of success is if you try just one more time.''

Asked why he and his team succeeded when his competitors failed, Piccard said, ``We had the strategy of the wasps. Our competitors had the strategy of the bees.''

He explained that bees die as they try to enter through terrace windows as they attempt to enter through one pane of glass. They are stuck in their ways.

Wasps, on the other hand, adapt and learn to test each pane of glass until they find an opening.

``Other [around the world] efforts were always the same,'' Piccard said.

These competitors never changed their strategies, but Piccard learned from each attempt and adapted his plan.

As for his next adventure, Piccard plans to orbit the globe once again - this time in a solar-powered aircraft.