Nov. 25, 2025

How to Chase a Dream Across Continents and Become a Leader Along the Way

Leadership doesn’t always begin in the boardroom. Sometimes, it starts in a hospital bed with a childhood dream no one else believes is possible. In this remarkable episode of Beyond Confidence, host Divya Parekh sits down with author, photographer, and creative trailblazer Robin Pulley to explore what it means to lead with courage, even when the odds are against you.

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The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are

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solely those of the hosts and their guests and not

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This is Beyond Confidence with your host d W Park.

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Do you want to live a more fulfilling life? Do

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you want to live your legacy and achieve your personal, professional,

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and financial goals? Well? Coming up on Dvaparks Beyond Confidence,

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you will hear real stories of leaders, entrepreneurs, and achievers

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who have stepped into discomfort, shattered their status quo, and

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are living the life they want. You will learn how

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relationships are the key to achieving your aspirations and financial goals.

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Moving your career business forward does not have to happen

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at the expense of your personal or family life, or

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vice versa. Learn more at www dot Divpork dot com

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and you can connect with vat contact at dvpark dot com.

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This is beyond confidence And now here's your host, div Park.

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Good morning listeners, and today we are going to be

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focusing on how to chase your dream across continents if necessary,

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and you can be a leader wherever you are at.

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So let's bring in our guest. And she has a

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fascinating story. So Robin, tell us that moment when you

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were a child, when you were five years old and

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he suddles, and.

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You were on Safari. Yes, when I was five, that

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was my dream. I was paralyzed with polio at the time,

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and my dream was to go to Africa. My mom

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had read me stories and my constant companion when I

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was paralyzed during rotations was my dog Pat. So I

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would tell Pat all of these stories that I was

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going to go see his relatives in Africa, and it

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was amazing. Pat taught me how to do animals speak,

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so Pat and I could communicate. So I wanted to

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go talk to the animals in Africa.

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So tell us, so, as you grew up, how did

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you deal with polio? And like, it's such a hard situation, right,

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being a child and facing that.

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Yes it is, and since it happened in the last century,

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excuse me, I don't know if your audience knows very

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much about polio. But the biggest outbreak was in nineteen

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forty eight forty nine when I got polio, a very

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long time ago, and there were forty two thousand children

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who were paralyzed with polio at the time, and interestingly,

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they were mostly five year olds when they discovered that

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at five, we run out of the natural immunity that

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were born with. So it was that year was called

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the Blizzard of the century. So we were totally snowed

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in in our little community. And so I was paralyzed

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with polio. But I was very fortunate that my autonomic

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system still worked. The autonomic system controls your heart, your

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long share digestion, so I was very fortunate. But I

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was just paralyzed. So that was my dream to go

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to Africa.

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And how did you get there?

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How did I get there? It was a long story,

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get it for decades to get there. But when I

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was learning to walk, it was very very difficult. And

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my dad was my most most important person in my life,

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most influential person because when I was learning to walk.

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One time, I just collapsed in tears and crying and said,

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I can't do this. I can't do this. It hurts

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too much. And my dad said, never say can't. You

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can do anything you want if you set your mind

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to it. Okay, So he said, now get up and

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let's do this again. So we did. So that life

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lesson lasted me through my or that those lessons lasted

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me my entire life of I can do it anytime

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speed bumps came along, I know that I could do it.

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That is powerful that you could do it. So tell

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us your story about tracking the lions.

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H Tracking the lions was absolutely incredible because it was

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this dream come true, and it's like you're living a dream,

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something that you thought about and dreamed about for so

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many years. And so we were there for two months

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and we logged forty five safaris and I'm a professional photographer,

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and we came back with six or fourteen thousand photos

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of the animals and we were very fortunate. We got

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to spend a lot of dwell time with the animals

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so we could really be there, so you could see

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what was going on in their lives. You know, in

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Africa there are three thousand languages spoken, and not everyone

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can talk to each other, but everyone understands the language

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of the animals and the life lessons that they teach.

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Yeah, so how did you get into photography?

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I got interested when I had three of my own

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little children. I started taking pictures of them, and then

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it just morphed into weddings and receptions and portraits and

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more people's children and animals and photographing all over the world.

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So it became a huge, huge hobby of mine.

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So how did you realize your dream of going to Africa?

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Okay, So we planned and planned for it and got

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there and made arrangements with an incredible company that when

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we called, they said, what do you want to see?

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How long can you stay and what is your budget?

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And I said, well, I want to see it thing,

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So we set out to do all of the list,

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do the little checklist. So we made it to Africa,

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and some of the amazing stories were reliving some of

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the things that I actually had dreams about, like the

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story of the lion. Our guide asked, he said, what

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is it that you really want to see? What's your

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take home photo? And I said, I want to see

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a lion with his eyes open in the daytime, because

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lions sleep sixteen to twenty hours a day, which is

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pretty much daytime. So I want to see a lion

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awake with his eyes open in the daytime. So our

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guide had asked us. We went on many many safaris,

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and we saw a lot of sleeping lions, and I

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was a little discouraged that that would happen. Anyway, he

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had asked if we were interested in doing a night

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safari anytime, if an opportunity came up. He said absolutely.

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My husband and I were there together. There's this little

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knock on the door in the middle of the night,

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and it was our guide and he said, I can

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hear lions fighting. Do you want to come? So we

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jumped in the drove and we got in the land

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rover and he was driving, and he brought along another

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person and they had a seat mounted on the left

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fender and there was another guide in there, and he

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had this huge spotlight and we all looked for tracks

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in the dark. It was very very dark, looked for

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tracks in the sand, and we saw the tracks and

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we could hear the lions roaring over there and they

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were sort of taking turns, you know, fighting defending their territory,

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because that's what the male lion does. That's his big job,

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is defending his territory and his pride. And so we

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started tracking along and following and listening to the sounds,

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and it was amazing that the sounds were so loud

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you could feel the vibrations in your bones. And our

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guide said, he said, the reason that you can do

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that is lions have a special ligament in their throat

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that kind of expands, and they can pull air in

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across this ligament, and that can expand their voice, and

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you can hear lions roaring five miles away. It was amazing.

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So we could hear him, and every time you would roar,

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you could feel these, you know, in your bones, these

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vibrations in your bones. So we followed along and then

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suddenly the fighting stopped and we looked around, and so

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we turned the engine off and listened and listened, and

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there wasn't another sound. So we started following the tracks

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again and still going in the direction where the lion's

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sounds came from. And then the guide with the spotlight

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on the fender spotted a lion in the grass. So

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we pulled up to the lion. And just as we're

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getting there, this huge African sunrise comes up over the

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flat horizon and goes shines right into this lion's face,

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and the lion is blinking because it is so bright.

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And then the lion turns his face and he looks

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at me. It's like a connection, an electrial between two souls.

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And it was like I had dreamed about. And it

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was so amazing because a lion didn't drop his eyes.

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He kept that contact and I didn't drop the eyes.

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And you could feel this in your soul. You know,

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it was like a warmth in your old body to

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be there with that lion, connecting with the lion. And

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then finally he closes his eyes that it was just

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like this lead shield came down and you know, and

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the connection was gone. So I got my photo of

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the lion.

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Is that the photo on the back, Yes, it is.

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It is. This is the photo that I took after

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he turned his head the other way, But one of

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him looking directly at me is a different photo. But

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I keep this in my office so I can look

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at every time I see it. I remember that experience,

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and so.

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It's so so connected with the nature and it's how

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did that feed for you in that moment?

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Ah, it was It's hard to describe in a way

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because it is just such a warmth in your whole body,

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in your whole body, and you could just feel this

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and it's like it's like you've been there before, like

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you've been there before. And I don't know if it

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was because of the dreams that I'd had those dreams,

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but it was like being there before. So it was amazing.

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Well, it sounds amazing. And what else do you for

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chasing your dream and so many times? How did that

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become a profession for you? Like you mentioned that you

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have gone there multiple times.

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You were just going to.

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Go to Africa once and then it became a professional photographer?

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How did that realize?

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Oh? It felt wonderful because the thing about photography for

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me is the magic of photography for me is that

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I can take a photograph and then I can show

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it to someone and then they can see what I

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saw and feel what I felt. And that's that's the

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magic for me. And going to Africa, you know, writing

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my book was that I could take those things and

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those photos and those stories and take people along with

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me through the pages of that book so they could

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like they were actually there.

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And definitely, so tell us the story about the lion

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ofs cub hugs.

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Oh, the lion cub hugs. That was wonderful, and that

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was another thing that I had dreamed about, except you know,

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I had dreamed about this. And we were excuse me,

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we were driving along. Excuse us. We were driving along,

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and we spotted this was late afternoon and the sun

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was getting pretty low in the trees, and we spotted

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these two lioness and they were sleeping. And then these

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two cups and they were just playing light cups do

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like you know, like what you would see like a do.

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And one would get down on its paws when his

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little tail end up in the air and swish his

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tail like a metronome, and they would play chase it.

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They chased and ran and ran, and it was so

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delightful to watch this. And then and then finally they

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got tired of playing. And this one cub wanted the

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mom to wake up, so he walked over and he

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sat down next to the mom and he just kept

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looking at her eyes and she didn't open her eyes,

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and he just kept waiting and waiting, and he waited

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a very long time, maybe maybe ten minutes, and she

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didn't open her eyes. So he decided he'd have to

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help her wake up, and so he would take his

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little paw and he would reach over, but he wouldn't

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quite touch her. Then he'd pull his paw back, and

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then he'd reach again and not quite touch her. And

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this went on for a number of times, and finally

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he touched her. She rolled over and she grabbed him

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in her big, huge paws and rolled with him and

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lions and she just kind of it was a roar

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of a purr and a roar, you know with this

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and she just rolled with this little cub like she

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was singing to it. And it was the most amazing

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thing to see the tenderness that she was with this cub.

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And the lioness's job in the in the jungle, their

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job is to go out and pure cure the food.

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You know. The big male protects the territory and the

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lionesses are the ones that do the hunting. So the

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lionesses go out in a group, you know, maybe two

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and the other stay in tend the cubs. So this

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was their time to be cubs sitting and they will

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even nurse cubs that aren't their own will and it's

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just a delight. And to see the beautifulness of these

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cubs hugging and loving. And the other little cub that

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was over in the corner was watching and wanted to

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be included in these little cup hugs, so it came

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over and got in, and then the other lioness wakes up,

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and it's so cute every time the lion is no

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matter how many times we saw them. When the lionesses

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wake up, they go over and they rub faces with

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each other. They just rub faces with each other, and

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it is just priceless. They're all sisters. They're all in

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the family, and they're all sisters, and that's the greedy

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no matter how long they've been gone. Let me one

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second here, sorry, my little wild lion cub that we

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have a home. It's a dog anyway. So the other

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lioness comes over and they do their little cub hugs there,

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the little hugs, and then the little other cub is

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there and they're all soft, priceless, and it's so hard

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to imagine this because of all the tenderness that they

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have there. And then we saw the lionesses on other

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times out hunting, and they were ferocious. And the lionesses

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are late way less and they're very the very life

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and very fast, and they hunt in pairs. And to

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see how how they would attack an animal and bring

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it down, it was amazing. And then to see these

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lioness with these little cubs and the tendernesses, it was

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just like wow. You know, it's such a dichotomy to see.

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But of all the animals in Africa, the lions have

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the closest family knit bond and thus together they stay together,

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they take care of each other. In fact, the only

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other animals that do that that are so close knit

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are the wild dogs. They call them painted dogs. And

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these are amazing animals in Africa. It's the only genus

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there is. They have no relatives. They look like a dog,

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and people think they're a wolf or a cross between.

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But the very own genus called Lyceum, and they are.

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They're vulnerable, they're on the endangered list. But these animals

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have a whole huge success rate when pups are born

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in that group, in those litter of pups, the whole

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group of them are responsible for taking care of those

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pups and raising those pups, making sure, they're protected, they're

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fed because they hunt as a group. And the wild

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dogs have a success rate because they hunt in a

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pack together and they're very organized, and they have these huge, huge,

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big ears, big round ears that excellent hearing in sight,

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and they're very fast. They can run like thirty five

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miles an hour. But the success rate of the wild

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dogs is like seventy five to eighty five percent. A

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lion's success rate is like fifty. So they're very, very

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successful hunters, and yet they just have this beautiful bond

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with their family. And so the lessons that we learned

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from the African animals the lioness and the lion and

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the lion and king are the closeness of the family

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and the importance of the family, and that you can

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go out and do your job and have a life

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out there, but when you come back, the family has

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your back and they are your home. That it's your

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safety true.

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And then you talk about decisions, right that keep moving

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forward with your decisions. How did you compare with the leopard.

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Oh, the leopard was wonderful. The leopard was very The

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leopards are beautiful because they're very they're very strong, they

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have a huge upper body and they're very strong, and

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when a leopard gets catches a prey, they will actually

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take it up in the tree. They will hike this

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thing up and their prey wasghs twice as much as

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they do, but because of their strong upper muscles, they

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take it up there to protect it. Because the leopards

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are smaller than some of the other cats and they're vulnerable,

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so much work for them to get the animals, so

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they hike it up in the tree and then they'll

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just sit in the top of the tree with these

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animals and that is their food for three days. And

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when they come down, they come down head first. It's

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amazing to see, but they're beautiful. And the story that

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I mentioned is we had seen this is that okay, okay,

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we had seen this leopard in the bushes and she

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had her kill in there, and so we just stayed

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and just watched her, and she was in there a

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long time with her kill. Finally she comes out and

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understanding that the leopard will want to take this up

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in the tree, she's sitting there and she's sitting on

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her haunches and we're looking at her and we see

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that this poor little thing is really wounded. She got

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wounded from the horns in her neck and her back hip,

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and they were deep wounds. You could see the skin underneath.

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There were deep wounds. And she comes out from the

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bushes and she leaves her preying there, and she sits

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down and she looks off in the distance and there's

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only one tree and it's a long ways away, and

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she looks at it, and then she looks back in

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the bush, and then she looks back at the leopard

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again or back at the tree again, and it was

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just like you could see the wheels turning. How is

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she going to get that there? Because of this heavy

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wound in her leg? And so finally she walks away

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and we follow her, and she leaves her prey in

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the bushes and she, you know, she does this long

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last look at it as she's leaving, and we follow

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her and she's limping badly, and we watch and we

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want to do something to help, but you know, what

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do we do to help? And so she finally gets

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to some grass and she does circles and circles and

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circles trying to find a place, and she finally lays

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down and starts licking her wounds, and it's getting really

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really dark by now, so we head back to camp,

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and the first thing in the next morning, we come

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back to see if she's still there. And she's there,

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and she's looking so water out of a little puddle,

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and it's and you can tell she's hurts. She's kind

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of crouched down. She's not her stature, her normal stature.

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And then she starts walking back to where she had

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left her prey, and she lays down several times and

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licks her wounds, and gets up and goes a little

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farther and does the same thing. And then she goes

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over and to where she left it, and there is

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nothing left, absolutely nothing left. When the hyenas get through

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at the meal, there's nothing left because they even eat

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the bonds. And so she's walking around and she's eating, looking,

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smelling all these little tracks of the hyenas and she's

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and she just sits down and looks at it. And

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then she turns around and she looks at that tree

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again and you could just see the wheels turning. So, yeah,

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I should have taken it up in that tree. And

364
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it's it's amazing to see them hike this animal the

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way twice as much as they do up in the tree,

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and they're so fast, and lots of times you'd see

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them out in the serenetty word. There was miles and

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miles and miles and miles of grass and nothing but

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maybe a single tree or a single tree there, and

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there would be a leopard up there in the top,

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just looking around, just hanging out. So they were wonderful.

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They were wonderful to see. Ooops, I can't hear your voice.

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What was the lesson that you learned from the story.

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The lesson that I learned from the story is to

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check your options, you know, do the very best thing

376
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that you can, which she did, and then check your options.

377
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And the most concerning thing about that story, because she

378
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was so wounded, is the hunter becomes the hunted. And

379
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I was so worried about this little thing, and for

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her to walk away, you know from that it's very

381
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difficult for them to bring down an animal. So the

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lesson that I learned is to choose your options wisely

383
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and then learn to live with your decisions and then

384
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move on. And because I was concerned that she would

385
00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:13.920
become hunted, a couple of days later, we were in

386
00:22:14.000 --> 00:22:16.839
the same area and we were photographing, and we saw

387
00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:19.519
a leopard up in the tree and I was photographing,

388
00:22:20.039 --> 00:22:22.799
and when I pulled the zoom in really tight, there

389
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was the big wound in her shoulder that I saw,

390
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and I said, Okay, she made it. She made it,

391
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so she was beautiful, So she made it. So there

392
00:22:34.079 --> 00:22:36.680
were a lot of things that happened along the way

393
00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:41.279
to get there. And one of the times that I

394
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was able to use those life lessons from my dad

395
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was when we were living in Pennsylvania. We had just

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