During life's toughest times, our mind draws boundaries around our potential and existence using shades of fear, despair, or hopelessness.

...And then a story comes along of an impossible hero, who defies these boundaries with zeal, resilience and courage of the highest order. Our forest call speaker from last week, Ethan Zohn is one such hero whose life leads us to question the self -imposed boundaries of doubt or fear that we draw around us. His story stands as a testimony to the fact that we steer the destiny of our lives to horizons we have defined for ourselves.

The Champion

As Pavi introduced him in the call, “Ethan Zohn is not in the list of a person living a timid life. His story is bold, unexpected and fraught with dizzying challenges. Some challenges he set for himself and played out on a massively public stage in his career as a professional soccer player and as a contestant on the reality game show, “Survivor”. Other challenges arise brutally uninvited and would have to be faced in intensely personal ways like his diagnosis with Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2009 and its recurrence last Fall. His is a story defined not just by the scale of its challenges but by the undefeated spirit of courage and compassion that runs through it. A decade ago, Ethan emerged as the winner of Survivor and immediately put his celebrity status to work for a cause larger than himself. He co-founded and helped fund the uplifting nonprofit called “Grassroot Soccer”, an organization that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire and mobilize communities across Africa to stop the spread of HIV. Over half a million young Africans already graduated from its innovative program and its work has touched thousands more. Ethan has tirelessly employed his influence in meaningful, creative and colorful ways whether embarking on a 550 mile journey dribbling a soccer ball the whole way for the HIV/AIDS cause or becoming a spokesperson for inner city kids to access soccer programs or designing one of a kind cereal bowl or hosting a television show called Earthtrooper that demonstrated how to travel with more environmental kindness or another show called Everyday Health..This is a man who lives energetically at the edge of his mind, body and heart constantly expanding his definition of what’s possible. A survivor in the highest sense of the word who through the unpredictable trajectory of his life seems to have stumbled upon a shining truth: that ultimately our existence, our well being, our survival is bound inextricably to that of others…”

The Basics

Ethan grew up with supportive parents in a Jewish family in Lexington, Massachusetts. A lot of the values that he learned growing up helped him build his character. He lost his father to cancer when he was fourteen years old. His friends and family supported him through this tremendous loss and helped him have hope in a time of fear, loneliness and utter despair. This was his first real experience being a survivor and helped him ground his understanding of community and giving back to the world. Those thoughtful acts of his family and friends seeded the fruits of empathy and generosity that Ethan shares with the world today.

The Rules of the Game

Ethan loved to push his mind, body and spirit to the absolute limit while playing professional soccer or being a contestant on survivor. He took these opportunities as internal challenges to prove to himself and found it exhilarating to do this on a world stage. Although he was in situations that could have led to a life of being self-centered, he believes that an integral part of his success in soccer or on Survivor was being part of a community and by leaning on other people. A soccer team has eleven players on a team and everyone has to work together to score a goal to win the game. Although Survivor could be perceived as a game where you are isolating yourself from the community, Ethan strived to be a crucial member of the community by supporting the survival of the other team members. He believes that he would not have won the game if he had not had the support of his competitors along the way. A game like Survivor can be played in several different ways and Ethan chose to play the game the exact way he played life: by keeping his dignity and self respect. He won not just the game but also one of the hardest tests of life: to be yourself and to stay rooted in your values while relentlessly pursuing survival.

Close Down

At 27, Ethan was playing professional football for Highlanders Football Club in Zimbabwe when he witnessed the large-scale havoc that HIV/AIDS was wreaking in the community. He reflects that back then, it seemed too massive a problem for him to solve and hoped that someone else would deal with it. He returned to the United States and had nightmarish memories of overflowing graveyards. He later learned that some of his teammates were dying from AIDS. It was years later that his hope came from Survivor.

While competing in Survivor, Ethan had won a challenge that led him to a little village in Kenya, where he met some small children who had run up to him. Ethan was drawn to these children and gave a child the one prized possession he was allowed to carry from home for the Survivor days, a mini soccer ball. As hard it was for him to give away his one concrete memory of home, Ethan realized that this might be the only chance of a child ever owning a soccer ball. This seemingly simple act of kindness ended up being a life defining moment when a nurse told him later that all the children he had met had HIV. It was there in the midst of playing Survivor in a little village in Kenya when Ethan realized that something needed to be done. Little did Ethan know that his life’s mission will come to him when he was playing a reality game. The paradox of the situation amused him: a game show to win a million dollars to pad his cushioned existence in the United States. a gameshow in the midst of abject poverty, disease and death taking away thousands of lives in the Kenyan arena.

First Goal:

As luck would have it, Ethan won the million dollars. He returned to the States and met with soccer friends Dr. Tommy Clark, Methembe Ndlovu and Kirk Friedrich and started Grassroot Soccer.


Soccer is the most popular game in many countries and soccer breaks the barriers of language and culture. A game of Soccer can foster some immediate friends over a game. Soccer players are regarded as the icons and heroes in these countries. Grassroot Soccer capitalizes on the popularity of these professional soccer players and trains them on an innovative “Skillz” curriculum preparing them to be messengers of HIV/AIDS prevention.

The players coach young adults in schools using the curriculum. Grassroot Soccer started in Zimbabwe and has now spread to 15 different countries and has graduated 545,000 children from the program. The goal is to graduate one million children by the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Grassroot Soccer uses Soccer as a tool to engage the children and makes use of activities, games and dancing to get the real message across to the audience. Over time, the organization has employed not only professional soccer players but also coaches to engage in the Skills curriculum in schools. The coaches had the added advantage of being able to see students on a regular basis thus being able to be consistent role models in the children’s lives.



The Offside

At 35, Ethan was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer: CD20-positive Hodgkin’s Lymphoma that completely turned his life upside down. He was in the peak of his life busy with Grassroots Soccer and TV shows when the cancer hit him. He went through dark days of treatment when he had no energy, was unable to sleep or eat and had hair falling out.

Second Goal

Ethan had to dig deep within to gain strength from his values, character, loved ones and the will to survive. He reiterates that everyone has the power to transcend any situation that is given to us. This power is etched deep within our being and we forget about this invaluable power and start feeling bad for ourselves when we are faced with challenges. Ethan has always reminded himself of this quote, “Never let a crisis go to waste because it is an opportunity to do some really important things.” Ethan used his cancer to be an example and a source of comfort in healing others. He recalls letting go of his toughness and pride when he had to ask his girlfriend for help in going to the toilet.

He says that he approached cancer as a game and faced it as the biggest tournament of his life and did everything in his power to win this game of life or death. Ethan remembers the loneliness that ensued from having cancer despite being surrounded by friends and family. The thought of having a bug in his body that he could not control motivated him to focus on the aspects that could be controlled and he focused diligently on managing his diet, thoughts, exercise and medication. Ethan overcame the Cancer.

Third Goal

Unfortunately, the cancer returned shortly after. It was harder for him to face it the second time. He changed his strategy this time from a story of him to a story of a movement to end cancer. He wanted to act behind the scenes and work on access to accurate information, clinical trials, encouraging people to take swabs and be part of donor banks and raising money for research. He had a stem cell transplant from his brother, Lee who ended up being the perfect match. He compares his experience to a character in a Science fiction novel in the midst of medical conversations about red blood cells, white blood cells and platelet transfers.


When Ethan announced that he had cancer for the second time, his inspiration came from the incredible support he received from the community. He was nourished by the prayers, support, tweets and posts that came his way during this time. He was awed by the complete strangers running marathons to raise money to fund research in cancer. He got power and strength from this support and was determined to do everything in his power to prevent a fellow being from going through the illness.

The Winner

Ethan is a survivor in every sense of the word. His life is a glorious example of making every crisis an opportunity for growth whether he is dealing with the death of a parent at a tender age or playing a ruthless game of survival in peak African heat or pushing his body not once but twice to fight cancerous cells through countless sessions of chemotherapy or a transplant. He has redefined our notions of human limits by stretching beyond perceptions of tolerance and human capability.

He rewrote his own answer to the question, "What will you do about AIDS killing people in Africa by the thousands?":

"You meet up with your team, bring in a soccer ball and make history, dribble by dribble. Pretty soon 545000 children will pave their path to leading a disease free and healthy life and you are on the winning side."

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This Forest Call with Ethan Zohn took place on World Aids Day: December 1, 2012.

Ethan Zohn is a Motivational Speaker, Soccer Commentator, Co-founder of Grassroot Soccer and a Survivor Winner. You can read more about him on his website. Ethan completed a record breaking 550 mile dribble from Boston to D.C. to raise awareness and funds for Grassroots Soccer United. He currently lives in New York City and continues gifting his indomitable faith and optimism to the world.