Robert Richardson is this week’s survival expert who I’m interviewing.
Robert’s website is http://offgridsurvival.com/
Make sure you go check it out!
What is your name?
Robert Richardson
Please tell us a little bit about yourself…
I’m an outdoorsman who spends a lot of my time hiking, hunting and fishing. I’ve been involved in survival, self defense, and emergency planning for over 20 years, and I’m a licenced Ham radio operator.
I operate two website where I talk about preparedness and the self-reliant lifestyle. The first website, Off Grid Survival, is dedicated to preparedness and has a wide range of topics and discussions going on at all times.
The second website, which I just launched this month, is Monster Fish & Game. That websites also dedicated to the self-reliant lifestyle, but we mainly cover topics that relate to hunting and fishing.
When did you start prepping?
I don’t know if I ever really “started prepping”.
The funny thing about prepping, is if you asked people 60 years ago when they started prepping, they would probably look at you and wonder what was wrong. I mean, 60 years ago this is just how people lived. They saved, they stored and they were very self-reliant.
It’s our recent generations who think it’s somehow a new concept. To them, they can’t fathom the idea of keeping anything for longer than a year, and the thought of what might happen in their future is a foreign concept.
Why did you start prepping?
I’m not sure when I really started, but I can tell you why I think it’s so important. Just take a look at our history; time and time again our country, and for that matter every major civilization before us, has faced disasters, crisis and wars.
It’s not crazy to think that someday we are going to face something that we need to be prepared for. At some level, everyone reading this will face some sort of disaster. Whether it’s a job loss, a natural disaster or something as catastrophic as an economic collapse or war doesn’t really matter – the fact is when you’re in the middle of that situation you’re going to wish you had prepared for it.
Bad things happen, you can either ignore that and hope you’ll make your way through, or you can take a little bit of your time and prepare for what’s ahead.
What do you think the #1 threat to our safety is?
The number one threat to our safety is other people. I talk about this quite a bit, and I’m very serious when I say it. The one thing that usually causes the most chaos during a disaster is people who are either not prepared, or people who are looking to take advantage of a bad situation.
What’s your #1 tip to folks just getting started with their prepping?
Just do it! At some point in your life you are going to face some sort of calamity or crisis that you’re going to need to be prepared for. You don’t need to go overboard, but you do need to be prepared.
Think about what you and your family would do during a number of different scenarios, and then realistically access how you would do during each crisis situation, and what you would need to survive that situation.