Plummeting down into the gaping void, more popularly known as the Grand Canyon, is where Ammar Kandil found himself after he and his two Yes Theory partners challenged Will Smith to Heli-bungee.
Around four years ago, Yes Theory, now a YouTube channel with over 2.5 million subscribers, was born. Today the channel is continued mostly by three of the four original members: Kandil from Egypt, Matt Dajer from America and Thomas Brag from France. Since their founding, the trio has built a brand with a clear and concise motto: Seek Discomfort.
The Yes Theory team travels around the world challenging themselves, each other and strangers to new experiences. The whole idea behind the channel is to say yes to new things, especially things that scare you, ultimately motivating their followers to “seek discomfort” in life in order to find the opportunities or experiences that often exist outside of one’s comfort zone.
Finding kindness in strangers is also promoted and demonstrated through their series in which one at a time they are stranded in a city for 24 hours without money, forcing them to rely on strangers for food, transportation and a place to sleep.
As their channel grows, the Yes Theory team continues to strive for greater challenges and on February 27th they released a video challenging Smith to Heli-bungee (bungee jumping out of a helicopter). This stunt had only been attempted a handful of times, but despite the risk, Smith accepted the challenge in a response video on his own YouTube channel and took it even further asking for it to occur on his 50th birthday over the grand canyon.
Due to safety concerns, Kandil was the only Yes Theory member who was able to participate in the jump and on September 5th it was live-streamed on Smith’s channel.
“This moment meant everything to me,” Kandil stated in an Instagram caption about the fall into the canyon. “It was the most meditative state I’ve ever experienced.”
From taking strangers skydiving to asking random people to get matching tattoos, entertainment and inspiration are never hard to find in any one of their 246 videos. While moments with celebrities and videos full of adventure and adrenaline are some of the reasons one may subscribe to the Yes Theory channel, for so many others the core values of kindness, acceptance, positivity and love are the selling points for so many in the Yes Theory community.
In alignment with their habits of doing things with strangers, the team often bring their followers along on their thrill-seeking adventures. Subscribe here to follow along with their journey to breaking people out of their fears and connecting people around the world and someday it could be you right alongside them.