Steve Fossett: 'The risks paid off'

Steve Fosset

(CNN) -- He holds boating and flying records.

He's been a competitor in the Iditarod sled race, he's driven at Le Mans, and he even swam the English Channel.

But Steve Fossett will be remembered for becoming the first person to fly a balloon by himself --nonstop -- all the way around the world.

It was his sixth attempt -- previous efforts ended in a series of forced landings, but Fossett isn't the kind of man to give up.

Born in California in 1944, he became an eagle scout.

He began rock climbing at age 11, and went up the Matterhorn during his junior year at Stanford University.

He got a masters degree at Washington University in Saint Louis, in recent years the site of mission control for his balloon flights.

Then he went to work in Chicago as an options trader.

A friend says he was willing to assume a higher level of risk than other traders.

The risks paid off handsomely. Eventually, Fossett formed his own securities firm.

He says he's always thrived under pressure.

In 1998, Fossett teamed up with British billionaire Richard Branson in an attempt to fly a balloon around the world.

They got more than half way when bad weather forced them down near Hawaii.

A month later, a rival team achieved the goal Fossett and Branson had sought.

But instead of giving up, Fossett shifted his focus, and decided he'd become the first person to make a balloon trip around the world... flying solo.

One of his attempts ended in Canada. One ended in India. When a storm shredded his balloon above Australia, he plunged into the Coral Sea.

But Fossett didn't give up, and on June 18th, his sixth attempt to make a solo balloon flight around the world began in Western Australia.

Thirteen and a half days and more than 19,000 miles later, Fossett was back where he began, crossing an invisible finish line at 117 degrees longitude, and heading into the record books.