Stop Striving. Start Thriving Surviving the storm
hi friends
i tried first to climb everest in 2014
and that year was a major avalanche and
16 people died about 300 meters away
from our tent
and since then and before that i’ve done
many adventures and i’ve learned
a lot of good things from these
adventures
eventually i finally climbed everest in
2019 five years later
but today i’m going to share with you
stories
and events and ideas from these
adventures which have helped me in life
and business
i want to be very clear that this talk
is not about
everest or mountaineering or adventures
it’s about how
we deal with these challenges in a
day-to-day situation
work personal relationships whatever the
principles remain
really the same and the lessons that we
will share today i’ve just done a book
called the seven lessons from everest
out of that
three lessons are really relevant to our
theme of today
which is surviving the storm and i’m
going to share with you only these three
lessons
with the help of some slides which will
help you to kind of you know put them
into a context
but again this is not about everest this
is not about what happens on everest
i want you to relate these constantly to
what you feel
in your daily lives in any challenges
that you face
in any storms now storm is obviously a
metaphor
for various things that happen around us
and in the context of everest
fitness is again something which is um
which is a 360 degrees concept it’s not
something which is
just related to physical fitness it is
to do with
an overall 360 degree concept of what
fitness is its emotional intelligence
its mental toughness it’s a lot else a
lot lot more than just physical fitness
so similarly when we are all dealing
with our challenges you must
have your own metaphorical everest that
you are climbing
you may have passions and hobbies and
things so let’s go
and share my three lessons and i again
just please relate them to everything
that you are doing
and eventually you will see that they
will apply to
every single situation that we face and
let me share with you some of these
lessons with the help of the
slides that i have selected for you so
this
is the view of the final part of the
summit climb of everest the corn is it’s
called the cornish traverse
you can see the people you can also see
the crowding that year was to 2019 was
kind of
famous for some of the crowds but let’s
get down to the lessons
the first lesson that i want to share
with you about dealing with tough
situations and the storms etc is what i
call
make friends with fear now what do i
mean
by what do i mean make friends with fear
you know i get this asked many times
were you not afraid were you not scared
at everest of course i was afraid of
course i was scared
and i think it is a healthy thing
if we have some insecurities and they
help us to prepare in a more robust
manner
this whole thing is not about not being
afraid it is about
acknowledging what is there to be afraid
of
and preparing for them in the right way
so that’s what i mean
by making friends with fear i’ll share
with you some anecdotes this is the
kumbho ice fall this is the first part
of the climb
right after everest base camp and as you
can see
it is a dangerous place it is called the
killer kombu
these are just large apartment-sized
blocks of ice they can move
as i said i’ve seen an avalanche on it
in 2014 people dying there
and in 2015 actually there was an
earthquake on everest and then again
hundreds of people actually died in that
area
so this is the kumbh ice fall and see
what happens next
this is a helicopter rescuing people
from camp one which is after the kumbho
ice fall on everest
now what happens there is that after the
first night of the climb the first time
people go over the kumbh ice fall
between 15 and 20 percent people
actually
give up on the expedition it’s tragic
because they’ve prepared very hard
they’ve paid a serious amount of money
for this all 100 advance
but still first time you go over the
kumbha ice fall and you want to go back
home
you may be sick you may be other things
but i think a very important factor is
that if you
if you fail to make friends with the
fears of
of climbing the everest and dealing with
kumbo is fall
you will have these issues this is
another image that i want to share with
you as an anecdote
this is camp for the yellow the yellow
group of tents is camp four
which is the highest camp it’s called
the death zone it’s 8
000 meters in altitude and the mountain
visible is the fourth highest mountain i
have taken this picture while coming
down from the summit
a lucky shot the clouds cleared only
momentarily
we reached here on the 19th of may and
we were supposed to climb that night
but it was so stormy it was so stormy
that we had to take the call to not
go out that night so now we have an
extra night to spend in the death zone
how is that even possible it’s highly
not recommended
but we had carried extra oxygen
cylinders with us
for the purpose that if there is a
rescue need if there is some sort of a
thing because you choose to be
afraid of certain things and you prepare
for those things
when those things happen they may not
happen but if they happen then you made
friends with that fear
by preparing for that and not getting
scared of that
this is another story of the night of
the climb itself this is a night shot of
the
uh this is this spot is called the
balcony if some people are familiar with
everest
or have read about it this is the first
spot where we change the first oxygen
cylinder
it comes up after about six hours of
climbing from uh
from camp iv and you can see
the the headlights going up i was
concerned about getting frostbites
during my climb that night and i
consulted because i was afraid i
consulted senior mountaineers
i took some tips and i applied those
tips and based on that
i was the only one who did not get
frostbites that night
from our group my other partners
had to be hospitalized in kathmandu when
they got back from the everest
so my lesson is very clear that if i am
if i acknowledge the fears and i prepare
for them
i’m in a much better situation to face
the storms when they come in my lesson
number two is the next part of the same
story
because there are some known risks but
there
also are unknown unknowns which is what
i call
expect to deal with the unexpected
this is an image of an avalanche coming
into camp one i was just having my lunch
and you know there are many avalanches
there there are many things that are
happening
the idea is that we cannot predict every
everything and every situation no matter
how hard we prepare
no matter how good that we are at
planning
but what is unexpected cannot there
cannot be a plan b
because you don’t know what will hit you
so it boils down to
how you look at things and that is a
factor of what your expectation
sets are so if i am expecting to deal
with some unexpected things
and then certain things go wrong or some
shocking events happen
but i’m already prepared then i’m not
panicking i’m dealing with the problem
and i’m not dealing with the frustration
of that problem coming on to me because
there was always going to be in my mind
there was always going to be something
look at the story this is a spot on the
kumbh the first night of the climb
my whole of my left leg went through the
ice
into the freezing water below right into
my mountaineering boots i was completely
soaked in icy water
it’s minus 25 degrees outside 3 o’clock
in the morning
and then eventually me and my sherpa had
to go back
to base camp we could not carry on with
our team and the next following day
we we sort of you know uh caught up with
them at camp one
i mean you know there is another story
here which is
where my oxygen leak happened this is
right
near camp 4 this the peak on the left is
mount everest itself
and the winds that take that famous
plume of everest you can see this is
some clouds and a lot of snow flying off
the everest so we were climbing
and we kind of getting next to the camp
four
and about 45 minutes to camp and i’m
certainly thinking that it’s becoming
very hard for me to walk and i looked at
my pressure gauge
no more oxygen my sheriff had already
gone ahead to help with the camp
and i said i can go alone but i had
these issues now if
you are not prepared to deal with
certain
unexpected events such kind of things
can completely throw you off
and if you begin to panic i mean having
a calm mind is your most poor
your most potent your most potent
you know weapon in your arsenal to deal
with these things
this is an image on the way back
we had a whole situation where my sherpa
actually
left me and i came back the last six
hours alone
that that that week when we were
climbing
12 people died on the everest
our main guide our main guide and you
know leader
actually abandoned the group one day
before our summit climb
so when we went up from our big from our
camp four from a summit camp
we had to go out only with the junior
share bus and the junior sherpa also
quit me at this point
where you can see it’s vertical steep
top ground this is my boot in the
picture
and this was a spot where there was a
steep drop and a rock wall ahead of this
which you can’t see in this picture
and also what you can’t see the
situation we’ve been going 18 hours
it took us 13 hours to reach the summit
11 hours to come back
this is at a point where you know you’ve
done 18 hours and now you have half a
bottle of oxygen left
little bit of water no food and now no
sherpa
so these kind of things are examples
which happen on everest but things have
happened on other trips
and they happen in business they happen
in your careers i mean we’ve been hit
with this whole corona virus i mean how
much more unexpected can something be
like you have
an unimaginable situation occurring in
the world within the last one year
so expecting to deal with the unexpected
and having the ability to focus on what
we need to do
is really a big part of my learnings
in dealing with storms now i want to
come to the lesson number three
my last lesson of this group and then we
just talk about it a little bit
this is obviously so we’ve seen the
first two
the first one is to do with things that
you can kind of predict and may happen
and you can prepare for them
the next one is stuff that you can’t
predict
but you should still expect that things
will happen i expect them all the time
in everything that i do
so when they happen then i’m like ah
okay this is the problem
let’s just deal with it let’s not get uh
you know too excited or too
too too much in panic about it the third
lesson
eventually after all of those things is
that our action
really depends on where we are focusing
so there are always going to be
negatives and positives when we are
crossing these ladders
in the ice fall you know this is a
bottomless crevasse
and to the left and the right it’s like
if you make a mistake
everest doesn’t give you second chances
but there is that run there is that
little thin
aluminium run if i look only there and i
place my foot only there
then i then i’ll be stable there are
many spots in everest where you are like
your passage is six inches nine inches
wide
and you have like steep drops to the
left and to the right but if i can only
focus if my focus is so sharp on the
opportunity
that i don’t get worried about the
threats
if your focus is so sharp on what you
need to do and what can be done
and you don’t want to be worried about
what can go wrong
then things actually get done
i have seen it time and time again you
will also see time and time again if you
just review
the situation where you actually passed
and you did not you will see the
difference
imagine this situation look at my face
here
this is 11 hours into the climb even my
eyelashes have ice
and this view this cornish traverse is
not visible to you from the whole
path there is a spot called the south
summit
and you reach that and this whole view
suddenly comes up to you
now my focus is what my focus is to get
through this
and i’m not going to be we don’t want to
be these things happen
these things even though you know that
this will happen this view will come up
but even then when it comes in right in
your face after 11 hours of
mountaineering
you know you are tired you are exhausted
you are literally almost collapsing
you’re hungry
all kinds of things but this has to be
dealt with the summit is not that far
but it’s not that near either so these
kind of events
storms metaphorical storms if you like
they depend on our focus our focus is
basically guides what happens this is a
this is my own picture
that i’ve taken and you know i’ve just
put up some clips from the newspaper we
saw
traffic jams this is hillary’s step
which is like the last hurdle before the
summit and
what is not in the picture is that it’s
minus 35
and we are at uh you know nearly 9 000
meters
so when you are just standing there you
getting cold your
oxygen is flowing you are worried about
getting back because all the accidents
are happening on the way back
but eventually if my focus is
just on getting things done there’s just
one rope this one rope is
taking people in both directions you
only you’ll feel like
is this really mount everest but it is
and you are into the fray
you are in your final stages you can’t
be looking
left and right you have to be focused on
the job and if you are
there is nothing that can stop you from
achieving what you are out there to
achieve
i’m going just doing this recap on the
slideshow and then we’ll just do a recap
again
i am calling this thriving in the storm
i’m not going to say
just about surviving i have a problem
actually with this whole survival
mentality
why should we be surviving only why
should we be doing minimal require
you know storms are almost like an
evolutionary cleanup
they help us to eliminate certain
competition they help us to eliminate
certain weaknesses
so thriving in the storm only three
principles and if i can leave you with
these ideas
today i think it would be worth having
this conversation with you
make friends with fear expect to deal
with the unexpected
and use the power of focus so this was
my three lesson now let me stop the
sharing and get back to you
on the screen friends you cannot fake it
on everest
you cannot fake it on any major project
in life
the value of the setbacks that happen
during these projects
is essentially that they let you see
what you
lack if you make it you make it if you
don’t make it you have a better chance
the next time
and what goes on on everest also is a
process for example of acclimatization
we start with the base camp and first we
go up to camp one twenty thousand feet
we spend a night there come back
then the next time we go to camp two
then go back all the way to base camp
each time you’re pushing the envelope of
your comfort zone
this whole idea of how you expand your
comfort zone
the whole interpretation of what is a
storm and what is an opportunity
completely changes by the process of
acclimatization
on everest and in life you have to keep
on expanding that
whole zone in which you are comfortable
i am inviting you to consider that if
someone like me
a regular guy businessman 50 years old
no fitness freak no nothing
if i can reach the summit of mount
everest it’s a 45 day expedition a lot
of edgy situations occur
a lot of learnings occur i’ve tried to
share some of my learning with you today
and i invite you to climb any everest
that you want to climb
thank you