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