Finding you own Everest

I wanted to introduce you to Samdu Sherpa, whom I have met this year during my trip to Nepal. He originally came from Solu region, part of Himalayan highlands famous worldwide for trekking and hiking. His last name Sherpa is also his life calling. For the past 20 years this fearless mountaineer led 60 expeditions to Mount Everest base camp, nearly 200 Himalayan climbing and hiking expeditions, and climbed many of the highest Himalayan peaks. The reason why I wanted to share his perspective with you is that, although the Himalayas are a long distance away from New York City but wisdom he acquired has application to our corporate life.

When we spoke, Samdu shared with me how privileged he felt to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world and assist a number of people from every part of the world in achieving their lifetime goal of viewing life from top of a mountain. With amazing ease, he translated his experience into context that we can all understand and relate to. You could be surprised to learn but not every climber is an expert. The primary way to do it, if you do not have a lot of experience climbing, is to work with sherpas like Samdu. If you do not feel confident enough to climb, you can choose to do something that is called “tea house trekking”. Preparation requires a lot of work from sherpas, who clear the path, do all the hard work arranging stay in local tea houses and setting up camps in advance. Just to be clear, in the Himalayas there is no such a thing as 100% safety, you are literally risking your life at every moment.

What you learn while climbing is that the biggest dangers to you come from two directions. From lack of understanding and observation how you function in unfamiliar environments, and from your attitude to approaching new situations. Although the weather may look good, if you climb too fast you may not have enough time to adjust to the new environment and run out of oxygen. In this type of extreme environment that is unpredictable, you need to take your time and you must have a guide. In the mountains sherpa is your best chance to achieve your destination safely. In the corporate world you can see a parallel, a mentor is your best chance to chart your trajectory, understand your terrain and achieve success in pursuing your goals. Without that support you can still achieve your objectives, but it may take more time.

Another thing is your ability to understand your limitations and work with them. If you are driven by ego and push forward with disregard to pointers from experienced mountaineers or sherpas, run ahead, focus on reaching the summit rather than safety, you may not come back. Samdu shared with me a number of situations where climbers disregarded the weather, tried to rush ahead, or removed the safety link to go faster, and when that did not end well. When you think about it, it is the same story when you try to progress in life, when high attitude takes over it is difficult to properly assess the situation and draw conclusions on how to proceed. The clarity of mind and ability to have perspective when assessing each situation are as critical in life as they are while claiming the mountains.