Lessons for the entrepreneurs from mountaineers scaled the world's tallest mountain Meta Entrepreneur Series (2)
Inspired by Neeraj Choudhary, a mountaineer who just scaled Mt Everest
- How one man defeated Covid to scale Mt Everest
For reasons of history and culture, Everest mountaineers are the world's most audacious climbers.?
Link to listen to is my conversation with Neeraj
The summit of Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth at 29,028 feet, and it requires years of physical and mental preparation and weeks of acclimatization for mountaineers accustomed to the low-oxygen altitude of the mountains. The trek to base camp takes six to eight days, which allows for adequate altitude acclimatization to prevent altitude sickness. Mountaineers typically spent the first week at base camp. They take few weeks, include collecting supplies, trekking to the base camp, adapting to altitude, climbing the highest summits, and then climbing the mountain top.
Between 1922 and 2004, a total of 265 people attempted to climb Mount Everest. Kenton Cool holds the British record for the highest climb. Every year 800+ mountaineers attempt to scale Mount Everest. Only 60% of mountaineers are able to accomplish this impossible task. More than 4,800 people climbed it, and over 300 people are believed to have died on the mountain. That is why there are very few startups become unicorns. It is still an enriching journey.?
History
The historical Everest Expedition of 1953 consisted of a gigantic team of 400 people, including 362 porters, 20 Sherpa guides, and 5,000 kg of luggage. As they made their way to the base camp at Mount Everest, they met mountaineers who had been there for days, from the highest slopes to the summit. Once they reached the summit of 8,848 m (29,028 feet), the highest point on the planet and the highest on our planet, it was one of the most extraordinary expeditions of humankind. Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the mountain as part of a British expedition led by Lord John Hunt on May 29th, 1953.?
Setbacks
Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans tried to climb but failed due to an oxygen system before reaching the South Col, 100 m below the summit. Reinhold Messner was the first mountaineer to break with the bottled oxygen tradition, and in 1978 Peter Habeler succeeded in his first successful ascent. In 1980 he climbed the mountain alone, without additional oxygen, with a porter and climbing partner on the most difficult northwest route. Experienced mountaineers say that most problems arise when mountaineers do not leave enough energy to climb the mountain. While 95 percent of mountaineers who climb Everest use a bottle of oxygen to reach it, only about five percent of mountaineers do so without additional oxygen. The death rate doubles for those who try to get to the top without it. Sometimes no amount of preparation can prepare you for unexpecting curves in life.?
Others have done it
Several disabled mountaineers have reached the summit, too, including blind American Erik Weihenmayer in 2001 and double-amputee New Zealander Mark Inglis in 2006. The oldest person was Japanese Yuichiro Miura, 80, in 2013, and the youngest was American Jordan Romero, 13, in 2010.?
Risk?
On a similar note, on April 18th, 2014, 16 high-altitude workers, including 13 Sherpas, were killed in Khumbu Icefall near Camp 1 after collapsing at the western shoulder of the mountains. Climbing the Himalayas is an impossible expedition. In the 67 years since Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first documented the ascent of Everest, Everest attracts many adventurers because of its beauty. Since humans reached Mount Everest's summit in 1953, climbing the mountain has changed dramatically.
Preparation and Process??
Hundreds of mountaineers accomplish this feat each year thanks to improved knowledge and technology, significant infrastructure through guided expeditions that offer a veritable highway to Mount Everest, and those willing to take risks. For 70 years, intrepid mountaineers have been climbing Mount Everest on the border between Nepal and the autonomous China region of Tibet. With an altitude of 29,028 feet, the altitude at which an airliner can fly, Mount Everest is the ultimate challenge for mountaineers.
Bronwen is a trained ski guide, ski patroller, and trekking guide and has built a career as a guide around the globe. He led expeditions to Mera Peak (Everest Base Camp), Kilimanjaro (Bhutan), and the Tavan Mountains (Mongolia), including an ascent of Khuiten. Even people like him talk about the risk and preparation required to accomplish such a task. A Sherpa-led expedition is when you are placed in the hands of a Sherpa to climb. Please do not confuse this with a led expedition, where you buy a place, team up with a few support services, and lead the mountaineers who climb the summit themselves. It is still very much on you; Sherpa will not hike for you; it is similar to your mentor. Mentor are guides. They help you build muscle, but it is still your entrepreneurial journey.?
Only about 10 percent of people who attempt to climb Everest without oxygen succeed. Many professional mountaineers who climb other 8,000-metre peaks without oxygen and then attempt to repeat the climb of Everest fail more than once. More than a dozen people have died from oxygen-related health complications while climbing Everest.
Jamie Clarke is one of a handful of people in the world who has the rare achievement of climbing all seven summits. A friend of the mountaineer is Mark Carr, a successful businessman, human resources expert, adventurer, wilderness guide, and mountaineer. From business to adventure, Jamie guides you through strategies to succeed in your own business. The above describes the significant challenges of anyone who has a great idea and wants to build a successful business on it.??As an investor, I always ask startup founders: Are they prepared for the roller coaster ride.??Financial Success is never guaranteed, but the entrepreneurial journey itself is a reward.??
From the entrepreneurs "point of view, their journey is like a mountaineering trip from base camp to the summit of Mount Everest. In the preparatory phase, the guide includes information about the route and paths to the summit, past successes, and failures, stories about different stages of the journey, the necessary preparation tools for each stage, as well as exercises and practical exercises that can be applied in an environment similar to a real environment. You need such mentors to build a better organization.?
Once you reach the summit of Everest or your business, you understand the challenges they have faced to get to this level and acquire the skills necessary to carry on to the next level. Understanding the Mount Everest expedition process is hugely valuable for entrepreneurs. It provides a framework for an entrepreneur to establish the business process and preparation required to win customers and build credibility with investors.?
领英推荐
When I read Hillary's view from the summit and Neeraj's experience. I can summarize my learning in six key takeaways;
Be Humble
Your network is your net worth - Find an environment conducive to your dreams, surround yourself with people who have achieved the impossible.
Preparation - prepare, prepare, prepare
Tribe/Team Work/Your Family - with your tribe, even a failed destination will be worth the fantastic journey, and there are no failures; your destination may be different than you anticipated.?
Mentor - Nobody has accomplished anything without the mentors
Passion with conviction - Passion is not enough, It is daydreaming without conviction.?
Journey
Mount Everest climb teaches mountaineers about leadership, execution, preparation, resourcefulness, teamwork, and gratitude. It is similar to the journey of any enterprise. While hundreds of mountaineers try to reach Mount Everest's summit, effective leadership can mean the difference between their life and death. When problems arise, they can worsen or resolve, depending on how people implement theoretical leadership concepts.?
Imagine for a moment that you look your team in the eye and make a crucial decision about whether to continue to risk death or turn around and come down alive from the mountain. Our choices are not the same but can have life-or-death consequences for those of us who hike with us.?
Lessons in Leadership, Risk, and Teamwork. Scaling Mount Everest is one of our planet's most significant physical challenges. Another mountaineer Alison, has written about her experience of surviving and thriving in such an extreme environment. Alison and her team landed on a football field on their first excursion due to poor visibility and a snowstorm, where they did not reach the summit. Allison was far behind everyone else on the highest mountain in the world, hobbling along with short breaths. Her inner inferiority complex did not stop her from remembering that the summit would be much slower than the rest of the group, whose goal was to make it to the advanced base camp.
For the love of it?
The importance of mountaineering is that you have the experience of being on a mountain. It is a lived experience regarding the urgency with which decisions are made and how participants climb. It is also a transfer of team management experience to their work environment. As the leader of a climbing expedition, you must understand the limits of your team members. As a leader, you must help people who are not as strong as other team members find ways to make them feel more valuable to you than to you and that their abilities are on a par with those of others who have abilities from the start. There is an interesting comparison between building and growing a business as entrepreneurs and hiking mountains. I learned a lot from multiple hiking because the adventure provides a different context for entrepreneurial challenges. Entrepreneurship challenges are endemic, and even entrepreneurs face enormous challenges.?
Let's live a little
One most significant learning'?life is a team sport, and we are all trying to get somewhere.'?
Each mountaineering or hiking adventure brings a new experience and a better perspective on life.?Interestingly, each time I hike, I find how ill-prepared I am, and I get a little more joy each time.??
I had several lengthy conversations with myself and my fellow hikers. Sometimes about the relationship between hiking and the economy or even life. We discuss what we have learned from our experience and analyze the difficulties we faced and our miscalculations. As an entrepreneur, you are vulnerable and responsible for your team.?Just don't beat yourselves, and remember it is all part of the journey.
References:
???
President @ Account360ai | CRM Solution, Beverage Industry
3 年Thanks, Stuart Evans Vasudha Badri-Paul Ankita Rao Vivek Gupta Shishir P.