What It Takes To Be The Best

Watched the movie: Free Solo last night. If you want to understand what it takes to be the best of the best. watch it. Unless you’re afraid of heights.

The movie is about a guy named Alex Honnold as he prepares to ‘Free Solo El Capitan, the wall of a 3,000-foot rock in Yellowstone. Free Soloing is climbing without any rope or climbing aides. Just your hands and feet.

Another famous climber friend who trained him for this, put it this way: Imagine competing at an olympic gold medal level. Where if you don’t win the gold medal, you die.

Watching him climb is as terrifying as a movie can get. Especially knowing he’s actually doing this climb live, without a net on camera. And the camera will either catch him completing this historic climb or falling to his death like so many Free Soloers before him.

Watching his incredible physical and mental preparation for this, I was struck by how detailed and meticulous it was. The movie was mostly about his preparation.

He literally knew every minute detail of every maneuver up that 3k foot rock. He knew where his thumb or big toe would go on every inch.

I started thinking about how I approach preparation for the things I do in sales and marketing. What if I put in that incredible level of preparation for a sales call or to build a marketing campaign? Most people just do. They just start heading up the mountain without a thought. 

He practiced. He studied. He journaled. He read and reviewed what he journaled.

I will never in a million years start climbing a mountain like this with or without a rope. Not if Orcs with automatic weapons were chasing me. But it really inspired and motivated me to think about how I approach and prepare for what I want to accomplish.

To be better, think better. To be the best, think like the best.