When Does Determination Beat Exhaustion?

Friends, we're very grateful for this and we hope you'll keep listening and we'll do our best to fulfill your expectations and by the way if you've enjoyed the journey so far if you've gained something from it or believe you will or if you know someone who might please forward or repost we'd appreciate that and we'll do our best to accommodate every listener today we'll look at a tale that's far more than motivational inspirational. Today's tale is highly inspirational, whoever you are.

Today, we will look at Ascending Everest.

So let me ask you, which of these four names do you recognize? A, Tom Bourdillon, B, Charles Evans, C, Tenzing Norgay, and D, Sir Edmund Hillary.

Chances are that once you came to the last letter, D, you not only recognized that name, but also went back and realized immediately who C was.

Most of us recognize Sir Edmund Hillary as the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest, Earth's highest point.

That was on May 29, 1953.

Of course, he didn't do it alone. Norgay, a native of Nepal was Hillary's Sherpa.

In fact, only because the expedition was headed by an Englishman, John Hunt, was Norgay expected to step aside in order for Hillary, a New Zealander and a subject of the Queen of England, to become the first human to take the last step on a climb to the top.

It was never doubted that Norgay was as capable and experienced a climber as Hillary, if not more, and was every bit as responsible for the success as was Hillary.

But that's an issue for moral historians to kick around. We have another thing to talk about.

In order to do so, let's first take a look at a most interesting historic event which did not take place just three days earlier.

On May 26, 1953, Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, who were the lead climbing pair in the expedition headed by Hunt, came to within 100 meters, 328 feet, of the summit of Everest.

Due to exhaustion they turned and descended never attaining the peak think about that for a second 328 feet that's just a football field away you've probably parked farther away from your shopping mall across the parking lot than that But they didn't make it, and they claimed exhaustion. Really, exhaustion?

Three days later, Hillary and Norgay did what Bourdillon and Evans could not do. They reached the top of Mount Everest. They accomplished their goal.

News of the expedition's success reached London and on the morning of June 2nd, Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. This was coordinated to honor that.

Hunt and Hillary were knighted in the Order of the British Empire, KBE.

Norgay, a subject of the King of Nepal, was granted the George Medal by the UK, but never achieved the KBE.

Bourdillon and Evans Bourdillon died three years later at the age of 32 in a climbing accident in Switzerland Evans spent his life as an educator in Wales and died in 1995 at the age of 78 neither was honored for his efforts although they had ascended to a point that no other human ever had before but as I'm charged about with writing about critical thinking not a history of mountaineering their thoughts shall ever remain their own Bourdillon and Evans saw the summit of Everest as being unreachable although they claimed exhaustion There just must have been something else.

After climbing 8,748 meters out of 8,848, or 28,700 feet out of 29,029 feet, the last 100 meters should have happened. It should have been squeezed out, reached deep down, and brought with him. No, I submit it was more than exhaustion.

More likely, a lack of determination.

Why can we say that? Well, I'm taking liberty, but I think it's a pretty reasonable one.

Something that Hillary said in Explaining Success leads us to think about this comfortable assumption.

When asked at a press conference soon afterwards why he and Norgay conquered the mountain while the other two didn't, Sir Edmund Hillary said, it is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

Bourdillon and Evans, let's remember, ascended to a four, but it was not enough. It's not the recognition gained by Hillary and Norgay or the recognition that Bourdillon and Evans will never get that matters. It's reaching the goal that matters. It's refusing to give up that matters. It's determination triumphing over exhaustion that matters. It's conquering ourselves that matters.

Norgay and Hillary reached down deep for something that Bournion and Evans could not find.

The climb was the same distance for each pair.

There are no indications that one pair was more skilled than the other.

The weather conditions, according to reports, did not vary and supplies and provisions likewise.

So why were the results different?

I submit again, determination, not exhaustion, pure determination.

Because of their determination, Hillary and Norgay became the first pair to reach the peak of Mount Everest.

Determination.

It's a great story, and it has a very interesting historical post-crypt.

After Everest, Hillary climbed 10 other Himalayan peaks and was a member of the first overland expedition in 1958 to reach the South Pole since Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912.

And they were the first ever, he was the first ever to do it with motor vehicles.

Once you determine to do something against any and all odds success becomes the only option and then it becomes a habit a habit in a sense during this past couple of years if you look at what we've all been through we've all ascended Everest perhaps we're all still doing it.

Take this lesson from Edmund Hillary in Tenzing, Norgay, with you, wherever you go.

You're going to get to a point in most of what you do in which you've got to rely on your determination.

Remember Hillary and Norgay.

We're going to take a break right now and be back in 30 seconds after this word from our sponsors. Before we go on, I want to take a moment to thank the people who make this show possible. Vantage Point is brought to you by SingleTask, the team that produces this show. It is also brought to you by Kardam Consulting. It is also brought to you by Bergen Volunteers, neighbors helping neighbors all across Bergen County.

This show is also brought to you by my friend and a sponsor of this show from day one, Stephen Bozer. Thank you, all of you, for your support, and please support them the way they support us. And if your organization would like to become a sponsor of this show, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can find me at elliamdor.com.

I'm back I'm back with three of my regular aphorisms.

This time, I think more closely related to the subject at hand.

Aphorism number one.

A bad attitude is like a flat tire. You're going nowhere until you change it.

Aphorism number two don't tell me about the storm did you deliver the cargo and aphorism number three we must have infinite gratitude for all things past infinite service for all things present and infinite responsibility for all things future in the great mind section of this episode i lean on as i do very often albert einstein who declared that if you don't know something well enough to explain it to a six-year-old you don't know it well enough at all all of a sudden people started claiming to understand e equals mc squared but success in business and education depends on communication george bernard shaw said one of the great problems with communication is the illusion that it has occurred not a bad goal that does it for me for this episode once again thank you for spending the time with us we appreciate it coming up we'll be talking about jobs of the future ai difficulties ai opportunities and lots of other interesting things that we'll bring along with us thanks See you next time.

Until then, keep questioning, keep learning, and keep thinking critically.