Times and Trials.
Do you want yours too hot, too cold or just right?
“It’s too early to figure out what you’re talking about… what’s for breakfast?”
Jeez… grumpy much? I threw together a couple of porridge packets. Don’t give me a look. Ya know… instant oatmeal.
“Thanks, I’ll be right back.”
Feeling fresher? Aren’t these packets convenient? I wonder how they packed food back in 1900 when they went on those long ocean voyages.
“I always wondered how they picked the leaders of the expedition.”
“Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency… but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.”
~ Sir Raymond Priestly, address to the British Science Association
I dipped my toe in the Caribbean Sea once, and was on Lake Superior, but I don’t know how those guys get in a boat and sail for months on end and then explore for months on end and then sail for home for months on end… and have people believe em’ when they get back!
“Ha! Lake Superior. That’s not the ocean.”
Hey, that’s a gosh darn big lake, more like a sea than a lake, and it gets angry, real angry. It scared me a little crashing around out there on a ferry. Then a small craft advisory went out to get off the water, guess what… they did… in a hurry. I looked at the water, with it’s 48 degree temp and thought to myself, “You fall in… you’re done.”
https://infosuperior.com/blog/2017/05/01/statistics-show-spike-in-lake-superior-drownings/
Shackleton despite his adventurous career almost fell into obscurity… ironically saved from it by his biggest test and trial. If it wasn’t for that he’d have been forgotten.
“How did it save him?”
Due to his keen leadership during the crisis he was found again, years later, by leadership gurus as someone who we could look to for a real life example on what a leader is and does. Especially during a true, life or death situation. To me there is still the intangible of why a follower follows a particular person, that is intriguing to me. But follow him they did. They all survived. They all called him ‘The Boss’, well before the disaster.
https://shackletonlondon.com/blogs/articles/shackleton-great-leader
Funny…
“What is?”
his ship… it was named the Endurance.
“What’s so funny about that?”
We’re gonna need some of that as we continue on in our exploration of ourselves… and these mountains. The intangibles that allow one to follow another, to have faith in another, to be loyal to another… has to start somewhere and it also has to lead to trust, humbleness, and proper respect.
And seemingly as a leader, for leadership… you need to have some sort of toughness about you. That is the weird one for me personally… how to be loudly assertive at the proper time, in the right company, in the right situation. And have it be respected.
“While there were inevitably some dissenters, discipline was imposed with a light touch, and Shackleton understood the difference between a barked order and a measured command.”
~ Michael Smith
You awake? Ready to push on?
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