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- the human spirit thrives on adventure.
the human spirit thrives on adventure.
how two middle-aged men rewrote the book on success.
Lukas Mann
July 23, 2023
read time: 6 minutes
“The proof that you can do hard things is one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself.”
High camp on Everest in the 1980s.
In the early 1980s, two of America’s richest men sat down in an office and hatched a plan.
Dick Bass and Frank Wells had it all. One was the former Disney CEO turned Warner Bros president, and the other was an oil magnate who also owned one of the most successful ski resorts in the US.
Their lives were chock-full of prestige, power, and wealth.
But it turns out what brought them together was not what they had, but what they were missing.
Money had bought them all the fancy cars and exotic vacations they could ever want, but in their mid-50s, they both came to the same uncomfortable conclusion.
The American Dream hadn’t quite done what they thought it would.
There was something missing.
“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better.”
On that fateful Friday, the two sat down and hatched a plan.
They were sick of the ritzy, paper-pushing life that they had fallen into. Bureaucracy, politics, negotiation… these things all have their place. But too much of anything is unhealthy.
They wanted a challenge that transcended the business world. A goal that would set them apart. An adventure with real meaning.
After a few hours of deliberating, Frank and Dick had made up their minds. They would embark on a quest to become the first people to reach the top of the highest peaks on all continents.
The Seven Summits.
On paper, their chances of success were slim to none. Most of the seven summits are technical, high-altitude peaks, and these men didn’t even know what acclimatizaton meant when they started.
But lo and behold, Frank and Dick started to knock off peak after peak, on every continent.
Despite a team-member’s death and a whole host of other complications, Dick reached the summit of Everest on April 30th, 1985.
Bass on the summit of Everest (April 30, 1985).
Mission accomplished.
The unlikely duo had succeeded in tackling one of the world’s greatest mountaineering objectives, and without a shred of experience in the sport before the undertaking.
The outside world applauded as the unlikely heroes returned to the States. Accolades, events, and the whole nine yards. Frank walked away from his presidency at Warner Bros, and Dick scaled back his involvement in his empire.
The experience had a profound impact on both men. Below is a quote from Bass a few years after their monumental achievement.
“People began to realize there’s more to life. I’ve been successful in business. If that’s all I were chasing, it would be an empty bauble of accomplishment. I know a lot of executives who wake up and say, ‘My God, there’s got to be more.’ That’s why they want to climb mountains at an older age. They want to win self-respect from doing something that really lays it on the line.”
The proof that you can do hard things is truly one of the most powerful gifts you can give yourself.
Both Frank and Dick had reached the pinnacle of their illustrious careers, and found that there was still something more out there… something their “successful” lives didn’t offer.
What these men realized is true for all of us.
The adventures of this world offer a testing ground for those who want more out of life… for those who want more out of themselves.
“It is only in adventure that people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.”
You see, the modern world we live in has idealized comfort, safety, and predictability to the point that most of us have no clue what it’s like to experience real adventure.
The human spirit thrives under stress. We’re made to be stretched, and to grow with each and every experience we add to our life collection.
If you rob yourself of those opportunities, you rob yourself of the greatest gift you’ve been given… a healthy body and a shot at life here on this earth.
This life’s not just a competition to see who can make it to the grave with the least amount of scratches and bruises.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger in the long run is no safer than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
The point of this is not to convince you that you need to spend $50,000 on an Everest ticket.
The point is it’s all about priorities.
Make time for the experiences that enrich your life, even if they involve discomfort or unknowns.
This world’s not safe… not in the slightest.
But it is good. Don’t waste your only chance at experiencing it to the fullest.
The wonderful things in life are the things you do, not the things you have.
Messner high on a fixed line above the Karakorams (Pakistan).
See you next week :)
Lukas Mann (aka @exploromann)