10 Success Insights from Polar Explorers

Although these insights were from successful polar explorers there are many lessons that can be learnt to your benefit...

1. Go for both poles.
We didn’t manage to even reach one Pole the first time. But we never lowered our goal. Our final success was so much greater in the face of it.

2. Seek out the winners.
We wouldn’t have made it without the aid of polar veterans, and they in turn learned from veterans before them. Every true success is a mankind joint venture.

3. Don’t cut food and fuel.
In the short run, dropping food and fuel increased our speed. In the long run, it killed our expedition. Don’t undercut your survival.

4. Face the storm.
Hiding out in a tent waiting for the sunny days steals crucial time. A storm always looks the worst from inside the tent.

5. Get out each morning Get out there, every single day.
There are so many reasons not to - repairs badly needed, fatigue and whiteout. The winner moves when the others rest.

6. Keep moving.
In temperatures of -50C, we wore only thin layers of clothing. In this situation, to stop was to die. When times are rough and you are the underdog, keep running.

7. Don’t think.
Skiing thin ice commands swift and determined steps. Too much doubt in times of pressure kills the power of action.

8. Be brutal
If you want to reach the impossible then you must continue where others stop. Tear down walls with your bare hands, crawl on your knees. But never stop.

9. Say only positive things to each other.
The single, most important piece of advice - 'Say only positive things to each other.'

10. You don’t have to believe to win.
Faced with the facts, we couldn't believe in success. Yet it arrived. You don’t have to believe in success. Just do the right things. And go.

Another important insight is the subject of, what I call leadershift. This is when the mantle of leadership moves within the team. This is a step beyond empowerment, where more often than not individuals still have constraints or parameters to operate within. Leadership is a clear decentralisation of control to another member of the team, where there initiative and judgement is totally uninhibited.

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