Chief Survival Officers

"Above 26,000 feet, the line between appropriate zeal and reckless summit fever becomes grievously thin. Thus the slopes of Everest are littered with corpses." - Jon Krakauer

I spent Sunday stranded at JFK, waiting for a plane to Berlin that didn’t end up leaving. I find it useful to interpret those kinds of situations as tests. What does this moment demand from me?

It could have been about patience. This is one reason I meditate, to meet what happens with equanimity. But it could also have been a test of decisiveness. Once the delays start, do you reschedule or wait until the bitter end? Do you cut your losses or cling to hope? I left the airport at 1.30 in the morning, which tells you everything about my ability to exit a losing position.

I was reminded of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer’s account of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster during which eight climbers perished. Krakauer makes two astute observations about the nature of ambition and risk-taking. It may be easier to learn these lessons through stories in an analogous domain like mountaineering because the specifics don’t become a distraction (you don’t wonder if today’s market is like the one in 1996 when reading about people climbing rocks).