How do you tell a tourist in San Francisco in the summer?
They are the ones wearing shorts.
Now, if you haven’t ever been in San Francisco in the summer, you may not get this. But the truth is, it is freezing in the summer! Well, not literally freezing . . . but until the famous thick San Francisco fog burns off at noon, the average morning temperature in the summer is in the low- to mid-50s.
That cold, foggy weather can be miserable. In fact, the legendary American storyteller Mark Twain has been quoted as saying, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
Imagine thinking of enjoying a delightful vacation in San Francisco and finding yourself stuck in its thick, heavy summer fog wearing only shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals. Brrr! Right?
Now turn back the clock a little over one hundred years ago. Imagine that you’re Ernest Shackleton, captain of a ship attempting to cross freezing Antarctica with a crew of 28 men.
By the way: It’s not your first voyage there. In fact, it’s your third expedition . . . because your first two failed.
If anything, you are determined. You have a purpose. And nothing will hold you back.
Picture making your way toward the South Pole in the freezing water, slowly advancing through leads in the ice.
But then, a fierce gale begins to force pack ice--large pieces of floating ice driven together into a nearly continuous mass--around your ship.
There is nowhere to go. No moving forward. No moving back. The ice builds up more and more. And, as Thomas Orde-Lees, one of your crew says, your ship becomes “frozen like an almond in the middle of a chocolate bar.”
If you’re like so many other brave but unfortunate explorers, you and your crew are stranded, trapped for good. And eventually, you succumb to cold, starvation, injury or disease, and die.
But not Ernest Shackleton. And not a single member of his crew.
If there ever was a hero’s journey, it was this third expedition of Shackleton’s. After becoming trapped in the ice, he and his men managed to stay on the ship as it was carried farther and farther out to sea by the slow-moving ice in which they were trapped.
Can you imagine the terror they must have been feeling . . . and what inner strength and courage it must have taken to persevere?
After a full 10 months, it was clear that the ship would soon be swallowed up and crushed by the ice. So Shackleton directed his crew to salvage as many provisions as they could and set up camp on an ice floe, waiting it out until conditions allowed them to escape onto land.
However, after 4 months, the floe began to break up. Shackleton ordered his men to break camp and launch into the open sea, in the open boats they had managed to salvage and preserve.
Exhaustion, crippling seasickness, and dysentery plagued the men, but after many days of rowing through freezing water, they managed to reach Elephant Island . . .
. . . 497 days since they had set foot on dry land.
But their ordeal was far from over. There was little likelihood that anyone would come to rescue them.
So, after 9 days of rest and preparation, Shackleton set out with 5 other men to seek help from a whaling station on an island more than 800 miles away.
Although it took Shackleton 128 more days to overcome endless, seemingly impossible trials, in the end, he brought all 28 crew members home . . .
. . . all 28 crew members alive and safe after 20 long months of brutal conditions in the Antarctic seas.
Very few people must endure what Shackleton’s crew did. And very few people are ever called on to demonstrate the kind of unrelenting courage, disciplined leadership, and unflinching optimism that enabled Shackleton to save himself and his crew.
But it’s also likely that everyone will face more difficult challenges than just a foggy San Francisco summer morning dressed in shorts.
So, Shackleton serves as both an inspiration and a role model.
I know because I own many books about him and glance through my collection at least once a year, something I have done since I was 10 years old and first got to know him.
This story isn’t just for 10-year-olds, however.
In fact, Nancy F. Koehn, a historian at the Harvard Business School, reported that a case study she wrote about Shackleton a few years after 9/11 drew more interest from executives than any other she had ever taught.
So, how can Shackleton’s epic hero’s journey help us?
What exactly did he do that was so extraordinary? And, what enabled him to do it?
It was that he possessed tremendous courage, optimism, adaptability, resilience, and discipline.
These traits are not limited only to heroes of Shackelton’s stature. They’re something everyone can cultivate. And once you’ve developed them, what difference will it make for you?
It’s simply this: With even just a bit of the courage, optimism, adaptability, resilience, and discipline like Shackleton had, you will:
Be more comfortable handling ambiguity and uncertainty.
Allow yourself to make mistakes because you know you'll be OK. You’ll even learn from those mistakes.
Be able to look fear in the eye and stand tall instead of retreating or crumbling.
Enjoy an endless supply of energy and optimism.
Nurture a spirit of wonder and appreciation.
The vital importance of these traits is reflected in Shackleton’s thoughts:
“The quality I look for most is optimism: especially optimism in the face of reverses and apparent defeat. Optimism is true moral courage . . . To be brave cheerily, to be patient with a glad heart, to stand the agonies of thirst with laughter and song, to walk beside death for months and never be sad – that's the spirit that makes courage worth having.”
--Dr. Deborah Teplow
Co-Founder
Be Your Own Best Coach
P.S. If you haven’t signed up for our email series, click here. Inspired by the journey of Shackleton, we’ll help you take a step toward tapping into your own hero within with a helpful assessment found in our next email.
Also check out part one of the Hero Within series: Are you one of the 78% of Americans who . . . ?