233: Climbing your personal Mt. Everest with Jim Williams

If business success is your personal Mt. Everest, how do you make that climb? After all, Everest is 29,029 feet tall, and climbing isn’t easy at that altitude. My guest today has an answer, and it just so happens he’s summited Mt. Everest multiple times. Jim Williams is the owner of exploration travel company Exploradus. Jim was the first person to successfully guide expeditions to the “Seven Summits,” the tallest mountains on each continent, in less than a year. That included, of course, Mt. Everest. He was also one of the leaders who made the first overland crossing to the South Pole from the South American side. (He tells in this episode about how his group disappeared on him, leaving him lost in Antarctica!) Despite conquering the world’s biggest mountains, Jim doesn’t recommend starting with a Mt. Everest-sized goal. “Set smaller goals and enlarge them as you move forward,” he tells me in this episode. In other words, you might need to manage your expectations at a realistic level. If you want to hear some crazy survival stories, including how Jim walked in on his own funeral after people thought he had died, you need to listen to this episode. If you want to know how to harness fear to drive results, this episode’s for you. And if you want to know how to remove obstacles on your personal Mt. Everest climb, click play in the bar above to get started. Episode highlights; climb your personal Mt. Everest and more: Why a businessman counseled Jim NOT to buy his climbing business. How to separate fear from results. Leading an expedition to an unclimbed peak in China. The creative key to opening any door and building relationships of trust in business. How Jim walked in on his own funeral. Getting lost in Antarctica. Why the journey matters more than the destination. The surprising reason you might not want to climb your personal Mt. Everest. Books and resources mentioned in this episode: “Everest, the West Ridge,”by Thomas Hornbein “Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage,” by Alfred Lansing How to contact Jim Williams: Website Email