Finding Your Summit

Mike Hamill - Climbing The Seven Summits Mike Hamill is the founder and lead guide for Climbing the Seven Summits. His company focuses on the 7 summits, and a few other select mountains that Mike finds special. Mike gets clients to the top over 90% of the time, more importantly, he always gets his clients home safe. Mike cut his teeth climbing in the White and Adirondack mountains of the northeast. On these climbs, Mike, built his resume, while finding his passion and calling.

Pirie Jones Grossman is our featured for this episode of Find Your Summit Rewind Since her last visit, Pirie was diagnosed with the Epstein Barr virus. Grossman's version of the 60 know types was debilitating. Her illness is similar to Mononucleosis, except in her case, it's much more intesnse. The western medicine standard of care is 3 months of rest and lots of fluids. Of course, single mom's who run their own business don't have time for that.

Growing up in Kenya, Ken's dad had 2 wives. Nsimbi had 9 siblings. His dad, a dentist was an outgoing and gregarious fellow who had a full and lively life. Moving to Seattle to share a 1-bedroom apartment with 3 brothers, in the US was a hard transition, "It felt like a downgrade." "When I look back, my mom's decision to bring us to the US was the best thing ever."

March 20, 2011 – Andy Hnilo was hit by a Land Rover as he stepped off the curb on Melrose in Los Angeles. Thrown across the street a Toyota Tundra hit him again. One accident, twice hit by trucks, a broken jaw, 7 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and somehow he survived. With the shattered jaw and a mouthful of broken teeth, Hnilo began relearning to chew, close his mouth and talk.. Even now years later, the process of fine-tuning his bite and jaw alignment continues.

At a conference, as an adult well into his life, Werner Berger considered the 3 things he’d like to do before he died. Though Berger possed no mountaineer experience, he wanted to climb Kilimanjaro, the Matterhorn, and to travel to Everest’s base camp. Fascinated by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary’s summit of Everest, Werner always possessed a desire to climb mountains. To date, Werner is the oldest person to complete the 7 summits.

Pete Koch played defensive end for the University of Maryland. He graduated the same year as his teammate Boomer Esiason. Coincidentally, Pete's Terrapins lost to Mark's Huskies in the inaugural 1982 Aloha Bowl. 
1st Round Pick
Pete's draft year, he's living in the dorms at Maryland, listening to the radio waiting for the phone to ring. Projects listed Pete as a likely first-round pick. Though one of their coaches visited Pete, the Bengals with the 1st pick in the first round, and a strong presence on defensive end; were not expected to draft Koch. Then life happened. Despite being an ill fit for the team, Koch became a Bengal-it didn't work. 
Kansas City Chiefs
What did work, and what Pete couldn't see, he was meant to be in Kansas City. Less than 24 hours after being released from the Bengals. the Chiefs were glad to have him, his coach Walt Corey waited to greet him. Pete's first game, he recorded 2 sacks and blended in well.
Pete Koch's 3 rules for life-
You can do it,
It takes sacrifice, y
ou can do it. 
Los Angeles Raiders
Pete, sat down with Al Davis, no agents, just man-to-man. Al said I need D-line guys that can be disruptors. He asked Pete, can you still be a disruptor? "Yes, I can" Pete signed a contract and got to work.
Health and Wellness
Pete's career beyond the NFL focuses on health and wellness. HIs work helps people accomplish three things.
Koch's goals-
Be happy,
Increase your production, and not just at work but with your family your friends and your children.
I want you to feel better.
71% of people are overweight. People fail to exercise enough. We're feeding our bodies food that makes us feel worse; that promotes the wrong balance of chemicals, hormones. This combination denies us Koch's outcomes. Pete suggests putting a program that's easy to engage, yet effortful and full of the fuel we need to improve all aspects of our lives.
LIfe constantly provides new challenges, preparation through diet and exercise remains our best defense.
#podcast #episode #NFL #Raiders
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Charles Plumb talks about the rewards of personal adversity; we need to pay attention. In this Rewind episode, we discuss three things. First, Charles' philosophy of packing your own parachute. Next, recognizing that adversity is a terrible thing to waste. Finally discipline the mind, body and soul. 
Packing Your Parachute
Packing your parachute means being humble. During his younger years as a Top Gun pilot, actually the first one, he thought everyone on the aircraft carrier was there to support his mission. Those 5000 people actually all support one another in accomplishing a lager goal. The guy that cuts your hair, the sailor that feeds the pilot each is integral. Realizing these moments in our own lives and remaining humble is elemental to create a sound life founding platform. 
Adversity Not Wasted
Charles admittedly has a wonderful life. He says, "I couldn't dream up a better life." However, there's a cost to create a fulfilled life.
Adversity is a terrible thing to waste," says Capt Charles Plumb. He knows about rough times. A fighter pilot in Vietnam, Charles was shot down, captured, beaten and tortured by his captors at the Hanoi Hilton. Charles spent 5 years in captivity. That experience heled shape the man Charles is today.
"Challenges are often the best things that can happen to a person." 
Consequently, focusing on the opportunity provided by adversity, rather than becoming bitter unlocks opportunity. This positive orientation transforms adversity into stepping stones to success. There's a high-cost to a wonderful life; adversity gives you credit towards acquiring it.
Discipline: Mind Body and Soul
Disciplining the mind, body and soul prevents going off the deep-end when challenges present themselves. It's easy to let a single moment of failure be the biggest moment of one's life. Instead, Capt Plumb wants people to take that moment and refuse to let it define them in the negative. 
Remember, Mark's dad's words, "Tough times come and go, but tough people go on forever." 
Finally, be like Charles, when adversity is offered, grab it and use it to make you a better, stronger more complete person.

Dr. Charles Weaver is an oncologist who founded Cancer Connect. Dr. Weaver views researching or working with cancer patients as the most positive for a doctor to do. For him, the work is an opportunity to engage with people who need information, hope and a guide.
Charles life’s focus began to change. Though he was a successful oncologist, Dr. Weaver turned to, like anyone, the internet for answers. This process led to a realization that the patient’s experience, once diagnosed, was a maze of uncertain information. Few first-hand accounts and or reliable ways to ask the basic questions existed.
Cancer Connect was born--the program now links 1000’s in a community that is united by cancer. Over the years the group grows--27000 articles written by experts, access to former cancer patients with experiential advice and knowledge and more. The Cancer Connect community is a special place.
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Brett Archibald spent 28 hours alone, lost at sea with nothing but his faith, family and friends to guide him. A case of food poisoning puts Brett on the railing of the ship in a storm as he and friends crossed the Mentawai Strait off Sumatra, Indonesia. At some point, Brett blacked out and was thrown into the ocean. Once he came to, Brett watched as the ship continued on without him. 8 hours after falling, Brett's friends finally realized the horrible truth.

Bill Valenti is a banker, an entrepreneur, a cancer survivor, and a protest songwriter. Bill’s life is packed full of accomplishments. His tale starts by busking on the liberal revolutionary streets of Paris while attending school in the 60's.
Linguist
Next, is the Vietnam war. Bill decided to enlist. He was assigned to the Defense Language Institue in Monterey Ca. Bill became a Chinese linguist to counter the efforts of Chinese forces against US interests.
Banker
That experience directly led to Valenti working overseas in banking opening and establishing branches in Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong. Subsequently, banking created opportunities for him to invest in emerging Asian companies like Samsung and Hyundai.
Founder
Each step building on the other, Bill's experience in the Asian markets enabled him to pioneer products that expanded the usefulness of cell phones. Tegic, a company that was the precursor to modern texting, solved the problem of placing 26 letters onto a 9 digit phone keyboard.
His next company Melodio pushed streaming music from the bounds of an iTunes account on a desktop computer and pushed it to the customer's cellular device.
Musician
Finally, Bill met his greatest challenge, Stage 4, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His cancer, though stage 4, was indolent; meaning it was in a holding pattern and not an immediate threat. However, the diagnosis was enough to spur Bill to "Get off the Start-up merry-go-round" and get back to his musical roots. With this new focus, Bill's penchant for a protest song grew. Bill realized that the words he wrote in blogs commenting on news stories delivered greater impact in song form. These songs were filling a gap left unfilled since the 60's and 70's.
Survivor
Finally, finding the answers he sought in music, Bill got back to doing more than just performing. He began creating events called "The Art of the Protest Song." In places like Austin Texas, Bill finds local musicians. These performers help set up an event creating opportunities for audiences to hear unifying messages that get beyond partisan politics. Along with the events, Bill began a new start-up called Rantcaster. Rantcaster's mission is simple, "Rantcaster is changing the world of online journalism. We unite music and spoken word poetry to invigorate the news in the digital age."
As life often does, Bill Valenti finds himself full circle. He's returned to his musical roots. Bill notes, "Music is medicine. Music does something special for audiences, it's "edutainment," it's hyper-energizing which is what I need to keep my spirits high. I hope to be like Pete Seeger and perform until the day I die."
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