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<\/a><\/p>\nAs I reflect on my youth, I have nothing but good lessons to glean – even from bad times. Today, 2016, we remiss about a simpler time but life is often what we make of it.<\/p>\n
Living in Memphis, my parents both worked to pay the mortgage on our home that was built in 1952. My brother was born a couple of years before me and our parents, Jim and Ida, focused their entire lives around a better life for us than they had. While this is often referred to as the \u2018American Dream\u2019, I have seen the same dreams from parents around\u00a0the world.<\/p>\n
Jim and Ida worked hard. Neither had graduated high school. Both loved their families. And their sons. They shared their values, never shied away from righting a wrong and learned right along with my brother and me. Together we were a family.<\/p>\n
First Years: Values<\/b><\/p>\n
My first ten years were filled with playing baseball in the front yard, hide and seek as night came on, hot and humid Memphis summers, being bored to death in elementary school and trips to Western Kentucky to see my Grandmother. There we played in the hayloft, chased my cousins in\u00a0the cemetery across the dirt road from her farmhouse and generally lived a life like a kid is supposed to have.<\/p>\n
I was a fun-loving, wild kid who was always getting into something. Mischievous might be the word, annoying another word perhaps! My mom never hesitated to bring me back in line. The fights I had with my brother were monumental!<\/p>\n
And when I look back at pictures of those years, I was always smiling. Maybe it was the love I felt, or perhaps the gift of living in that time, oblivious to the Vietnam War, segregation, women rights and world events.<\/p>\n
I remember having to get off the couch to change the TV channel and watching the early manned space shots – each liftoff an event.<\/p>\n
Looking back at\u00a0that time, I learned basic values of kindness and gratitude for what my parents provided.<\/p>\n
Teenage Lessons – work, competition, and leadership<\/b><\/p>\n
My teenage years were a time of understanding the value of work.<\/p>\n
Ken, my brother,\u00a0 <\/span>discovered chemistry and almost blew up the house as a teenager. I discovered Boy Scouts and was exposed to the outdoors that lead to my climbing passion today. I became a Scout Leader, my first lessons in motivating others to strive for and achieve their\u00a0maximum human potential.<\/p>\n As a teenager growing up in Memphis, I experienced racial integration first hand as students from Melrose High School were bussed to Overton High School, against their wishes. It was a turbulent experience where I, personally, came to understand and appreciate my fellow students. And it was a time of turmoil where others were forced to change and it felt like everyone fought against the very purpose of the action.<\/p>\n I have a clear and complete memory of April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King was assassinated just miles from where I lived. \u201cWill they come for us?\u201d I asked my parents as a scared 12-year-old.<\/p>\n In the 1960s, Memphis had two newspapers. I began my business career at the age of 12 by delivering the afternoon paper, The Memphis Press-Scimitar. I clearly remember \u201cthrowing\u201d papers in the deluge of hurricane Camille that dumped inches of rain hundreds of miles beyond the destruction of the Florida panhandle. A few years later my Boy Scout group would visit the devastation at Gulfport, Mississippi. It was a rare Class 5 storm but today we have many.<\/p>\n I learned from delivering newspapers about fiscal responsibility and with a monthly $400 bill, how to do collect payments door to door, deal with deadbeats and stop delivery of those who didn\u2019t pay. 97% of my customers were honest but the 3% tried to cheat me out of the $2.75 a month bill. I learned about marketing. Every Christmas I added a newsletter about their Paper Boy along with their bill. Most Christmas, I received over $500 in tips!<\/p>\n In addition to discovering what money could, I also discovered the gentler gender. I fell deeply in love, got hurt, invented the three-date rule and enjoyed dates with dinner at Arby\u2019s, movies at the Malco Theater, and Audubon Park late at night.<\/p>\n I discovered the joy of competing when I ran track in High School – my event was what was called the 440 then. I learned how to push myself hard, not give up\u00a0 <\/span>– even when I was far behind. I loved to win and learned from losing.<\/p>\n To our parent’s genuine pleasure and pride, both of their sons graduated from college; Ken with a BS in Chemistry and me with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Ken was an outstanding student, graduating Manga Cum Lade and to go on to receive Ph.D.\u2019s in Chemistry and Psychology.<\/p>\n I started college as a pre-med student wanting to be a veterinarian but changed to Electrical Engineering after my freshman year. I just didn\u2019t understand why I had to learn botany and memorize the taxonomy of living things: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species – Oh My!<\/p>\n But I did get electrons and the \u201cright-hand rule\u201d for how electricity flows and how to write software. I bought an Apple II at age 18 creating quite a stir at the bank when I took out a loan to build credit. \u201cWhy in the world would you want a computer?\u201d, the loan officer asked. I just smiled.<\/p>\n I was extremely busy with my day starting at 3:00 am to deliver newspapers and selling high-end stereos at Modern Music in the afternoon. After my false start and a five-year program, I barely got my BSEE, graduating at the \u201cThank ya Lordy\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>level as compared to my smart brother!<\/p>\n Looking back to those ten years, they were perhaps the most educational of my entire life. I learned about hard work, rewards, honesty, and the ugly side of humanity with assassinations, war, cheaters, liars, and thieves.<\/p>\n Twenties: Momentum <\/b><\/p>\n My twenties were truly a time of coming to age.<\/p>\n I went to work for Hewlett-Packard as a Sales Engineer. I did well. I sold \u2018technical\u2019 computers to Engineers for data acquisition, then \u2018commercial\u2019 computers for MRP, payroll and database applications. Technology was exploding and I rode the power curve to rise thru the ranks into Management as the youngest Sales Manager in the history of HP at that time.<\/p>\n Living in Dallas in the 1980s was like riding a wild horse. Everything was alive, exciting and challenging. Continuing to work as hard as I had as a teenager, I bought my first house, then moved and moved again leveraging the rising stock and real estate markets. And I got married. I was checking off the list as fast as possible, not taking time to breath – I had things to do.<\/p>\n These ten years were a whirlwind. If I take away anything from that time, it was that I got totally trapped by the activity trap when I often confused motion with progress. I learned about Cancer – melanoma to be precise. It attacked my wife, preventing us from starting a family. But we had the BMW, house, boat and were living the life in Dallas Texas.<\/p>\n Thirties: Diversity<\/b><\/p>\n My thirties became a time of sorrow, exploration and the beginning of a passion.<\/p>\n Moving from Dallas to Ft. Collins with HP, my work life continued to be a swirling maelstrom all revolved around work. I continued to rise in the management ranks and I got divorced – it hurt. My large extended family of aunts and uncles started to die in the old age. I rarely attended their funerals due to flying all around the world for my job racking up the frequent flyer points like candy – but I never ate the candy.<\/p>\n But I had forgotten something and flew back to Colorado to marry my girlfriend. We lived the next five years in Amsterdam and then moved to Geneva, Switzerland for a promotion where I began running HP\u2019s consumer support for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.<\/p>\n Flying to a different European country each week, I saw a new world. I began to understand differences were not a problem but an opportunity to learn. I listened carefully as I worked with a Tower of Babel of cultures to solve problems. And I learned about national pride.<\/p>\n Shutting down operations across Europe to centralize them in Amsterdam made good business sense but it infuriated each country organization. Managing tight expenses with outstanding customer satisfaction against call volumes growing 100% a month became almost impossible. I became a target from all sides but was in my zone – work, challenge, and leadership.<\/p>\n I loved nothing more than standing in front of a packed room of employees telling them that together we were going to get this thing done – make a difference. We would meet all expectations and I believed in them. And we won – for a while.<\/p>\n One late July day, a French employee came to my desk, located in the middle of a large room – HP had no private offices. \u201cSee you in September.\u201d She said with joy. \u201cI\u2019m off on holiday.\u201d \u201cWhat happened to August?\u201d I asked perplexed. \u201cOh, you are an American who loves to work. We Europeans take time to breathe while also working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n I pondered her comments as I flew somewhere I can\u2019t remember now that next week. With six months of vacation accrued (in those days you could keep unused vacation with no limits), I began to explore the world. We traveled for two weeks to Italy, took a family vacation to Greenland, a week cruise down the coast of Norway \u2026 and I climbed Mont Blanc. My world changed forever that day in July 1995.<\/p>\n I fell in love with the snow, with the climbing tools, the brisk feeling of cold wind in my face, squinting as a harsh sun made me sweat then rushing to put on a jacket as cloud moved in. A seed planted during my time as a Boy Scout and on family vacations in Colorado was awakened. It started to grow and soon I was holding onto it\u2019s swaying branches for the time of my life.<\/p>\n Yes, my thirties were an amazing time of change. I learned more about business each day in Europe than a year in the States. I learned to value the diversity of culture, race, religion, gender, and thought. And I learned how to live.<\/p>\n Forties: Survival<\/b><\/p>\n The forties brought me back to Colorado but I was like Tarzan swinging on vines in the jungle and all of a sudden I lost the next vine and fell to the jungle floor hard.<\/p>\n HP became a big ugly company with multiple CEOs and drifted in a sea of random strategies, fierce competition, and constant reorganizations. I had lost my US network while in Europe – a mistake. I also drifted from various jobs but landed as a General Manager in a start-up within HP. It was fun. I traveled again, pushed my team hard, and fought to keep a life of balance: work, family and myself.<\/p>\n The early 2000s became a time of turmoil. Fear and threats were used as motivation. Everyone was held \u201caccountable\u201d. Any semblance of faith, hope and love seem to be swept away in an environment of greed, hurt and hate. My life balance became skewed.<\/p>\n Unlike my thirties, my forties were about surviving, not living. I learned the harsh realities of big business, the greed from banks, the total cruelty that comes from disease.<\/p>\n And I learned to climb big mountains and what they could teach me.\u00a0 <\/span>I began to use climbing as a coping mechanism. I was not very good, but I was determined.<\/p>\n I trekked to Everest Base Camp in 1997 – it changed a critical part of my life. I attempted an 8000-meter mountain and summited a 22,000-foot technical pointy peak in Nepal called Ama Dablam. When I was on a mountain I felt alive. When fighting to live, I felt alive. While on the summit, everything came together. I had found my passion in life.<\/p>\n In 2002, I attempted Everest and didn\u2019t summit, I went again in 2003 with the same result. I learned a lot but not enough and I kept on climbing – each year brought another serious climb.<\/p>\n Fifties: Change and Acceptance<\/b><\/p>\n With my work life in turmoil, I entered my fifties. And the learning and the changes continued.<\/p>\n And the biggest blow of all was the day my mom, Ida, looked at me over a hot cup of coffee and said “Now, who are you again.?<\/p>\n Ida\u00a0was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s the same month my dad, Jim, died.<\/p>\n I found myself looking for jobs, caring for my mom and fighting to keep my marriage alive. Once again, mountains provided a refuge, a safe place where I could live, place where I could think deeply about who\u00a0I was, where I wanted to go – what I wanted my life to become.<\/p>\n I watched Ida slowly drift away. But I could always reach her with the values she had instilled in me – humor, kindness, and love. We sat for hours quietly together. Me remembering being\u00a0in the kitchen as a teenager asking her questions about life and the world – \u201cMom, what is the stock market? What is the difference between a Baptist and a Methodist? Is Cancer contagious?\u201d and a billion more.<\/p>\n As we sat together near the end of her life, Ida would be lost in thought\u00a0then suddenly ask me if she had eaten breakfast.<\/p>\n It was hard, it was devastating, it was unacceptable.<\/p>\n HP offered early retirement in 2007 and I took it. Being over 50 in high-technology was like walking in a war zone with a target on your back. It was just a matter of time until you got a \u2018window seat\u2019, laid off or simply fired. I took their money and ran – to the mountains.<\/p>\n Ida died in 2009.<\/p>\n In 2011, I did my first big campaign to raise awareness and money for Alzheimer\u2019s – The 7 Summits Climb for Alzheimer\u2019s: Memories are Everything. I was gone for 201 days, flew 116,000 miles and crossed 120 time zones that year. I summited all eight of the Seven Summits except Denali where weather won. Johnson & Johnson had sponsored the entire campaign and I am forever grateful. However, most importantly, I reached 35 million people and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Alzheimer\u2019s non-profits.<\/p>\n I had found my purpose.<\/p>\n Now with the intersection of passion and purpose, my life began to have meaning again. But more sorrow as I got divorced. The stress of houses, jobs, money, climbing \u2026 life had taken their toll and I had dealt with some it poorly.<\/p>\n At age 57, I had a new thought. With my summit of Everest and the success of the Alzheimer\u2019s campaign, why not try K2? I told one friend and he stopped dead in his tracks as simply said \u201cAre you crazy? 1 out of every 4 who summit die on that peak, and then there is the terrorism in the area and the wars\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>The trash collectors had been wearing the sign \u201dI Am A Man\u201d to protest low wages and poor working conditions. I only understood their meaning a decade later.<\/p>\n<\/a>But working hard paid off as I bought a brand new Pontiac Firebird when I turned 16. I switched to a morning newspaper route then a driving route so I could earn more money, faster. I was bringing in $600 a month and started paying taxes.<\/p>\n<\/a>One day in 1995, my phone rang at work – a desk phone with a cord that is :). \u201cWe want you to move to Amsterdam and open up a call center for consumer support services, and we want you to shut down all the in-country centers from Russia to South Africa, Germany and all over Europe. Are you up to it?\u201d Under the category of ignorance is bliss, this now single American rented out his house in Ft. Collins said goodbye to his girlfriend and flew to Schiphol Airport for another amazing ride in life.<\/p>\n<\/a>Based in Ft. Collins, I was rarely home during the week. And on the weekends, I climbed my beloved 14,000 foot Colorado peaks aka the 14ers. My cadre\u2019 of climbing partners grew. We loved to climb anything. One special friend, Jim, brought me under his wing to teach me about ice climbing. Another, Paul, about rock climbing. And Patrick and Robert and I ticked off the 14ers like shooting skeet discs.<\/p>\n<\/a>2006 was a difficult year. We built a new house and another but then 2008 came along and once again, I felt the sting of situations totally out of my control. The stock market crashed, the housing market crashed. I lost my job running digital cameras because we missed one out of five new product introductions.<\/p>\n<\/a>I also\u00a0discovered that cats can be man’s friend if you let them be that way.<\/p>\n<\/a>