By Robert Clements
Climb and Make an Ass of Yourself…!
At 11:30 a.m. on May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa of Nepal, become the first explorers to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which at 29,035 feet above sea level is the highest point on earth!
Ah the joy of winning! Whether it’s the building of an empire or raising of family and children or the climbing up of a formidable mountain! But winning doesn’t come easy.
When Sir Edmond Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay successfully scaled Mt. Everest, Hillary commented: “Without a strong inclination to overcome and achieve you simply wouldn’t try to climb Everest. It’s a very tedious, miserable slog. But if you can persist and get to the top, there’s a great feeling of satisfaction. In life, I think everyone is battling a mountain like Everest and the key to success is the same!”
We all battle mountains, sometimes every day is a climb up a mountain, but with every step up, we build muscle. Hilary and Tenzing, we would like to believe made it to the top like a breeze, but they didn’t. There must have been days of stumbling and perilous falls, of wounds and illnesses and near-death situations. There must have been days, when their own families must have told them, ‘Enough!”
They must have looked at their family members and shook their heads, because they knew that the mountain peak they saw, their friends and family couldn’t see: Because theirs was a dream to reach the top!
Yes, the key to success is to climb to the top!
Years ago, Lew Kraft, a cheese manufacturer, used to drive his horse Paddy from store to store selling his product, though without much success. One day despite the fact that his debts had been piling up and his cash register down, he said to his horse, “Today we’ll sell two hundred dollars’ worth!”
When evening came however and Kraft counted up the day’s earnings, the total came to $15.76! The worst day’s business he had ever done. “Lew,” his close friend told him, “you’re licked and you don’t know it.”
But Lew was not licked.
He plodded and pushed, he dreamt and worked hard and went on to build a hundred-million-dollar cheese business!
You have all heard of Kraft Cheese!
One day in a letter to his employees, he wrote, “The greatest blessings of my life have been a result of overcoming failure!”
Ah the joy of success! Whether it be the building of an empire or raising of family and children, or struggling against an illness:
Go climb your Everest! But climbing Everest has it’s share of bystanders who will scoff and jeer and tell you that you are a fool, and here comes another bit of advice, “Dare to make as ass of yourself as you climb!”
Last month I was asked to be the Chief Guest and give the Valedictory Address to the students at a school in Mumbai who were passing out, “Dare to Make an Ass of Yourself!” I told the students, which is one of the chapters in my book, DARE. The students were a bit startled, and I realized that for years they had been told to do just the opposite.
“Why should we make asses of ourselves?” were the questions on everyone’s faces as I looked down from the podium.
“Have any of you taken part in public speaking?” I asked.
A girl in the last row, put up her hand to tell me how she wanted to take part in a Ted talk show, and how scared she’d felt, “Did you decide that even if you made an ass of yourself, you’d go ahead?” I asked, but she said that she had been too scared and decided not to participate.
I told them how at another meeting a young lady in the front row who appeared quite shy and diffident put her hand up and told me that it was okay for people like me to speak in public but shy people like her couldn’t.
“Once upon a time, not too long ago I was shy like you,” I said.
“You?” she asked, astonished.
“And then,” I said, “I decided that if I wanted to climb this Everest, I needed to make an ass of myself once in a while and start speaking in public.”
“What did you do?” she whispered.
“I visualized myself on a stage like this. I perceived myself speaking to an audience like you all and I set about developing a persistent belief that I could do it.”
There was silence in that hall. “Then, “I said, “I decided to become an ass. I wrote to different organizations, telling them that I would like to address them on a particular subject. Can you guess what the subject was?”
“Writing?” she asked.”
“Public speaking,” I smiled. “The first to reply was a club from the neighbourhood. They asked me to speak to them on a Thursday on the elements of Public Speaking. I nearly fainted with nervousness when I accepted the invitation.”
“And did you speak?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said with a grin. “I was scared but I spoke, and today I am not afraid to speak in public anymore!”
“What is it you want to do next?” she asked as the others in the room laughed.
“To sing a solo in public,” I said.
“Are you afraid?” she asked.
“Very,” I said, “but the day I can visualize myself doing it and develop a persistent desire to excel in it, I know I will succeed!
“Dare to Make an Ass of Yourself,” I told the students, “That’s what separates Bill Gates and many other successful people from the rest of the world!”
I left the school hoping I had made new asses of the students, and would like to do the same with each of you my readers, “Go climb your Everest, and in the middle of the scoffing and jeering dare make an ass of yourself…!”
The Author conducts an Online Writers and Speakers Course. For more details send a thumbs-up to him on WhatsApp 9892572883.
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