#12 Endurance Over Ice: Shackleton's Blueprint Part 2

The Endurance is gone, crushed beneath the pressure of the ice, swallowed whole by the Weddell Sea. All that's left now is a flat, endless expanse of ice. Cold, silent and alive in the worst kind of way. Shackleton and his 27 men are marooned not on land, but on drifting slabs of frozen ocean. There is no shelter, no heat, no rescue, just the distant hope that somehow this moving mass of ice will take them closer to safety. For months, they wait. They drift. They hunt seals. They sleep in wet clothes. They share the stories by the dim light of a blubber stove, hoping to hold on to something human. It's not the cold that breaks you, it's the waiting. The slow erosion of time and sanity. And somehow, through all of it, Shackleton holds the line. Keeps them focused, keeps them alive. This is the quiet war, the one fought not with ice picks or lifeboats, but with patience, resilience and brutal discipline. And it's here, on the ice that the true test of leadership begins. I just read the intro for this episode, and so far I've read about 100 pages for this book or for this episode, and I love this book so far. It truly is an incredible book. It is one of the most astounding adventure stories I have ever read or heard about in all of my life. It truly is one of the best. One of the best stories out there. And so we pick up our story where the Endurance sunk and they have to set up their ocean camp and then they have to move to a different camp, and they call that Patience Camp. And so for months, the crew actually drifts north on ice floes and an ice flow is just a big, basically, block of ice. And it's a huge block of ice. You're looking at, like, 20. You're looking at, like, a couple of miles of ice. And it's a floating. Just block of ice. And the thing is, they have to survive on seal and penguin meat. And the ice is. And they have to melt the ice for their water. So they would have to put the snow or the ice into their cups and they would have to place it next to their body so it would heat up the ice so it would melt, so they had water. And so it really. It really shows that they were surviving. This is a survival of the fittest or just survival of the mental. It's really a mental endurance. The. The boat name. The boat name is actually really fitting because it's a suiting name for the whole journey. Mental endurance, physical endurance. This wasn't a trip that required that, and it's just incredible what they've had to go through. And so they ate sea leopards. They also ate. So they had to shoot their dogs and eat them because they were gained so low on food. And. And that's. That just shows you how desperate they were. They brought about 69 or 59 huskies with them, and they had to shoot them and eat them. And it is really sad, but they had to survive, and so they. They had to do that. But something that's really interesting is Shackleton's unbreakable leadership. He's always making decisions to protect morale. So whether that's putting his guys in a certain tent group or with him, if they were pessimists, to not allow that pessimism to spread to other people in the group. He really wanted to have everyone have a good morale, a good attitude, and really just be optimistic. And those pessimists, he would actually keep with himself. So they didn't spread that pessimist pessimism or whatever, just that, you know, sadness or depression throughout the group. And so he's always making decisions to protect the morale. And so he sacrifices his comfort and shares rations, and he always keeps his men hopeful. And he actually has this great quote that I found, which is, difficulties are just things to overcome, after all. And this really is a reflection of his mindset. And it's just. It's basically where adversary adversity was just another challenge to face and not a roadblock for him. It was just another challenge for him to face and not that roadblock that so many other people, you know, deal with. Right? You think getting up at 5am's pretty early, or some people do, and they look at that as a roadblock. They don't want to challenge themselves or just any difficulty in your life. It was so small compared to Shackleton, which is crazy. He had to literally eat and skin penguins and skin seals like that. That was the thing. And so that. That's what you're seeing in this kind of phase of this Shackleton journey. And so the next kind of part of the story is the brutal conditions of it, right? So they were dealing with the darkness of the Antarctic winter. It was freezing cold. They had damp sleeping bags. They were getting frostbitten on their hands. They had frostbite. And they were also hungry, so they were starving. And really, it shows that the mental strain was also just as bad as the physical. So they had all that physical, but the mental strain was as hard. And just like I brought up earlier, the endurance boat was actually. That was a Suiting name for the journey, right? They had to have that physical endurance, mental endurance. And, you know, I brought up the dogs being shot. That was also a morale or a moral gut punch for the men. They had made friends with the dogs. They loved the dogs, the huskies. They didn't want to get rid of them and they had to put them down, unfortunately. And so it is really sad, but it just shows you the need for survival. And something that's really interesting about this unique group of guys in the Antarctic is how resourceful they were so they could turn their sinking boat, the Endurance, into they. They use. They reuse parts of the ship, and they kept meticulous records even while they were starving. So that was for food. They kept records of the food to know how much to ration it out for everyone. They also, when reusing parts of the ship, they actually use parts of the ship to build, like a little tower, just like a small tower, but enough to hold all their food. And they could go in there and they, they stay mostly in their tents, but they would reuse parts of their ship before it sank. And it just shows how resourceful they are. This is really an elite and strong group of guys, mentally and physically, which is incredible. You would never see that. It. It would be really hard to see that nowadays. And something I admire about Shackleton is his constant reassessment of the situation. He never stops planning. And what I mean by that is every day he's reassessing the situation. He's thinking, all right, should we stay on the ice? Should we move? Should we launch the boats? Because basically, the ice, there's an ice pack. So you have ice flows, which are just gigantic things of ice. And there's ice packs. So it's just a pack of all those floating pieces of ice. Now, the thing is, that's showing up for the. The whole entire ocean. So that. That's floating in the ocean, they need it to open up so they can go through without it being too dangerous to make it to the island. And so he's always thinking and reassessing, should we stay on the ice? Should we move, or should we launch the boats? Which is really interesting because he has to make that decision. If he doesn't reassess the situation, it can mean a life or death scenario. And it really shows that he had that strategic patience and he wasn't rash. He was always thinking long game. And that long game really proved out helpful for them. And just in terms of, like, the conditions and the drifting on the ice flows, he really kept the optimism up. And what's really interesting is he chose to wait until the ice. Ice drifts. The ice drifted them closer to the open water so they could use their lifeboats. And they didn't want to have the same tragic ending as their. Their main ship, the Endurance, where it got crushed and sank. So what happened was they were trying to make it to an island, I think. I believe it's Elephant Island. And so they wanted the wind to blow their ice floe all the way up closer to it until they got to a certain part where they could launch the boats and head over to the island. And it had to be open water and they could just get to the island pretty quick. And so what ended up happening was they got blown closer to it. It opened up and they started going, but then they had to stop because it stirred. They were just really tired. And so there was a part in the book where basically it. They land on the ice floe in. And this is in 1916. And so they have been on this journey for about two years. The flow becomes too dangerous and it starts cracking underneath them. So they load the ships under the ice flow because that's what they had to do, and they loaded. So the, the three ships are the James Caird or Caird Dudley Docker and the Stancomb Wills. And they began that hard journey across the frigid Weddell Sea toward the. Toward Elephant Island. But they had to land on this ice floe, right? And so they start setting up their tents and then all of a sudden the ice cracks beneath one of their tents. And so all the guys are trying to scramble out before the ice. You know, like, they fall into the ice with their tent. And I don't really know the situation, but Shackleton or. I don't know how this worked, but either the guy fell through. A guy was still in the tent and he either fell through in the tent or he fell while he was in the tent or just through the tent. But Shackleton, like, tore away the tent and the guy was still in the water in his sleeping bag and Shackleton pulled him out. And it was crazy because the next moment the ice came back together and would have killed that guy if it had, if he had stayed there any minute longer. And so it came back. And so they. They get all ready and all that. And then there's another part in the book where they're. Shackleton, they're trying to get boats to the other part of the ice flow because it's cracking again. And they're. They're literally going over the crack to get over to this one side. And Shackleton's by himself on this ice flow trying to pull them together, but, but he can't. And so he starts drifting off, he starts drifting off into the Arctic, the Antarctic Ocean, and there's, it's all misty. Really sets up the scene well, but it's all misty and they can't see him and he has to call out and say, hey, I'm still here. Can you guys get me? So they bring over the emergency lifeboat, grab him and then go back. And these lifeboats are pretty good size. These aren't just lifeboats or plastic lifeboats. These are actually like wooden boats, like legit wooden boats. And so what's really interesting about this is what ends up happening is that they go and they go, they start going through this open ocean and they finally make it. And they haven't slept in three or four days. They, they've slept like once in four days and they make it and they have to sit down and, and they go to an iceberg. And what Shackleton was worrying about with the iceberg is that if they get onto the iceberg, it would either the weight would be too much and it would flip over and they would all just drown in the ice or, or drown in the water or. What would happen is that it would start cracking and then it would just, you know, they wouldn't be able to reach each other or it would just start cracking and then bad things would happen. And so they get onto this iceberg, then they're waiting and waiting and waiting because they need to launch the boats because they literally feel the iceberg cracking beneath them or it's going to, it could flip over at any moment, minute. And they're waiting and it's about to just like get destroyed. You know, it's like at one point of the story, literally 20ft of the iceberg just fell off into the ice and little chunks have been falling off and just a big 20 foot chunk fell off and it's like, oh, all right, now we're, we, we could die. We, like, we, we need an opening in the water so we don't get crushed or it's not dangerous. So he was getting to the point, Shackleton was getting to the point where he might have had to just go into the water, even though there was ice everywhere. And, and what ended up happening was I think there was an opening on one side and they finally went. And I think once they went, the iceberg like cracked and you know, it was really dangerous. But that was just one instance of, like, that was really bad. And then the next part of the story is that they keep going through the water and it literally. It's like, it's snowing. It's. The sea is spraying into their faces. They're getting all wet. And what happens. What. This is crazy. What happens is they got so wet that their clothes froze. And so every part, you would just, like, move around and you would get wet or, like, cold. And so they tried to stay still as much as possible because their clothes were all frozen. But, you know, it's inevitable to. To stay still. And so what ended up happening was they, like, had to stay in the boats overnight and make sure that they didn't hit any icebergs. But it was so cold. Shackleton claims it was negative 4 degrees. It was so cold that the water. They could hear the water freezing. They could hear the water freezing. And it's crazy that they went through all of this. That. That was just the conditions. They were on the move trying to get to Elephant Island. Eventually, I think it was St. George's island or one of the islands down there. And it was really crazy. And so just. I want to emphasize some key themes in just this section of the story. And really, it's resilience under stagnation. And what that means is they stayed months on an ice floe with no progress. And that can be mentally crushing. You know, this is why I believe this book is called the Endurance. It's the physical endurance, the ship endurance and the mental endurance. They had to endure the journey. And something that's. I love this quote by Albert Einstein. He says, it's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. And what I like about this quote is he says that he stays with problems longer and he just. He doesn't just immediately lose it. If they had just done that, where they had put it, like, they just went insane or they didn't stay with this journey, they wouldn't have the endurance to survive. And this really reflects and shows that Shackleton's enduring, enduring presence in the face of this endlessness. It. It really was amazing. And it reminds us that success often depends not on immediate results but on the ability to persist or. Or persist through moments of little progress. And so it's that little progress, that 1%, the atomic habits, just like James Clear talks about that 1%, before you can get to that 100% or, you know, the 50% mark, you had to do it in little incremental things. And that's what success consists of. And the next thing that I really love is that Shackleton's difference between hope and optimism. He wasn't blindly optimistic where he, you know, oh, we're just going to be fine on this ice floe or this iceberg or a piece of ice. Like, no, he, he was hopeful, but he was also grounded in action. And what's really interesting is Vince Lombardi says that hope is not a strategy. And this aligns with Shackleton's mindset because he wasn't blindly optimistic and instead he grounded hope in practical, actionable steps to ensure survival. And really another part of the story is that they get blown all the way towards the islands. So they're reaching, they're trying to get to two islands. They start on this big piece of ice. They start floating towards this, this island because the wind is just huge gusts of wind blowing their, the piece of ice towards the island. And, and they get like 20 miles in a day or something like that, or in 24 or 48 hours. Then the next day they get blown back like two to eight miles. And what's really impressive about this is that Shackleton wasn't blindly optimistic. He kind of expected this, but he was grounded. He was definitely grounded in hope and believed in what they were doing. He believed not only in that, but he also, he knew that things could go wrong and things had been going wrong. And so he expected things like this. And it just showed that, you know, these guys could, you know, they tried to stay optimistic at all times possible. The next thing is that, that he had was decision making under uncertainty. They didn't have any maps, no gps, and they just had instinct and experience. And there's a, this quote by Teddy Roosevelt, who's, who said that in the moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The next best thing is the wrong thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. So the quote's basically saying the best thing you can do is something. It's just like Nike, right? Just do it. The worst thing that Teddy Roosevelt says you can do is nothing. And Shackleton's decisions were often made with uncomplete or incomplete information and no guarantees. He knew the cost of indecision, though. And this mindset mirrors his survival approach. He knew that if they didn't make a decision, they would die or they could die. Right? That's the whole thing with Shackleton. He knew that he could die and his whole crew, who he was responsible for could die under his leadership. And he did not want that to happen at all costs. He was willing to die before they died. You know, he was willing to lay down his life before they died. And another thing, kind of the last point to this, to this part is that the loyalty and the unity of the crew really showed how remarkable it was. There wasn't a lot of, there was little mutiny and little conflict that occurred. And this was all due to Shakoten and his leadership. And John C. Maxwell really sums this up. Well, he says that a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. Shackleton's been here a couple times before, right? So he knows his way, he's went this way. So he's, he's went this way, he's go, he's been this way. And he also is showing the way for them. And Shackleton's leadership was marked by his unwavering commitment and clear vision. And he kept the crew united even when they were facing extreme conditions. I love this other quote by Simon Sinek. He's a great author. He wrote Start, Start with why. Amazing story, amazing book. But he says that when people are financially invested, they want to return, but when people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute. And Shackleton, he really had an ability to foster that emotional loyalty among his crew. And that was key in minimizing mutiny or conflict. And conflict. And his men were emotionally invested in the journey because he made them feel like they were part of something bigger than themselves. He really believed that they were doing this journey, at least in the beginning, that they were doing this journey for the betterment of society and humanity. They were doing this for the, the well being of society. And so what I, what I really love about Shackleton is that he was able to keep his crew unified. He was able to, you know, have incredible decision making under uncertainty. He was hopeful, but not blindly optimistic. And he was also resilient under this kind of months of stagnation, just like sitting on an ice flow. And so as we wrap up today's episode, just remember that Shackleton didn't survive the impossible. He led through it. And in the months of, in the face of months on an ice floe with no progress, he didn't just lose hope or he didn't lose hope, he kept moving even when there was no map to follow, because hope without action is just a dream. And in a world where most leaders are just crumbling under pressure, Shackleton's ability to keep his crew unified was what turned their tragedy into triumph. His Leadership wasn't about promises of success. It was actually about persistence. When failure seemed inevitable, it was literally 0 to 1 odds, or, you know, 0 to 100 odds. It was incredible what he achieved, and we will get to that later in future episodes. But it's. It's that kind of resilience that defines all these great founders we see. Whether that's Walt Disney, you know, Elon Musk, Brad Jacobs, Isadore Sharp, and now we're on to Shackleton. It's the ability to stand firm when stagnation sets in, to keep the vision alive when the world feels frozen around you. And so whether you're building a company, an idea, or just a life, the lessons from Shackleton is clear. In moments of uncertainty, make the decision to act, trust your instincts and keep your people with you. And I just want to leave you with this quote from Shackleton himself. By endurance, we conquer. Thanks for listening to this episode of Uncommon Excellence. And until next time, keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible and never let the ice take you down again. Thank you for listening to this, and I'll talk to you guys again soon.