#13 The Greatest Rescue Mission in History Part 3

April 9, 1916. For more than a year, Shackleton and his men had been stranded in the most unforgiving place on Earth. Antarctica had taken their ship, crushed it beneath tons of ice and left them marooned on a drifting ice floe. Cold, hungry and forgotten by the world. They had waited, watched the ice melt around them, hope for rescue that never came. And now the flow was breaking apart beneath their feet. Shackleton made the decision. They would take to sea in three small lifeboats and attempt the impossible. A hundred mile journey through the most violent waters on the planet with no map, no margin for error, and no guarantee of survival. The destination, a jagged piece of rock called Elephant Island. It was their only chance. The boats were open, the weather was brutal, and the men were exhausted. But Shackleton didn't hesitate. He wasn't just leading a journey, he was dragging 27 men in their flicker, their last flicker of hope across the edge of the world. This was the moment they had left safety behind and stepped into legend. So welcome back to a new episode. Today I read my cold open for this episode. I love this episode. And we're finishing up the endurance book in the journey of Shackleton throughout the last couple of weeks. The reason why this episode did not get uploaded until later was because I went to Austin, I got to meet up with some of the world's best biohackers in the whole world. High tech, you know, influencers, all these people and really was a life changing event. Definitely recommend that you guys should go. It's called the Health Optimization Summit and I got to go with an amazing, incredible team. And the, the largest thing that I took away from that was that you can change people's lives. And whatever you're building or whatever product you're building is it really can change people's lives. And so that's what I'm trying to do with Uncommon Excellence. You know, the mission of Uncommon Excellence is to be able to say, hey, we're all called to different things, but ultimately there is a standard of excellence that everyone needs to have. And this standard of excellence is universal for every single person. And I think what really is pulled out of most of these books, especially Isadore Sharp's book the Founder of Four Seasons, where, you know, the standard of excellence, when you treat people well or you have that standard of excellence, it will greatly influence people. And so I think that's the big key of Uncommon Excellence. And you know, I think that this podcast will help transform lives and I really just want to hone in on the excellence part Right. Uncommon Excellence is a standard and not it. It's really a lifestyle. It's not, you know, it's a lifestyle mindset and it's a standard. It's not just something that you listen to. It's actually something to enforce. And so that's the whole goal behind this podcast. Had a great time in Austin. Got to, you know, see Chris Wilmington Williamson talk. Great speaker, really smart. The guy he just interviewed, Naval. Naval Ravikant is actually my next book for the podcast. Started reading it, I'm about 20, 30% of the way through. But Naval's book is really interesting. He's actually the co founder of angel investors and so he did all of that and one of the smartest guys and one of the. Probably the best book I've read yet for my podcast or for this podcast. And so I'll be doing an episode next week on him. But right now we are going to finish up Endurance and this is basically the last part of the book. So this is the whole story from them landing on the Elephant island to the very end. And you'll have to figure out and find out what happens. So we start in on April 9th in 1916, and they're leaving this ice flow. So they're going through these. They're going through all these ice. Just think about an ice flow is just a big ice block. And so they're going through this. The ice is melting and they've been adrift for nearly 500 days. The endurance was gone and food was disappearing and the time was up. And Shackleton says, all right, we have to head for Elephant Island. So they start going. But the sea is brutal. It's open and hostile. What is one of the craziest things about this sea is that it could have waves up to 200ft tall. That's what they were dealing with. So they're in these like little lifeboats and they're 22 and a half feet long. They're going through the worst and brutal sea in, in a. In the world. They. The waves can get up to 200ft tall and these are deadly places. So they're like, they're. These are the conditions of this journey. So it's extremely cold. It's so cold that the ice melts onto the boat. It's also so cold that not only does it melt to the boat, but it, or, sorry, melt. It freezes onto the boat. It also freezes onto them. So there's ice on their clothing. They're continuously trying to get the water out because the moment it turns to ice. It is like a big rock in the ship and it's sinking the ship down. So they have to keep bailing the water, get it out. There's waves coming over them. They barely rest and they're all cramped and they're freezing. They're also you know, like frostbitten hands. Some guy lost his toes because of how bad it was. But they, they were trying to navigate through these iced seas and actually a common theme was they, it was so cold and the water was so wet that it froze the sea. The, the, what do you call it, the ship mast or something like that where it's on top of the ship and the wind blows and it sails. Well, it froze that and so they would have to like break the ice off of it. They also had to break the ice off the outside of the ship. And so I think that the moral, the more the just the toll of the whole journey there was sleep deprivation, frostbite and just physical and mental exhaustion. But I think something that was really interesting is they didn't break throughout this whole thing. Shackleton was a great leader and he figured out how to keep them optimistic. This wasn't as optimistic but they, they, they were definitely exhausted. And this guy named Frank Worsley he was navigating by this device that allowed them to see their position. But there was, he had to have clear, a clear sky to see the sun in order to pinpoint Elephant Island. And he only got like four moments where he could do that. And so he's navigating. He or he only got a certain amount of times and he finally found it or so he was locating it. And at one time it was like hey, we're like 10 miles away from the island. The next time it was like oh wait, we're like 50 miles from the island. And then the next was like we're five, five miles. And so it was really hard because the rare moments of clear sky was very noticeable and they, it was very slim margin of error for them and especially Frank because he was trying to lead them to the right place. And so they were there for almost, almost, nearly a week at sea. And then they had reached Elephant island on April 15th. And this is the first time they stood on land in over 16 months. Solid land, like an island in over 16 months. And the men are just overjoyed that they're on the island but they're also thinking long term vision where they want to make sure that they're, they're going to get back to safety and rescue and so they stay here for about a couple weeks. And there's this quote by Napoleon Hill that says, victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting. And this is really the key takeaway after they arrive at Elephant island, where it's like, you know, victory is always possible if you're. If you're someone who's refusing to stop that fight. Right. Ultimately, you're gonna get what you want in life if you, if you refuse to stop fighting and you keep persevering, Right? Because that, that's the biggest thing in success. And these people we see, Elon Musk. Elon, he started PayPal, or I think he sold PayPal, made a lot of money. He decided to put money into Tesla and money into SpaceX. They. And before they were ever successful, there was a time, I think, in 2008 where it got so bad that he had to decide whether to keep one or lose the other. And he decided to keep both when he. He shouldn't. Well, now it was a great, great decision, but back then that was like, oh, so are you gonna kill both of them? Like, it's like if you could save one and kill the other. He decided to save both, but everyone thought they would both die. And so he always kept persevering. He would sleep on the floor overnight in the office, so he would, like, wake up at 5 or whatever. But after sleeping in the office, he did this with X as well, where, when he took over Twitter, he did that for like a week, I think, where he was just sleeping in the offices. And so I think this quote where it's like, victory is always possible for that person who refuses to stop fighting, it's so applicable to everything you do, because if you give up easily, then, you know, the world is a place of doubt and destruction, right? Where. And what I mean by that is every time, you know, someone says something bad about you or they, you know, there's always going to be forces against you. And how you respond to that is the key to whether you're going to be successful in life or not, Right? And ultimately that's gonna either make or break you. And so we get to the point where Shackleton is getting. So they get onto the island, it's desolate. They actually. The boats break up. And so one boat goes one way and the other goes another way. But there's literally one beach. It's not even a beach, it's just rocks, but there's like one beach that both land on. They circle around the island. It's the only spot on the whole island that they can actually, like, you know, stay at. And so it's really desolate, far from any shipping lanes, and basically no one will find them. And so Shackleton has to assess the situation quickly, and he realizes that if they stay and just stay there and wait for help, they're going to die. So within days, he resolves to take a crew of about five people and sail to South Georgia. And that's over 600 miles away, and that's in one of their safety boats. And I think the interesting thing about this is that this is really the mindset of great founders. And they. They don't get paralyzed by all these impossible odds, right? You look at most of these people and you think, wow, how did each Elon Musk defy these odds? Or how. How did someone like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or any of these billionaires, how. Or just successful people, how did they defy these odds? And one of the key insights is that they acted when everyone else would wait. They. They pulled the trigger when they were supposed to. And I think. I love this quote by David Ogilvy. David Ogilvy is amazing. If you haven't, you should read his books. Um, I haven't read his books yet, but I've heard amazing things about him. One of the greatest marketers to ever live. But he says that if you wait for the perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. And it reminds me of this quote that I actually posted on my social, on my socials where it said, ships that wait for the perfect wind, never sail. Or this other one that athletes that work, that wait for the perfect time to train, never train. Something like that. Where it's like, if you're waiting for those perfect conditions to set sail, to do what you want to do, that's never going to happen because you'll never get anything done. And the perfect conditions will only be perfect for maybe a short time, or not even as much time as you're going to want. And so starting now, for whatever you want to do is key and vital. And Shackleton knew this, Elon Musk knows this. David Ogilvy knew this. And so I think that's one of the key things that, you know, you should take away from Shackleton's mission if you want to become successful. And it's not even about the success, it's about hiring your standards of excellence, right? And so the next thing that happens is the journey from the island. So they leave. Shackleton goes with either five other guys or four other Guys, I think it was five other guys. But they leave the rest of the crew, 22 guys just by themselves and with a decent amount of food. They split the food half and half. And so Shackleton, Worsley, Karine, Mc McNish, Vincent and McCarthy, they set sail in the James Kard or Caird, which is the boat, the safety boat. And so the boat is 22 and a half feet long. It's reinforced by one of the guys there with wood and canvas. And it, it's still an open lifeboat but they tried to reinforce it as much as possible. And so what they had to deal with was insane. 17 days at sea. So over half a month, 50 foot waves, Gill force winds and then ice building on the sails, constant bailing of water. There was always one guy steering. They had to actually change out things. So they would have one guy go in and steer and they would have one guy sleeping and they would always be rotating. Think it was four hour rotations. And so the water was constantly freezing because of how cold it was. They, their rations, they had powdered milk, lumps of biscuit and blubber, blubber from the seals. And one of the, one of the crazy things is that it really makes you appreciate what position you, you're in no matter where you're at. I don't care what you say. I, there's no way your life is worse than what they had to deal with right now or just back when they did this journey. It really makes you appreciate life to the fullest. And if you think you can't do something or you can't survive or you just live in that mentality of victimhood that is something that will destroy you. And you need to be aware of that. Right? You, you could be living in the, you could be living anywhere in the world and become successful. The Daniel Priestley talks about this where we are in the entrepreneurial revolution and the entrepreneur, the, the, this revolution, basically the entrepreneur revolution is designed to, to create wealth beyond anyone's wildest dreams where, you know, so anyone in any part of the world could easily grab a camera, grab anything and become successful. And it, it really doesn't matter what conditions you're living in. This is Segway segmenting or coming out of the industrial revolution where they told you, hey, you got to go to school, you have to get paid hourly, you have to do all these things. And so that's one of the most important things where you know, you live in the entrepreneurial revolution. And so no matter what stage of life you're in no matter what you're doing, no matter who you are, you can easily start a business right now, become uncommon, become excellent, raise your standards at what you're doing and become successful like any other one of these guys. The biggest thing though with Shackleton tying this back into Shackleton is that Shackleton, he is really, he's living in the worst, the worst. And he still was able to persevere. And that gives all of us encouragement and should give us encouragement because you know, our, our troubles are so petty to what Shackleton had to deal with. And now like Shackleton, you're. No one's gonna. It was only 28 guys that dealt with this probably in the whole world or mostly just with these sets of problems. But what's really key about what we're doing is that you know, no matter what stage of life you're in, no matter where you are, you can easily become successful or do what you love to do. And with Shackleton, it's like he's going through the worst of the worst. Hit Worsley, who's doing the sightings to see if they're close to South Georgia island or, yeah St. George's island or it's South George's Island. That was all based off of life or death situations and thankfully most of us are not living in a life or death situation and you know, we can really take that to the next level. And so they continued on with the story the South Georgia it, they miraculous, they miraculously reach the coast of the South Georgia island but they land on the wrong side. And so the whaling station is about 22 miles away. The boat is basically like getting destroyed. Like it's, you know, unusable. And so Shackleton and two other guys, they decide to make the crossing on foot. So they go for 36 hours non stop, no sleep, no maps. They're, it's crazy. These mountains are like 3,000ft or higher. There's, they're climbing glaciers, they're sliding down slopes. They literally they one time, Shackleton, it was going to freeze. It was starting to get darker, it was going to freeze. And if they didn't get off the hill soon they would probably have froze to death. And, and so Shackleton and the two other guys, they slid down the slope in order to avoid that. And then they were also navigate not navigating crevasses by instinct. And a crevasse is basically think about like a crevice but like 10 times larger. So it looks like a small cut on the surface but it could go for like 40, 50, 60ft deep and be like a chasm. And so basically they are doing this. They have to make it to the whaling station, save the other three guys that are by themselves on the other part of the island. And then they have to go from there and go all the way back to the Elephant island where the other 22 guys are, and save them. And so they're going non stop. They thought they found the bay, but they didn't. And so they kept on going. And then they finally arrive May 20, and they're bearded, they're blackened and almost like barely human because of what they've had to endure. And the whalers are like, who are these people? Like, no one has ever at this point crossed that island. And so the whalers are like, where did these people come from? Like, we have no idea. Did they just come out of the mountains? Like we, we. No one has ever navigated the island before. It's too dangerous. And so the whalers, you know, are just, the whalers are like really, you know, they're really interested to see all these, you know, these three other guys. And so the thing that really stood out to me was that Shackleton immediately, like, I think they rest for maybe a couple days, but they go save their other three guys. They organize a rescue boat for the men on the other side of the island. And like, he is focused so hard to return to Elephant Island. He tries three times, but it's blocked by ice because it, it was winter time or May and August was like winter time for Antarctic, the Antarctic or Antarctica at that time. And so the ship was blocked by ice, but then they finally made a fourth attempt with a ship called Yacho or. Yeah, Yeho. And it, it finally breaks through and he saves them. And the crazy thing is this rescue date is that after, it's over four months after Shackleton had left previously. So I, I think that's insane and remarkable because they stood out or they, they survived for four months without Shackleton. And Shackleton was very interested. He was scanning the beach, making sure they were okay. He was like, are, are you guys okay? Like, like, are, did any of you guys survive? Did any of you guys die? Like, what happened? And they, they all miraculous, miraculously survived and not a single man was lost. And I think this shows about Shackleton that, you know, leaders, Simon Sinek says that leaders eat last. Shackleton wasn't in it for himself. He was focused on getting everyone back. And this is a really powerful message. And the final reflections and what Shackleton really proves to us reflecting on this book is that pure perseverance is actually a strategy. It is a strategy. And he never let his men see him panic. He never let his men, you know, become demoralized. They always persevered. He also showed that preparation and improv, improv or improv, like winging it. So preparation and improv, improvisation can coexist. And he planned obsessively about what was the right next move. But he always was adjusting constantly. So he kind of mastered those two, where he was able to prepare, but he was also able to improvise if need be. And another thing is that the mission had never left his mind. He was almost like torturing himself with the idea that if he didn't get these men back to civilization and help them survive, he couldn't live with himself. And so the whole mission of surviving, keeping his men safe and having them all survive was one of the key motivators that drove Shackleton to save all of his men. And I think another thing that Shackleton shows us is that the cost of greatness is responsibility. He bore this weight alone. You know, he was responsible for every man and he was going to get them back no matter what it took him. And he had to bear that alone. And so David Goggins actually says that successful people are those who can endure the most pain and keep on going. Shackleton embodies this. So just tremendously, he, he was someone that endured the most painful, whether that was mental or physical, and he was successful in his mission. So now we, now we get to this point where, you know, we have to ask ourselves, right? What is your South Georgia? Or what is your mission? And what's the thing you've told yourself? Or what's the thing that you have told yourself that is impossible, right? What's that thing that's keeping you away or keeping you suppressed from doing what you think is impossible, right? Like what is your South Georgia? What, what is the thing that, that's holding you back? And the question is, another question is, are you acting like Shackleton, right? Are you rowing forward when it feels hopeless? The thing is, and this is the key reminder, greatness isn't earned in perfect conditions. Greatness is earned in, you know, storm tossed boats. It's earned with the frozen hands. It's earned in total darkness and it's earned when no one would blame you for quitting. You know, Endurance was, it was more than just the name of his ship, it was more than the name of Shackleton's ship. It was actually, it was the quality that saved them all. Shackleton's journey is one of the most inspiring journeys I've ever read because it's reminded me over and over again of how grateful I should be for what, what positions I've been put into, whether that's my job, whether that's my podcast, whether that's what I'm doing in school, whether just anything, you know, all of it. I need to be grateful and I need to be thankful for where God has put me. And the interesting thing with this is that Shackleton lived in the worst conditions and he was still able to have optimism. He was still able to, you know, bear that mental endurance, have that mental endurance and have that physical endurance and, you know, spiritual endurance, right? And I think that's one of the greatest things for us. You know, that the mission of life is hard, but for Shackleton, it was even harder. For us, it's easier. I mean, we have the Internet. It's way easier, especially with AI nowadays, where we can do all these things, but ultimately it all the whole journey, right? When you think it's hard and you want to quit, just remember Shackleton. Just remember what Shackleton did, and that will throw everything back to this mindset of gratefulness and thankfulness of where God has put you. And so I really just want to close this out with saying, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I will be doing my naval episode next week, and I am grateful that you are listening to this and I hope this episode touched you and that this can be life changing. And if you have any comments or reviews, leave them down in the comments so I know how to help or how to improve this podcast, and I'll talk to you guys again soon.