Wrapping Up the Course: Shackleton

As the recent classes were mostly about the research paper and final presentation, I was starting to forget about what was written in Leading at the Edge. So, I re-read it briefly, and I'll write down what I got from this book in general.




The book was my entertainment in the transporting time(the book was rather too big to read in a seriously crowded train, though). The most memorable episode in the book, was the episode of Simpson and Yates, introduced in the Stamina chapter, page 66. 

The sub-title the episode had was "Let Go of Guilt (But Learn from Mistakes)", and that guilt, was huge and serious. Yates and Simpson was hung at an ice wall of Andes Mountains, and Yates cut the rope to survive. It was not the kind of guilt I would know. I thought that this example was too serious for a "mistake" and "learning from it". The situation was like a bad dream. I thought of the true meaning of "the edge" and got frightened by the idea that I may have to make a decision in a circumstance like that and "learn from it".

However, the more surprising and memorable part was that Simpson, who sled deep down to a crevasse, managed to crawl out from there. He thought of the things he can do, and just repeated that. "Do what you can, even when you are in a hard time" was the lesson I took from this story.

It is strange that I didn't pick the episodes of Shackleton, even this is a book about him, but this was the most interesting story for me.




Personally, the ten features introduced in this book, are things that is already known that they are important. Although, the good point of this book is that it shows WHY it is important, with various strong stories.