Why You Should Apply For A Job That Says, “Men Wanted For Hazardous Journey”
Early in the 20th century, the Irish-born British adventurer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton set out to explore the Antarctic. Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, had only just become the first explorer ever to reach the South Pole, leaving one remaining conquest: the crossing of the continent via the southernmost tip of the earth.
The land part of the expedition would start at the frigid Weddell Sea, below South America, and travel 1,700 miles across the pole to the Ross Sea, below New Zealand. Shackleton estimated the cost would be about USD 250,000.
“The crossing of the south polar continent will be the biggest polar journey ever attempted,” Shackleton told a reporter for the New York Times on December 29, 1913. “The unknown fields in the world which are still unconquered are narrowing down, but there still remains this great work.”
On December 5, 1914, Shackleton and a crew of twenty-seven men set out for the Weddell Sea on the Endurance, a 350-ton ship that had been constructed with funds from private donors, the British government and the Royal Geographical Society. By then, World War I was raging in Europe, and money was growing more scarce. Donations from English schoolchildren paid for the dog teams.
But the crew of the Endurance would never reach the continent of Antarctica. Just a few days out of South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic, the ship encountered mile after mile of pack ice and was soon trapped as winter moved in early and with fury.
Ice closed in around the ship “like an almond in a piece of toffee,” a crew member wrote.
Shackleton and his crew were stranded in the Antarctic for ten months as the Endurance drifted slowly north until the pressure of the ice floes finally crushed the ship. On November 21, 1915, the crew watched as she sank in the frigid waters of the Weddell Sea. Stranded on the ice, the crew of the Endurance boarded their three lifeboats and landed on tiny Elephant Island.
There Shackleton left behind all but five of his men and embarked on a hazardous journey across 720 Nautical miles of rough seas to find help. Which, eventually, they did.
What makes the story of the Endurance so remarkable, however, is not the expedition, it’s that throughout the whole ordeal no one died, There were no stories of people eating others and no mutiny. This was not luck. This was because Shackleton had hired good fits. He hired the right men for the job.
When you fill an organization with good fits, those who believe what you believe, success just happens. And how did Shackleton find this amazing crew? With a simple ad in the London Times.
Compare that to how we hire people today. Like Shackleton, we run ads in the newspaper, or on the modern equivalents, of LinkedIn or Monster.com. Sometimes we hire a recruiter to find someone for us, but the process is largely the same. We provide a list of qualifications for the job and expect that the best candidate will be the one who meets those requirements.
The issue is how we write those ads. An ad might say, for example, “Account Executive needed, minimum five years’ experience, must have a working knowledge of the industry. Come work for a fantastic, fast-growing company with great pay and great benefits.” The ad may produce loads of applicants, but how do we know which one is the right fit?
Shackleton’s ad for crew members was different. He did not say what he was looking for. His ad did not say: “Men needed for the expedition. Minimum of five years’ experience. Must know how to hoist the mainsail. Come work for a fantastic captain.”
Rather, Shackleton was looking for those with something more. He was looking for a crew that belonged on such an expedition.
His actual ad ran like this: “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”
The only people who applied for the job were those who read the ad and thought it sounded great. They loved insurmountable odds. The only people who applied for the job were survivors. Shackleton hired only people who believed what he believed. Their ability to survive was guaranteed.
An age-old saying goes — You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.” This is all fine and good; the problem is, which attitude? What if their attitude is not one that fits your culture?
I love asking companies whom they like to hire, and one of the most common answers I am given is, “We hire only passionate people.”
But how do you know if someone is passionate about interviewing, but not so passionate about working? The truth is, almost every person on the planet is passionate, we are just not all passionate about the same things.
The goal is to hire those who are passionate about “your” purpose, cause or belief, and who have the attitude that fits your culture. Once that is established, only then should their skill set and experience be evaluated.
Shackleton could have had the most experienced crew money could buy, but if they weren’t able to connect on a level much deeper than their ability, their survival would not have been a foregone conclusion.
Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them. Truth be told — People are either motivated or they are not.
So unless you give motivated people a bigger challenge and something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward; they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you will be stuck with whoever is left.
Always remember that average companies give their people something to work on. In contrast, great & innovative companies give their people something to work toward.
And there lies the key difference. So, one question that you should always ask when you are sitting in front of someone interviewing you is — “What are you going to offer me to work toward?”
If the answer is not satisfying, you know you are sitting at the wrong table.
In my publication Any Given Sunday, I mostly write stories about parenting, being a dad, motivation, fitness, and some off-beat controversial topics.
I am also very passionate about F1, and run a publication — Formula One Forever where writers from across the globe contribute to this publication
Some more thought-provoking stories from Any Given Sunday —
Dad Stories
⭐ Say Hello! To The 4 Year Old Forrest Gump
⭐ If You Don’t Pick Up Your Kids Now, You’ll Surely Regret Later
⭐ How to Extract A Commitment From Your Teenager?
⭐ That Day When Dads Took Charge Of Their Kids For 1 Day
⭐ Your Kids Need To Sleep For Atleast 8 Hours. Otherwise, The Consequences Are Quite Severe
⭐ Teachers, Stop Asking Children To Click Pictures. Instead, Do This One Thing
⭐ If a 9 Year & 4 Year Old Can Climb 69 Floors, What’s Really Stopping You?
⭐ The Real Truth About The Discovery Of The Indus Valley Civilization
Motivational Stories
⭐ If I Miss A Rep, I Punish Myself. And The Results Are Amazing.
⭐ Top 15 Quotes from The Navy Seals That Will Motivate The Hell Out Of You Everyday.
⭐ 5 Simple Reasons You Are Not Motivated, And What You Need To Do About It.
⭐ To Merely Want to Do Something Is Not Enough. You Need To Take Action.
⭐ To Earn Respect, You Have To Look Sharp
⭐ How To Manage Negative Talk From Negative People?
⭐ Making Promises To Yourself Don’t Work. Never Will.
⭐ When Disaster Strikes, Just Say The Four Letter Word.
⭐ Fail You Must. History Is Full Of People Who Failed & Bounced Back
⭐ Achieve Personal Glory By Embracing Your Challenges With Open Arms.
⭐ Why You Should Apply For A Job That Says, “Men Wanted For Hazardous Journey”
⭐ Be Different. Become Different
Off-Beat Stories
⭐ The Information Tsunami Is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It. (Part 1)
⭐ The Information Tsunami Is Sucking You In. And You Don’t Even Know It. (Part 2)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 1)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 2)
⭐ Women Should Stop Trying To Walk Shoulder To Shoulder With Men (Part 3)
⭐ 26 Amazing (Or Not) Things That We All Can Do During Humanity’s Downtime
⭐ Trust Your Common Sense To Beat The CoronaVirus
⭐ Why 2500 deaths/day is Creating a Bigger Panic and Emergency than 17,000 Children deaths/day?
