Turning Adversity Into Opportunity — The Story of Shackleton
“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in event of success.” — ad for the Endurance expedition.
In 1914 British explorer, Ernest Shackleton supposedly ran this ad in the London newspaper, The Times, for a harrowing journey to explore the Antarctic. While historians have been unable to find a copy of this ad, the message behind it rings true of a time “when ships were made of wood and men were made of steel.” Ernest Shackleton was setting out for a Trans Antarctic expedition. On December 5, the crew left South Georgia, a small island in the south Atlantic.
It would be another 497 days before they touched land again.
In January 1915, The Endurance became trapped in ice. Shackleton and the crew hunkered down, distributing rations, creating a routine of chores and finding ways to stay entertained. Shackleton was respected by his men and looked to as a master of getting out of sticky situations.
The crew remained 1,200 miles from civilization and had spent seven months in the ship on the pack ice. However, in October the ice forced Shackleton and his crew to abandon the ship, setting up camp on top of the floating ice, their new home for the next six months. As they floated along on the ice floe toward Paulette Island, trying to reach a supply depot, they helplessly drifted past it.
On April 9, 1916, the ice floe began to break apart beneath their feet. Shackleton and the crew hurried onto their three small boats with a new heading of Elephant Island, 100 miles away. They battled raging storms for seven days, faced 17 hours of darkness each day, went days without sleep, and their mouths were so dry they could not swallow food. Eventually, they made it to Elephant Island.
Realizing the crew had one hope of survival, Shackleton and a small crew of five men set off on the water again on a 23-foot boat, heading toward the whaling station on South Georgia Island,800 miles away in search of help. The small crew again faced raging seas and extreme gales, with waves reaching heights of 50 feet. At one point Shackleton said, “I called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later I realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave.” For 16 days, they made the journey despite perilous conditions. “Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all,” said Shackleton.
They neared the south tip of South Georgia Island and as they finally broke through the ice into the bay and began pulling the boat ashore, the main pin holding the rudder fell out. Landing on the side of the island opposite the whaling station, they had to traverse glaciers and mountains never before traveled by man. With some rope and screws sticking out of their shoes for traction, Shackleton and two of the men set off without a map, leaving the other two behind, as they were too sick to continue. A few days later, three scraggly men made their way into the whaling station. Shackleton said, “Superhuman effort isn’t worth a damn unless it achieves results.”
It took three months, but in August 1916, Shackleton returned to Elephant Island to rescue what was left of his crew. Every single crew member who set out on the expedition survived.
Despite setback after setback, Shackleton had the fortitude to push on, despite seemingly impossible odds. Others might have given up. Shackleton’s story is one of adventure, leadership, suffering, and, like the rest of this chapter, mental toughness.
If you were in Shackleton’s place, do you think you would have had the fortitude and mental toughness to survive? In this chapter, I will show you why superhuman mental toughness isn’t as crazy as it sounds.
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In this blog series, I share excerpts and stories from my book, Hard Wired. I hope you enjoyed this post — if you enjoyed it and want to connect you can reach me here via email brandonlgustafson@gmail.com or connect with me on social: LinkedIn or Instagram. Also, you can also find my book on Amazon — here is the link to buy it: Amazon Link.
