About the Episode
Welcome back Akshay Nanavati, from a two month long adventure in Antarctica, climbing a glacier that only 25 other people have ever done. Akshay will share his adventure over his time spent in the cold, and what is next.
About Akshay
Akshay Nanavati has overcome drug addiction, PTSD from fighting in Iraq with the Marines, depression and alcoholism that pushed him to the brink of suicide. Since then he has built a global business, run ultramarathons, spent 7 days in darkness, and explored the most hostile environments on the planet. Combining his life experience with years of research in science and spirituality, he wrote the book “Fearvana,” which the Dalai Lama wrote the foreword for. All the profits from the book are going toward charity. Akshay is now on a mission to help our human family build a positive relationship to suffering in order to create a life of greater meaning, purpose and fulfillment.
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What’s shakin’? We’re back today with Akshay Nanavati, welcome back, dude!
Thank you, brother. Appreciate you having me back, man.
Yeah, you bet. Here’s the thing, we talked, it was actually about a month ago or two or a couple months or three months ago, something like that, right? These episodes are publishing a week apart, so everyone who is listening right now should go back to last week’s if they didn’t listen to it and listen to part one, right? Because it was just a week ago today that the first episode was published, but we talked about a lot of things we’ve talked about Fearvana, which is incredible, just an amazing, amazing book you have wrote, and with your background from drug addiction, PTSD, and how you overcome that living on the edge. You know how you spent seven days in darkness. We talked about a lot of things, man, a lot of stuff. But then you went off and you went off to Antarctica, for two months?
Yep.
Now you’re back, and that’s what we’re talking about.
Yes, sir.
Because you lived on the edge for two months, dude, what did you do?
The mission in Antarctica, went to Antarctica and the goal was to ski up this glacier, called the Axel Heiberg Glacier. It’s a very remote, highly challenging, extremely vast glacier. It’s the glacier where Roald Amundsen, he’s the first man to reach the South Pole, 110 years ago. He skied up to reach the South Pole, went from the edge of the coastline to a place called the Bay of Wales. So, we were to start at the ice shelf at a place called the Ross Ice Shelf, go up the Axel Heiberg and ski to the South Pole, kind of following in Roald Amundsen footsteps and this is a very remote part of the world.
Only at this point, me and my team finished climbing the glacier, we became only one of 26 human beings who have made this climb and to give you context, over 4000 people have climbed Everest, so it’s extremely remote. It was steep climbing and soft snow, and we’ll go a little deeper as we talk about it. The plan did not go entirely as we anticipated. I finished climbing the glacier, but on day 17 I had to be evacuated because of pretty severe frostbite on my finger so I did not end up reaching the South Pole. But nonetheless, I got to experience three weeks out there and the reason was two months because a lot of time you’re like waiting in Chile to get to Antarctica, waiting in Antarctica for a good weather window. Antarctica is a savage place, man. Being in a polar storm is one of the most hostile, unforgiving hostile environments a human being can endure. And so I was blessed to experience that beyond the Frostbite, I got a slight Winburn here, so Antarctica left some worthy battle scars. But that was the original plan and we can go a little deeper into it as we go. But that was the mission why I went out there.
Incredible man. I know you just brushed over it briefly. Most people listen to this through audio, but you know, I’m looking at Akshay right now, and it looks like.. what are those things on your fingers? I’m assuming frostbite, I see the Winburn on your cheek.
Winburn on my face, these are bandages around my fingers, two of these fingers are very, very black. I will more than likely lose the tips of two of them. I mean, because they’re just the cells that are dead. This one is not so bad.
I look like this big white one on my middle finger. So, this one’s not so bad. It’ll recover, these two I will lose more than likely, I will lose the tips of two of them. And the thing is, you know I was on day 17 And I I wasn’t doing anything reckless. I wasn’t walking around with no gloves on holding metal or anything like that. And it’s not my first cold weather expedition. So I’m not exactly sure to this day, I reviewed, I sort of analyzed it a great deal and I’m not sure what caused it, you know, but it was on the seventh hour of the 17th day where this particular finger this is the right middle, the right ring finger which is the worst one. It just got rock hard and I was in my mittens kind of trying to shake the finger to try to warm it up because usually the way it works out there the polar life is, you’re skiing for one hour and you take a 10 minute break to eat some food, drink some water, pee and then you continue so when you start you get cold pretty rapidly, especially above above the glacier. On the glacier itself. It wasn’t too cold, relatively speaking, of course, but it wasn’t too cold.
The challenge on the glacier was more soft snow and steep climbing which was pretty savage in its own right. But as soon as you get to the top of the glacier and you’re on the rest of like the polar plateau and Antarctica, the winds hammered you and that’s how the windburn happened is I was putting on my goggles instead of my sunglasses, and I left a gap this one was totally my fault but when burn was my fault, but this one you know not sure how it happened and and so a point I was going about the breaks, when you stop you get cold especially on the polar plateau. And then as you start going you kind of warm up. So I have no point earlier in the day or even at all an expedition to these three fingers like, get cold. So, I still don’t know what caused it but I do know what I can do better. And now I will have to do it better because once you get frostbite, you’re that much more prone to frostbite, and I am going back to Antarctica this year to do a 40 day solo expedition, where I’ll be actually the first American to have completed this particular solo expedition of 1100 kilometers from Hercules inlet to the South Pole.
So, I’m heading back this year to do a solo expedition. And I will have to be perfect out there, because now I can’t afford to be anything less than that. And to me that’s a gift like when I look at my frostbite, I believe it’s a tremendous gift because now I have to be perfect in Antarctica. And when that environment demands perfection out of you, you have to be the absolute best version of yourself in order to thrive, in order to just survive in an environment like Antarctica. So when the environment demands so much out of me, I have to be a better version of myself. And that’s a gift to experience that journey. So I’m grateful for it. I’m thriving in it. It hasn’t broken my spirit and I’ll be back out there soon enough, man.
Dude, that’s incredible. We’ll get to the amazing insanity that you have in a bit right. But first badass, right that you’re now the 27th person to do this just incredible.
Yeah, 1 of 26.
When you know 4000 People have climbed Everest and you’re now one of 26 that has climbed this glacier in Antarctica. Second, in a lot of what you said man there’s so many metaphors that I’m picking up, in what you’re saying you know how your rhythms that you had how you had to stop for a bit and pee, you know, but then if you stop too long, you’re going to get cold and then in essence you just die. That’s quite literally right. I’m thinking about business, I’m thinking about relationships, I’m thinking about life, because isn’t that how it is because there’s so many that will just decide to just sit on their ass and be complacent with where they’re at and not change a damn thing with what they’re doing. And just let life come at them rather than them going at life.
Absolutely, brother. I mean like Yeah, I mean, to your point. Antarctica is a great place to gain the lessons and to experience like the lessons translate to all areas of your life, but because it’s in such an extreme savage environment. It kind of amplifies it right because there’s consequences clearly right from frostbite fingers, potential death. So it amplifies everything and it teaches you to be the best version of yourself like As another example, when we pack our tent when we put up our tent every day, when we take down the tent every day. Everything has to be done the exact same way. So you follow a system, you follow a process, you follow a ritual, or things can go wrong, just like in a business. Right? You follow a system, you follow a process. We have morning rituals out there. One of the reasons I love it is the consequences are severe and immediate. So, if I don’t set my tent up right, the wind will take it away, you know and that could mean potential death right? So the consequences are very, very immediate and you feel that as far as the rewards like setting up the tent and getting out the wind, it is heavenly you know, so the rewards are immediate. Whereas in this world, psychologists actually call it a delayed return environment versus an immediate return environment in Antartica. The savagery is an immediate return, meaning the consequences are immediate and the rewards are immediate. In this world, I could work my ass off my business. I don’t know if the rewards gonna exactly happen tomorrow, maybe five months from now and at the same time, let’s say like every day I wake up and I check Instagram, you know, am I checking it for five days, five minutes, not the end of the world, right? But there are consequences. It’s shaping my neurological pathways in my brain and it’s shaping that and over time that is having a consequence. So, the fact of the matter is, the consequences are there. We just don’t feel it as immediate in this world. But when I come back from Antarctica, like one of my core mantras that I’m constantly beating myself is, that everything I do now there are consequences to it. And I’m reminding myself that I might not feel it today, might not feel it tomorrow, but there are consequences, as there are rewards for taking the right action, right. So Antarctica is just a beautiful teaching ground for the human experience man for life or business or success for joy for whatever it is you seek. You get to play on those edges and you find something that you can bring back in a way that you can’t unless you go like unless I get it, and that’s why I’m very blessed. experience those edges.
That’s awesome. And you’re already going back to aren’t you?
I’m going back! So, I have quite an expedition schedule for this year in May. That’s one of them. I was actually supposed to go to the Arctic in March for four to six weeks that had to be canceled, because of the frostbite. But now moving on to the following year in May. I’m actually going back. We started talking about the last time the darkness retreated. So in May I’m going back to 10 days in darkness this time. Last time I did seven, and then in June I’m going diving in the Galapagos. That’s just more of a chill trip. Then in October I do a 22 day ski crossing the Patagonian icecap, followed immediately by the 40 days solo in Antarctica.
That’s so awesome, dude, I like how you’re inserting a chill trip in there too, you know!
I like diving more and more. It’s more it’s I mean, I love it. I love experiencing nature in that way in the water, but it’s more chill compared to the hostility of polar exploration. You know?
Maybe a little bit, yes.
Exactly.
Your chill is different, cuz I mean, down there you get sharks. Exactly. Shrinking jellyfish. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah, that’s exactly it. So I mean, it’s not exactly super chill, you still have to be on your game. But how do you determine that rhythm for yourself because you’re a very process oriented and you know, rhythmic, ritualistic individual, which is amazing and that’s how you run your life, that’s cool. I’m guilty of this man. A lot of times I don’t take time to slow down enough and I hate the phrase slow down because I really feel that if you’re not growing, you’re dying. And I also feel that from your example here today, you know, it’s like, if you stop moving or when you stop moving, you get cold, you know, whatever that is, whatever scenario you’re in, you know, they use that cold is like a metaphoric symbolic word. You get cold when you stop moving. So you’re going to the Galapagos that’s great, but how do you determine “Hey, maybe I’m gonna let you know just go maybe slightly less crazy this time?”
Yeah, no good. Good question. You know for me, it’s like when I look, I have a compass that is my North Star in life. And I want to experience all edges of the human experience. You know, I want to go into all frontiers. Nature is an absolutely profound and beautiful playground to explore the human soul. It is of course, you know, it’s not just exploring myself in nature, It’s exploring the human soul because you tap into a spirit that transcends you and as an individual, you tap into the spirit of, of what the human animal is capable of what the human potential is, you know, and how limitless that truly is.
So, that’s why nature is a beautiful playground for me. But in terms of answering the question like Why that trip, I love diving, and it’s just it’s to me it’s a really cool alien world to explore and nature in all its context within its water. Water is a very different animal than land because we’re not like many of these places. Were not designed for Antarctica. We are not designed for like there’s no life in Antarctica, right? Other than the sort of penguins on the coast. In the center of Antarctica, there is no life like it is unforgiving to man. We are not designed to survive or thrive there. But, even water like that’s not our comfort zone, man walks on land, right, like we walk on land. So when you go into this, it’s very humbling. And I love the spiritual journey that all of these different playgrounds in nature, I get to experience by going there. So as far as how I choose it, I’m just looking for the next cool playground to experience the intensity of life man like I’ve been blessed with I’ve lived a lot of life in my 37 years, and I just want to keep going man like I firmly believe like you if you’re not growing, you’re dying. And so my North Star is like, these are the words that I want written on my tombstone. He wandered the world with human heart to doctor to sit with human soul. And I didn’t come up with that. That’s based on Carl Jung‘s quote, and the quote that essentially says how it goes is, if anyone wants to know anything about the human psyche, it would be best to abandon scholars and wander with human heart throughout the world. There he would reap richer stores of knowledge than textbooks, a foot thick could give him and he would know how to Doctor the sick with a true knowledge of the human soul. So based on that, like I look at my life in my book, Fearvana ends with that extended version of that quote, that’s how I choose I go wonder, like I wonder nature is a playground again, it’s it seems like I’m not exploring humanity, but you really are because you’re exploring yourself through nature as a vehicle. And it’s not just nature, like that’s why I went to Liberia to run 167 Miles run across Liberia, and I volunteered post conflict zones. So I’m exploring just all these edges of the human experience. And I come back with a wisdom that you cannot get in a book. Like, it’s great to read books, it’s great to go through podcasts, you learn, you get AHAs, but the greatest lessons lie in the arena. You know, you’re in the arena in your arena, right in the battleground of life. That’s where the lessons lie. And so I’m looking for that next battleground, looking for that next that next edge to keep in fronting and bout Galapagos just happens to be like a little bit more chill compared the other other effect, but it’s just also just gonna be really cool experience, like National Geographic is one of the best times in the world. And so I just can’t wait to see nature in such a unique way. You know?
That’s awesome. I was just reading the other day. You know, because Captain Cook’s ship was found apparently or something like that, you know, and what was I watching the other day and this was it, I think it was off the coast of Australia, somewhere around there. But I was also looking at, you know, the sea and everything. I’m like, that’s like a whole nother world down there. Yeah, it’s something that we haven’t really explored much yet because we don’t have the tech. Yeah, we don’t have people that are just brave enough to even go after it. You know, and we’re looking at space and I’ve always been a sci-fi guy. You know, I, one of my best memories as a kid was watching Star Trek The Next Generation with my dad, you know, just phenomenal but then as I’m looking at this now, it’s like we’ve got so much more to even explore here on the planet. You know, the species of things that we haven’t even discovered yet because we haven’t had the balls to go after that down there, you know? And here we’re looking out to space and that’s grand and everything, you know, but why don’t we look both directions, you know, at everything that’s around us and taking our entire environments. I appreciate what you’re doing, man. Here’s my question… How do you decide when it is to go on one of the trips that’s less intense, versus just going balls out and after just craziness like climbing a glacier?
I guess it’s somewhat intuitive like usually right now all of these Antarctic trips in the polar exploration trips are training for a very particular trip. So, my primary focus right now is polar exploration because I’m training for a never before accomplished feat. In 2023. It’s going to be legendary, like many polar like it’s. It’s often called borderline impossible, you know, so that’s why my core focus right now is polar exploration. And that’s why everything is oriented towards going back to Antarctica, crossing the Patagonian Icecap, going back to the Arctic for six weeks back in the spring of next year. So, all towards polar exploration, aiming towards this feat. And then Galapagos is just like, again, one of those kinds of cool things to do. But even the darkness retreat is going in there because I’m training for this feat. I’ll be spending 40 days this year solo and Antarctica. It’s a savage place to be completely isolated and alone. So I’m going back into the darkness to master that solitude. I’m pretty good at it. I’ve spent seven days in darkness, but there’s always more room to grow right? So I’m constantly looking for that edge right now with a very clear compass of what I’m training for. And then I will look at it every once in a while, like balancing out with maybe just a cool, unique trip. I mean, to me the trip has to be something that’s going to it’s like it’s going to be a new life experience in some way. I’m not looking to just go sit on my sack, sit my ass on a beach and well there’s nothing wrong with that if that’s your thing awesome. Like you do, everybody goes here. But it’s hard. Like man, I’m going yeah, if I’m going to go to a beach, I’ll probably go diving, you know. So that kind of thing. So that’s not necessarily a hard and fast set in stone. But as far as why I love polar exploration, among others is because there’s this great way to summarize it, well, a very famous polar explorer from back in the day he put it beautifully when he said polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time that has been devised. I love that quote.
That’s fantastic.
Exactly. It is it beautifully summarizes what polar exploration is and I’ve experienced things like mountain climbing, ultra running, being in the Marines like a lot of life, right and nothing compares to the level of suffering that you endure in polar exploration. And so as weird as that might sound, that’s the draw because here’s the thing, it’s, it’s not the suffering in and of itself that I seek. The suffering is the means it’s not the purpose. The suffering is the method to get me to the transcendence of that suffering. And if polar exploration is the greatest suffering I can seek, inevitably then it’s the greatest transcendence that I can seek because of that. So, why I go is what draws me to these worlds of like, and why is polarization so miserable because it is a relentless constant grind.
In mountaineering, for example, you sometimes take days to acclimatize, so you’ll maybe rest in your tent because you need to acclimatize or when you’re going up and down the mountain, the terrain looks different, you know? And, there’s like a dynamic nature to it in polar exploration, especially on the polar plateau of the ice cap every day looks the exact same, and it is a relentless grind every day. You are out there for eight to 12 hours a day, and you are just grinding it out on this brutal, monotonous work. Whereas like in climbing, for example, when you’re in a steep terrain, because I’ve done a lot of climbing as well, you know, the the environment demands you to be completely focused, like I was climbing Denali, where you’re on this tight ridge, and on each side is a 2000 foot drop. So inevitably, the environment forces you to be completely focused. And there’s something beautiful about that, that I love to I also enjoy mountaineering, but in Antarctica, you don’t have that, like the focus and the flow. It has to be brought upon you consciously because there’s just empty white nothingness, right. So the environment doesn’t demand you to be in flow, you have to bring your mind center to endure the monotony to endure the stillness. And I love the process of going through that challenge. Because it allows me to open new doors within my soul that I could never have gone to before. You know, and inevitably, when you open new doors, you discover new treasures. So suffering like battling the dragon, is a necessary fight to get to those treasures. And so I have to go through those sufferings. I have to experience that in order to get the treasure and that’s what I love about Antarctica. Man. It is just as raw, all powerful, Savage, unforgiving place that is not designed for men, and because it is not designed for us to thrive, we have to find something within ourselves to thrive out there. We have to tap into something greater than what we think we’re capable of in order to thrive in such an unforgiving world. And it’s tremendous, that journey of discovery and tapping into the limitlessness of the human spirit.
That’s incredible. You said that you have to acclimatize too, how long does that take?
So that was enough in mountaineering, like in full exploration, we ‘re not acclimatized, as much as you’re not dealing with significant altitudes like that. Like when we got to the top of the glacier we were, we were at what was it, I think, about 3100 meters, 9000 feet, so not significantly high, high enough that we just felt a little out of breath on the hard day for that one day, but you’re not like acclimatized per se like you would on mountains on dinar like I’ve been up to 21,000 Just under 21,000 feet in Nepal, and out there you know, you start feeling the altitude a good bit on duration.
Yeah, hard to breathe.
Exactly. Yep.
What does that take though? I’m curious cuz I mean, I traveled to not 21,000 feet but I mean even just going from, you know, Chicago to Denver, Chicago to Park City or something like that, you know, when you get out there I mean, even just climbing a flight of steps your winded a bit, but I’ve never been mountaineering, you know, but it it takes a little bit to get it adjusted.
For sure. You will feel it and it’s hard to say exactly. It’s one of those things to this day. Like researchers don’t exactly know, the answer. Altitude is very, very different. I mean, I’ve been on one mountain where I was at 21,000 feet, like crushed it. Next time, I went up to 18,000 feet and I had severe altitude headaches, you know. So it’s one of those things that we don’t really know what causes it. Well, how long it takes. Everybody’s body’s different. There’s some mountaineers who have a savage physiology. They’re just more adaptive designs. You know, I have a blood disorder that transports less oxygen, about 25-30% less oxygen through my bloodstream than a normal guy. That’s less than ideal for anybody, let alone an extreme athlete at my level.
So that affected your frostbite too?
You know, I asked the doc’s that and they said they don’t know because there’s just not that much data. It’s like frostbites, a very niche injury, like not a lot of people if people are getting it. Nobody specializes in frostbite. It’s not a lot of doctors and certainly, I don’t know how many people who would have liked to have my blood disorder and then gotten frostbite, you know, so doc was just kind of like “I I don’t know for sure.” That was but it certainly doesn’t help you know, like not having 25 to 30% Less oxygen flowing through your body is less than ideal. But you know how it is man, you’re not gonna. You don’t let your biology do not shape you right. It’s not going to shape your destiny. I mean, two doctors told me that the same drug blood disorder would kill me at Marine Corps boot camp, and they were hematologists. They were blood doctors. Obviously bootcamp did not kill me. I not only survived, I graduated infantry school as an honor graduate. So you know your mind can transcend whatever it is you’re your we all have some shit we will have to deal with like life is not always fair. You have to transcend that and you can create something more if you put in the work and you put in you know, put in the effort.
Nobody has a fair life, man. Nobody should have a fair life. I’ll put it that way. Because if you if you haven’t had the adversity, you know, maybe you don’t have anything like a blood disorder like you do, you know, or maybe someone doesn’t have to where their dad died when I was 16 or whatever else we went through or whatever, Joe down the street when through, if you look back at your life, like oh, this was pretty easy sailing or whatever, you’re doing something fucking wrong. Okay? Because you’re not challenging yourself. You’re not pushing yourself to work where you can push past mediocrity and you’re just happy with the day in the day out, which means that you really stopped moving, and you got cold. Now you gotta warm back up again.
Absolutely. And as I like to say, man, if you don’t seek out a worthy struggle, trouble will find you anyway. One way or life you’re going to suffer and the suffering of that existential dread of not doing anything with this reason why we are here on Earth is far worse. And I’ve been there man we talked about it in our last thing, you know, on the verge of suicide, doing nothing but fucking drinking day after day after day, in that misery of not living up to who I know I can be to who each one of us can be to the human spirit, the human soul. It is far, far worse. And the thing is why sometimes people are so afraid to leap is because like there’s that saying that the devil you know is greater than the devil you don’t, you know, so I will stay in this discomfort because I don’t know what’s out there in that discomfort. So we stay because what I’ve noticed I’ve really discovered this is a lot of people are afraid of taking that risk for the high because they’ll afraid that if they take that risk, they will come crashing down and hit a low and the fact is, you fucking will man, if you play on the edges, you’re gonna get burned, right? Like in some way or another. You’re gonna get frostbite, like I played in a hard place in a dangerous arena. And there’s fucking consequences. I got frostbite. So be it.
I’m well aware that that kind of shit is going to happen or potentially could happen if you play in that world, right? Am I going to stop? No, because it’s worth playing in those worlds because as I was saying, you know, like, life out there is amplified to an intensity that is so beautiful. And everything is experienced at this heightened way, which means out there the highs are higher, but the lows are also lower. But the thing is you cannot have a summit without a valley. Otherwise life is a flat ground. And I think people stay in that flat zone. Because if I take a leap to try to strive for the summit, there’s a good chance I will come crashing down in that valley. And you know what, fuck that I’m too scared to go to the valley and the thing is, you can’t experience the sun without the valley, so I play in a dangerous world there’s going to be lows, the lows experience out there and the pain cave and all this is brutal, but I would not trade that for a second. Like when I came back man, I can’t tell you how many people were like, you know, you’re stupid, you’re crazy, why would you go back what’s wrong with you? And I don’t get it. Like why couldn’t I? I mean I was telling you that I was planning my return to Antarctica on the evacuation flight. Not for one second, not even literally one second. Have I not thought about going back? Why would I not? I felt we all got burned. Life hits us. You build a business, you know that? You get hit and you rise back up because it’s rising that makes life this grand adventure man like you got to do this such like it’s the roller coaster of the human experience. That makes it fun. Why would you want to live static if everyday was the exact same it’s the roller coaster that that’s why like on a literal level like that’s why we enjoy roller coasters. Right? That’s the ride man that’s life is like that then but the thing is you got to play it that way. It’s not going to just happen.
You know what’s really cool now as I’m listening to you, because and everyone who’s listening to us, I’ll say it again, go back if you haven’t listened to part one, because the Akshay that we’re all hearing right now, is not the Akshay that has always been. You know that’s the best part of this man and why I’m so inspired by you for real because hearing where you’ve come from because that was a valley, right? That was a valley that you’re in just a deep valley in a bit late like death, pretty much that that you were in and man I remember I remember your story. And that was a valley in essence that you for some, in some purposes, you really didn’t choose, you know, because of where you were at or your place with the military and everything in the environment that was around but in some parts you probably did choose because you chose to do that in the first place. Right? But the cool thing is that there are things and there’s people that will have external forces that come in, you know, that might not be your fault. And that that’s perfectly okay. But you will get to a point and this is why I’m contrasting right what we talked about in the first episode with you and I, is where you were, you decided to make a choice and from that moment on, you now get to choose your valleys. Which is so cool because you’re choosing your peaks and you’re choosing your valleys you’re choosing your lows, I mean your your peaks or glacier your valleys article up it goes eyelids it doesn’t mean that stuff isn’t gonna pop up like frostbite, or anything else or you know the issues because of your blood disorder, but now you’re choosing your loads because you’re managing and choosing and deciding every bit of life and what it has to offer you and where you place yourself in the environment that surrounds you.
Absolutely.
I feel like I’ve known you forever you know, and I don’t know but in a lot of ways, I’m very proud of you. You know, and you and I have only talked for like two hours ever in life. But I’m just so proud of you, man because you’re an inspiration to a lot of people. And I just need to commend you and keep going after everything. You know, if you lose fingertips you lose fingertips. Okay. I’d rather lose fingertips I’d rather lose a foot I’d rather do whatever else, you know, literally or metaphorically in life than just stay where I’m at and have life run me. Life is not against me. It’s for me, and that’s the part that we have to sit on.
Yeah and then when I look in the mirror and see the scar when I look at this, to me is just worthy battle scars of a life well lived man when you’re going to play all out you’ll get some scars but scars are a testament to the story and the scars are the story of our of our adventure that is his life. Dude, I am blessed to have been able to choose my suffering. But you don’t have to take a lot of work to get here and I’m grateful now that I get to be in this space. And it’s a privilege.
The sufferings of growth edge, though, you know, that’s all it is, you know, and there’s ways in unhealthy ways to where I would use I used to create chaos in my life. Right? And that was part of the stuff that I had to go through and work through and get out of my life. But now, there’s still edges I like to dance with. Yeah, and it’s only for growth. And it’s to say, you know, the call, right, that I was on right before here. I’m like, guy should we go after this? You know, it’s a $22 million acquisition, you know and here’s me looking at building a billion dollar company and I’m looking at a $22 million dollar acquisition to continue to climb that glacier… And at this point, it’s like 10 years ago, 11 years ago, I never would have done that. Not even a thought. It’s like that’s not me. I just want to pay my mortgage. Yeah, that was 10 years ago. That’s it, but you have to keep going after things. You have to keep testing your limits, in order to see what is actually possible for you and you might find that pretty much everything is possible.
Exactly. That zone will keep expanding one inch at a time as you and I like that you pointed out and highlighted that I wasn’t always here, man. And even in terms of when I was a kid I was scared of roller coasters, I was scared of Ferris wheels. But you systematically take that one step out of the box, you know outside you push harder, push harder, push harder, and that zone keeps growing too and also in not just the zone keeps growing the edge gets further but you become the kind of person that keeps doing bad. You know, because that now becomes normalized, like I don’t I’m not fearless I get here I’m terrified at the prospect of spending 40 days solo in Antarctica, you know, it should be scary fear. Exactly. Absolutely should be scary as I’m sure you are dealing with shit that you’ve never done before. Right and you’re in the hills, you’re climbing, but that’s what makes it worthwhile, you know? And so I’m not fearless. I’m just comfortable with the experience of fear and that’s why I keep facing it and keep seeking it that next. The next challenge is the next stage of growth.
Right on brother. I love it, man. Everybody needs to go buy your book for real Fearvana.com And it just has to be that way. If you haven’t read it yet. You need to go check this out, Akshay’s story listen to episode one from last week. Right? But also go buy his book because he is an absolutely incredible man. I love our conversations. Just you get me fired up. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for coming back on to you know, I wish we could have like an annual thing. I want to keep doing this right after all your trips. I’d love to keep having you on. I keep talking about how you inspire me, man. You really do.
It means a lot, man. I appreciate you saying that snd it would always be an honor to come back and enjoy our conversations as well. Just your fire. I resonate with it. So, it’s very cool.
Seet brother thank you again.
Appreciate it brother.
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