Tribes by Seth Godin

Author:Seth Godin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2008-03-24T16:00:00+00:00

Climbing Rocks

Chris Sharma is a heretic who climbs rocks.

Chris changed the rules of an entire sport and, along the way, influenced the way tens of thousands of people think about personal achievement.

For hundreds of years, rock climbers followed a simple principle: one foot and one hand on the wall at all times. If you’re anchored with two out of your four limbs, you can do a pretty good Spiderman imitation without risking your life. Right left right left, up you go, little risk, plenty of progress.

Instead of staying glued to the wall, Chris jumps.

It’s called a dyno. Chris didn’t invent the dyno, but he certainly pushed it further than anyone ever expected it could go. Chris can climb routes that were previously deemed impossible. When he gets to a dead end, he looks up and jumps. No legs, no arms. Just air. Straight up, two or three or four feet, grabbing a small clump of rock with two fingers, and continuing his climb.

For a while, this was controversial. It wasn’t right. It was risky. And then, bit by bit, the guys in the factory came around. They discovered that it was a reasonable (but surprising) solution to a large number of rock-climbing problems. Suddenly, impossible routes weren’t impossible any longer.

The guess is, because Chris fits the stereotype of the typical heretic, you’re not convinced. He’s a loner; he’s risking his life and doing absolutely absurd things forty feet over the Mediterranean (and landing on his back in the water on a regular basis). It’s easy to look at Chris and say, “I could never do that.” And you’d be right. You and I will never dyno a 5.14a rock arch.

The lesson isn’t that you need to risk your fingers (not to mention your life) on a rock. The lesson is that one person with a persistent vision can make change happen, whether climbing rocks or delivering services.

Here’s a simple way to think about it: Obe Carrion, former U.S. rock-climbing champion, won a tournament in an unusual way. Obe was one of four finalists, and each had to climb a very difficult route up a steep wall. The first three finalists did the same thing. They entered the roped-off area, inspected the route, and then slowly began climbing, one hold at a time, working their way up to the top. Two made it (with a slip or two); one fell.

Obe was scheduled to go last. He came out of the isolation area, inspected the route, took twenty steps back and he ran up the wall. He didn’t hesitate or interpolate or hedge his bets. He just committed.

It turns out that this was the easiest way up the wall. Leaning into the problem made the problem go away.

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