Ramblin' Wreck

The college football season is in full swing!  There were several notable upsets over the weekend, and as usual my Purdue University Boilermakers are already mathematically eliminated from the national championship!  But I don't want to talk about that (please go back and read my post "That's what being a Boilermaker is all about" for brighter days).  Today, I want to go back to something that Head Coach Brent Key of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets said following his team's upset win over then highly ranked Clemson University.  Coach Key was asked in post-game interviews how his team would maintain focus after such a big win.  He quickly replied with a lesson that he learned from legendary football coach Nick Saban.  Key said, "Coach Saban use to tell us more people die on the way down from Mount Everest than on the way up and you can't relax."

Coach Key was the offensive line coach at Alabama from 2016-2018, working for the legendary coach Saban.  Key further explained, "You can't relax, you have to be prepared every week.  There is no crescendo or top.  Our goals at the start of the season were not to win Game 3 of the season.  They weren't to win Game 4 of the season.  They weren't to win Game 8 or 12.  Our goals are a lot bigger than that, our expectations internally are a lot bigger than that.  As long as we keep our heads on the right place and stay focused, the other things will take care of themselves."

The climb down from the summit of Mt. Everest is a great analogy.  While a specific number isn't cited, it is believed that between 38% to 56% of all fatalities on Everest occur on the descent from the summit, when climbers are exhausted and perhaps taking more risks now that they've reached the top.  For example, the author and mountaineer Jon Krakauer joined an expedition on Everest in May, 1996 during which 8 climbers died, in what was then the worst single-season death toll in Everest history.  Notably, all 8 climbers had reached the summit and died on the descent back down, when a fierce storm struck and trapped several of the climbers.  The tragedy was the subject of Krakauer's book Into Thin Air, as well as a 2015 movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, and Jason Clarke.  

The take-home message here is to be wary of when you have finally achieved one of your goals.  The easiest thing in the world to do after finally reaching the summit is to take a deep breathe, relax, and let your guard down.  Instead, you should constantly challenge and push yourself to even greater heights.