Scott Ragsdale

Within the next few years, my goal is to climb Mt. Everest. 

I have read many books about horror stories, stories of failed attempts, and of course success stories on reaching the summit. 

Many of the stories of failed attempts, and or even the stories of death, many seem to have something to do with “rushing” or “pushing” ahead towards the summit too quickly. 

It’s about a 3 month process to climb the mountain. 

First you go to base camp and acclimatize. 

After acclimatizing to the altitude, you then climb to camp one, set up camp and acclimatize. 

After you have acclimatized a bit, you go back down to base camp to rest and continue acclimatizing, then climbers climb up to camp two…

This happens over several weeks and climbers will even climb up to camp 4, get acclimatized and then go back down to base camp to rest before the summit push. 

From what I have read, it seems the ones who are the most successful, are the ones who do not rush to the summit. 

They take their time getting acclimatized and ready for the summit push. 

Many of the failed attempts seem to have something to do with not being careful; not acclimatizing well enough, and trying to summit too quickly. 

It’s exactly like life… 

We all have our proverbial mountains we want to summit.

But often we try to summit without being fully prepared for the summit push. 

Upon reflection…
I see how each time I have f’d up, and fell … it all had something to do with not being prepared well enough (not being ready) for the next “camp.” 

I tried to summit too quickly, but wasn’t acclimatized –  wasn’t ready to summit, and either failed in my attempt, or fell down the mountain. 

Think about your own role in your company whatever your role might be … are doing it well enough to prepare you for the next step?

Maybe you have a goal to do and achieve something physically challenging like run a marathon … or a triathlon… whatever it might be, are you preparing yourself well enough to ensure you are ready for the summit?

Or are you pushing ahead without being perfectly acclimatized for the next step?

Do not rush to the top of your mountain.

Over the years I have met many people with great ideas…

“Hey, Scott I couldn’t sleep last night because I have so many good ideas.” 

Surely, many people reading this can relate because you probably have many great ideas yourself. 

But don’t forget that a “great idea” means nothing if that “idea” is not achieved, or at the very least the necessary work to achieve it is not realized.

15 of today’s top headlines on CNN were stories about something negative. 

One of the stories was about an actor who was hit by a car while riding his bike.
How is this considered news worthy? 

As per usual, I moved on to the FT and then Bloomberg which were both filled with much more positive and forward thinking news, but even as I read each, I kept thinking about the negative stories on CNN, the main news source that most American’s watch, and or read. 

Anyways… 

Romain and I have a ritual where every Saturday, we meet for breakfast at my home in Dubai.

Its always very early before my kids are awake and we sit on my balcony which has a nice view and enjoy French pastries, strong coffee…and most importantly, a nice cigar as the sun rises. 

We dont speak much.
Mainly, we just enjoy the peacefulness of the moment.

I look forward to this 90 minute ritual all week long. 

This morning he showed up right as I was closing my computer. 
Without realizing, I started to tell him about the morning news in America, and all the negative crap which commanded the headlines. 

Less than 3 minutes later…

(Its worth mentioning that I slept great, I felt great)

… Relaxed, enjoying a great cohiba siglo V cigar with my feet up, very comfortable overlooking an amazing view of the Palm and sea, eating French pastries, drinking a coffee, and my cigar had just been lite…
I continued talking about the negative news. 

I told Romain about how a highly respected actor in America got hit by a car while he was riding his bike – and this made headline news on CNN. 

I rambled a bit about the actor, and then some more about american culture… 

Sophie had overheard me.  

She came out onto the balcony, and pointed out that I had just spent 5 minutes speaking negatively about the “negative” headlines.

She furthered her point by pointing out that what I was saying was only focused on negativity and added no value to our beautiful morning. 

Romain added “negativity is contagious.”

Greeat point. 

I stopped immediately, and reflected on how easily I had become consumed by the flames of negativity.

My negative moaning about the news encouraged Romain to become negative which ultimately, wasted 5-10 minutes of our morning.

But what if…

What if CNN focused our attention on more positive stories, such as the story of a homeless high school girl who overcame the odds and won a $100,000 award for her science project (17th headline)…

how much would more positive stories add to the lives of the reader?

To whom it may concern at CNN – instead of telling us about the bike accidents of actors who have done nothing in this world except act, or informing the viewer about people with tumors the size of volley balls…

Please tell us more positive stories focused on the greatness in man.

Because (surely) positivity is contagious.

Last night, Sophie and I had dinner with a German friend of ours who is the CEO of an investment bank in Abu Dhabi.

He told us about two of his ex-employee’s who are not German who have left and speak negatively about him and the bank to the press.

Maybe because he is German, he doesn’t seem to understand the concept of wasting time moaning and complaining about your previous company.

He sincerely, doesn’t understand their negativity – and added “you never know what the future holds, so they should be smarter.”

Sophie laughed and told him all sorts of stories of what scott ragsdale has experienced. 

We discussed this idea of “burning bridges.” 

On the drive home last night, Sophie and I continued the conversation on “burning bridges…” and I mentioned Adam Fletcher, and a few others who are no longer with the company, but have been honorable and have not burned their bridge with me.

Today, Adam Fletcher closed a $400,000 deal.  
The contract has been in negotiations for several days, so its not a total surprise, but it fits nicely with today’s blog theme.

Within the 9 months Adam has been back with the company, he has brought nearly 1 million dollars in business, not to mention great leadership and ideas which have helped expand the business. 

Adam was the first employee at naseba, but quit after 9 months to do something else. 

He is extremely talented, and when he quit in 2003 it was a loss for our small start-up company. 

Last year, I actively recruited Adam back to naseba to head up our Asia business based in Kuala Lumpur. 

Adam didn’t burn his bridge when he left naseba to do something else. 

He quit before we became a real company, and missed a lot of the benefits that Fabien and Nic received from his initial hard work, but Adam is an honorable man.  

When left, he left honourably, and did not go around moaning or bitching like the average person does.

Whether you quit or get fired from a job, a club, a team, etc…
Don’t moan and complain about the past – It’s not honourable….  

But most importantly, don’t burn a bridge because you never know what the future holds.

Kavana wins the first annual Rolex Explorer challenge at naseba. 

I will be in Bangalore next week and look forward to presenting her the watch. 

Great job Kavana – very impressive what you achieved!