Alan Hobson

The Brilliance of Resilience

After seven years of preparation, Alan Hobson’s first self-guided, self-organized and corporately sponsored $500,000 expedition to Mt. Everest missed the summit by 3,000 feet when his team’s high camp was blasted off the mountain by gale force winds. He returned home to judgments that he had failed. Instead of becoming disheartened and giving up, he used the hard-won lessons from his expedition to begin again more intelligently. Three years later he was back to Everest with half the budget of his first expedition, half the personnel and no bottled oxygen. This time his team missed the top by just two city blocks when their lead climber developed severe high altitude sickness. His team members decided to try to rescue him rather than continue blindly for the summit. They saved his life but it cost them the summit. So ended Alan’s second expedition. Again, he returned home to allegations that he and his team had failed. Undeterred, another three years of intense fundraising, training and organizational work later, he returned a third time to Everest and finally made it safely to and from the summit. Ironically, an even harder climb lay ahead. Three years after reaching the top of the world, he found himself at the bottom when he was diagnosed with the very aggressive blood cancer, acute leukemia, and given less than a year to live. At diagnosis, 90% of the cells in his bone marrow were cancerous. Again however, Alan defied the skeptics. He made a 100% recovery. Today he has been leukemia-free for over 12 years and is one of less than a few dozen people in the world ever to have regained an elite level of fitness after an adult blood stem cell transplant for the treatment of leukemia – a tiny fraction of the number of people who have climbed Mt. Everest. And, he is officially medically cured. Through the brilliance of resilience, Alan shows audiences how to triumph in turbulent times and turn setbacks into comebacks. If your group is struggling to overcome adversity, this presentation will give them the tools they need to win today — and tomorrow.

The Triumph of Teamwork

We can’t do it alone. We can’t climb big mountains alone and we can’t take on big organizational challenges alone either. Each of Alan’s three self-guided, self-organized and corporately sponsored $500,000 expeditions to Mt. Everest consisted of 10 to 20 expedition members from different countries, cultures and customs. They had different languages and faiths. They ate different foods. They even looked at Everest differently. Yet united around one common goal and skillfully organized and led, they executed near flawlessly. How? By sticking together and surviving the avalanches, the injuries, the setbacks, the storms and the storms of uncertainty together. Alan’s first expedition to Everest took seven years to finance, organize and execute. It ended 3,000 feet short of the summit when the team’s high camp was blasted off the mountain by gale-force winds. Undeterred, three years later Alan and his team were back on Everest with half the budget, half the team members and no bottled oxygen. This time, the team’s lead climber came down with life-threatening high altitude sickness just two city blocks from the top. After crawling on his hands and knees back into the team’s high camp, the expedition launched a grueling 33-hour continuous rescue to save his life. Everyone came home safely but so ended their second expedition. Finally, another three years later, Alan’s team succeeded in putting almost half its climbers on top of the world — a feat equaled by very, very few teams in Everest’s long and storied climbing history. Unbelievably, an even greater triumph of teamwork lay ahead. Three years after stepping down from the top of the world, Alan had to step up to the base of a medical mountain more challenging than Everest. His team consisted of hundreds of team members, many of whom Alan never even met. Yet in the end, the team saved his life and today, he embraces life more than ever before. “We’ve all heard the expression, ‘There’s no ‘I’ in the word ‘team,’” he says. “Well for me, there would be no ‘I’ were it not for a team.” If your team is struggling or if you just want to bring them closer together around a story that will uplift them, inspire them and show them what it takes to work and win as a team, this presentation is for you.

Leadership from Within

Even before he could read, Alan dreamed of climbing Mt. Everest because he’d seen pictures of it in books. Then, when he began to read he discovered the fascinating stories of high altitude mountaineers and he asked himself one question…What did they have that enabled them to do these amazing things? “They were doing things that were apparently impossible to do,” Alan observes. “They were surviving for days, weeks, even months with insufficient sleep, insufficient food, insufficient shelter and insufficient oxygen. Temperatures regularly reached 40 degrees below zero and winds hit 50 and 60 miles per hour. The specter of death went everywhere they went. So what did they have that enabled them not only to survive, but to thrive in these kinds of hostile operating conditions?” In this presentation, Alan answers the question and in the process pinpoints the key to all effective leadership – self- leadership. We cannot lead others unless we first lead ourselves. That doesn’t start from an external goal. It starts from an internal drive. Fuel this drive in your leaders – and followers. This presentation ignites it.

Testimonials

“Wow!—that is my word to describe your presentation. You were absolutely amazing and the entire group loved you. Our SVP is still raving about how you so naturally applied your journey to our group’s professional journey.”
– The Walt Disney Company

“Your message of dedication, perseverance and mental toughness was right on target for our employees. Everyone in the room was astounded with the amount of insight and knowledge you possessed about our business and their roles.”
– Merrill Lynch

“You are an absolute perfectionist and you commit to a speaking presentation the way you commit to an adventure. You do your homework, prepare thoroughly and execute passionately. In short, you reflect professionally what you have done personally.”
– TransAmerica

“Any organization would benefit from hearing your presentation and from meeting you. Hands-down, it was the best national sales meeting in the 15 years since this organization began and that was due in no small part to you.”
– Aspect Medical Systems

“Yours was the best presentation I have ever seen by a speaker. Your words have magical properties . . . there was another side to your presentation that blew me away . . . the utterly sincere humility with which you delivered it.”
– Thermo Fisher Scientific