High Altitude Leadership: What the World's Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success

Introduction

Leadership often sucks.

It's a risky, lonely role possessing nearly unbearable lows and fleeting highs. One moment leadership feels like the most deeply satisfying, life-enriching journey ever embarked on. Then fate's twist makes it an exhausting and stressful journey or a one way ticket to cardiac arrest. Despite the downsides, leadership continues to be well marketed: leaders change the world, make a lot of money, are loved (if they want to be) or feared (if that's what they prefer). We have a hunch that you hope for the upsides from your leadership, whether you're leading a team, company, or your career. That's the reason you're reading this book.

We've been inspired by leadership marketing too. To deal with the responsibilities ...