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Updated Feb 23, 2007

Nietzsche said, "that which does not kill you, makes you stronger" (I think the governator also said something similar in Conan: The Movie). And that aphorism is the core of The Adversity Advantage. Co-written by Erik Weihenmeyer (the blind dude who has climbed the Seven Summits and paraglides!), the Adversity Advantage is a book of personal and organizational philosophy that gives the reader tools to identity, understand, and embrace adversity. "Turning into the storm" is how facing adversity is described in the book.

I love to climb and I run a start-up (ie ThisNext) so I am familiar with adversity in both my sports and my work. But I had not thought about how to connect those two passions until recently. And, when you think about it, success-drivers in a start-up and success-drivers in an expedition are not so dissimilar: assuming weather or market conditions don't totally shut you down, your success is really contingent upon how well your team deals w/uncertainty, risk, discomfort, resource constraints, and other forms of adversity.

If you climb or if you just believe in the notion that learning to suffer well can build a lot of character, I highly recommend this book. Great for personal and organizational perspective. Be forewarned: this attitude is clearly not for everyone. The faint-hearted, the entitled, and/or the comfort-obsessed will not like this POV at all.