Few of us have climbed a mountain or won a top sales prize, so those that have done so are worth paying attention to for what they have to say.  Fewer still have climbed a really big mountain, like, say, McKinley, or won a President’s Club award – the kind that go out to the very best salespeople.  But I can only think of one person who has climbed the highest mountains on each of the 7 continents (yes, that includes Everest), and won 11 President’s Club awards over a 23-year corporate career:  Susan Ershler. 

 

Fortunately for the rest of us, Susan is back at sea level telling us how she did it – and how we can achieve our own personal ‘Everests’ through the same combination of vision and application that she used to get her to the top of Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, McKinley, Cerro Aconcagua, Vinson, Kosciuszko, and Everest, along with top sales achievements at US West, United Technologies, FedExKinko’s, and Verizon.  You can check out Susan’s career and accomplishments at http://www.susanershler.com.  There’s video of her speaking, but the best way to experience her story is to see her in person -- or read her book on the subject, Together on the Top of the World. 

What Susan understands is that you don’t get to the top of a mountain, or reach a personal goal, by just thinking about it.  Any quest starts there, but what counts is the execution.  On the mountain, that means putting one foot in front of the other even when you don’t think you can muster the strength to go on.  Back down here, it’s something similar:  putting in the time in meaningful practice of your expertise.  If you’re a speaker, you don’t get to be as good as Susan until and unless you put in the hours and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.  To achieve excellence in anything, there are no easy routes, no born geniuses, no overnight successes.  There’s only hard work. 

 

For a fascinating angle on achieving this kind of excellence, check out Malcolm Gladwell’s wonderful new book, Outliers.  His how-to on acquiring expertise?  It takes 10,000 hours.  That’s the amount of time Bill Gates spent coding computers, Robert Oppenheimer spent studying science, and the Beatles spent playing small clubs in Hamburg, Germany before they hit it big.  I’m willing to bet that Susan’s logged in her 10,000 in sales and on the tallest mountains in the world.