#144 Ernest Shackleton

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer, but if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. She was being crushed, not all at once, but slowly, a little at a time. The pressure of 10 million tons of ice was driving in against her sides.
And dying as she was, she cried in agony. Her frames and planking, her immense timbers, many of them almost a foot thick, screamed as the killing pressure mounted.
And when her timbers could no longer stand the strain, they broke with a sound like artillery fire.
Forward, where the worst of the onslaught was concentrated, the ice was inundating her. It piled higher and higher against her bows as she repelled each new wave, until gradually it mounted to her bulwarks, then crashed across the deck, overwhelming her with a crushing load that pushed her head down even deeper.
More than any other single impression in those final hours, all the men were struck, almost to the point of horror, by the way the ship behaved like a giant beast in its death agonies.
Later, to the privacy of his diary, Macklin confided, I do not think I have ever had such a horrible, sickening sensation of fear as I had whilst in the hold of that breaking ship.
The general feeling of relief at being off the ship was not shared by one man. His name was Sir Ernest Shackleton, and the 27 men he had watched so ingloriously leaving their stricken ship were the members of his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.
The date was October 27, 1915 The name of the ship was Endurance.
The position was in the icy wasteland of the Antarctic's treacherous Weddell Sea, just about midway between the South Pole and the nearest known outpost of humanity, some 1200 miles away.
Few men have borne the responsibility Shackleton did at that moment, though he certainly was aware that their situation was desperate. He could not possibly have imagined then the physical and emotional demands that ultimately would be placed upon them, the rigors they would have to endure, the suffering to which they would be subjected.
Nobody in the outside world knew they were in trouble, much less where they were.
They had no radio transmitter with which to notify any would-be rescuers, and it is doubtful that any rescuers could have reached them even if they had been able to broadcast an SOS.
It was 1915 There were no helicopters. There were no suitable planes.
Thus, their plight was naked and terrifying in its simplicity. If they were to get out, they had to get themselves out.
That was an excerpt from the book that I hold in my hand and the one I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Endurance, Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, and it was written by Alfred Lansing. This book was first published in 1959, and since then, it has popularized Shackleton's name so that his name has essentially become shorthand. If you want to describe traits of a great leader, somebody that refuses to give up, you would compare somebody to be like Shackleton.
Shackleton's name appears over and over again in a lot of the biographies that I read for this podcast. And now that I've read the book and understand his story, it completely makes sense why so many people have recommended this book and so many people reference it when they're going through times of immense struggle. I wanna compare, before I jump into the book, I wanna compare it to another book that has filled, I think this book is going to play the same role as another book I read a few years ago. That book is called The Forgotten Highlander, My Incredible Story of Survival During the War in the Far East. I have the book, I bought it on Audible. It's like a long podcast. I think it's three hours and 14 minutes long. But I wanna read my notes that I have on that book real quick, just to give you the basic plot. And then I wanna compare it to what I learned about Shackleton. And I think this will give you a better understanding of why it's so important to understand Shackleton's story and why so many other historical figures have referenced him. So this is the basic plot of The Forgotten Highlander. Alastair Urquhart, who's the author and he's telling his story, was constricted into the British military to fight during World War II. He was 19 years old. He was sent to Singapore. The Japanese invaded and he was taken hostage. He survived 750 days in the jungle working as a slave on the death railway and the bridge on the River Kwai. Most of the time, he worked completely naked. He contracted dysentery, malaria, and tropical ulcers.