Endurance by Alfred Lansing

The record of the ill-fated trans-antarctic expedition, as compiled and written by Alfred Lansing is a miracle. If you haven’t picked up this book before, and you enjoy adventurous stories of men conquering impossible odds, you won’t be disappointed.

I had never heard of Endurance by Alfred Lansing before. My brother-in-law gifted me the book knowing that I was passionate about leadership. I’m grateful for the network of people I know who read books differently than me. I might never have picked it up if wasn’t for someone else’s recommendation.

How can a book about 26 men being trapped in the ice flows of Antarctica for 20 months from 1914-1916 speak to anything about leadership?

Everything.

Liz Wiseman, in her book Multipliers, records the captain’s request for men on his expedition. “Men wanted: For hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success. Surprisingly, hundreds of men applied.” 

Little did they all know what would beset them on their journey ahead.

But they all survived. They survived off Penguin meat, seal blubber, frozen seal steaks, hot milk, tobacco and a mix of other rations provided for the crew. They survived living on ice flows, through blizzards, and the impenetrable darkness of not one, but two Antarctic winters.

It’s a miracle they survived.

And it’s incredible that we can read their story today.

Simon Sinek said of the expedition in Start with Why, “What makes the story of the Endurance so remarkable, however, is not the expedition, it’s that throughout the whole ordeal no one died. There were no stories of people eating others and no mutiny. This was not luck. This was because Shackleton hired good fits. He found the right men for the job. When you fill an organization with good fits, those who believe what you believe, success just happens.” (Simon Sinek, Start with Why)

Then you read the accounts.

And there were people challenges, accounts of people management on the barren wasteland of ice flows (not even making it to Antarctica!). There were people who didn’t like others, or who didn’t pull their weight, or who didn’t work nicely with others.

But they still all made it.

Lansing records lots of information about ways that Shackleton navigated through the personalities of his men to best support everyone. You’d think that in their dire circumstances everyone would work together and put their pride to the side. But that didn’t happen. 

And they still all made it home.

Today, we’re so far removed from the world of Ernest Shackleton and his crew upon the Endurance, trekking to traverse Antarctica. It was only 100 years ago that the crew was not surprised the radio didn’t work because it was new technology. The stories were hard to relate to, I mean, when could I relate with men who’s only ability to survive was to use blubber from seals to light their stove and cook food for their survival? 

But I could relate with, and enter into the hope that they needed to survive.

And survive they did. By the end of the book I was reading as quickly as I could to discover how they’d make it back to civilization. The speed of the book quickened as we got closer, but I was so enraptured in their story that I couldn’t put it down.

Their endurance gave me hope.

Maybe you need some reminder of hope today. 

You’ll find it here.

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