A Circus Performer With A Fake ID, The Raft And The Forest Parable, And A Tragic Wildfire In Colorado: Why Abandoning Things Might Be Essential For Progress

The 3-Word Quote: “Elimination Is Essential”

1.

His employee identification card said his name was Phillip Asher.

The card listed his place of employment as Fisher Industrial Fence Company.

But neither Phillip Asher nor the Fisher Industrial Fence Company existed.

Both were fake.

The photo on the ID card was real, but it didn't give his real name.

But the man's fake ID card fooled security and allowed him to enter the place where he would conduct his mission.

Securing the fake ID was one of his plan's most manageable parts.

The mission took six years to plan.

Six years of plotting, gathering equipment, raising money, and practicing.

There was lots of practicing.

Because if he failed while carrying out his mission, he would die.

Not probably die. Not a chance of death.

If he failed in the middle of the mission, the man called Phillip Asher would die.

And his plan required much surveillance.

Because he needed to enter a New York skyscraper.

And he wouldn't have permission.

So he watched the building relentlessly. He rented a helicopter to view it from the sky. He even built a scale replica of the building to know and understand every aspect of the building.

He needed everything to go perfectly.

So, each day, he practiced.

For six years.

The ID allowed him to enter the building as often as needed - mostly, he used his illegal access to smuggle cables and equipment to the top floor.

And then, on a rainy morning on August 7, 1974, the man whose ID said he was Phillip Asher carried out his plan.

2.

The two men's lives were in danger.

Food was scarce in their land, and the men weren't sure how much longer they could survive.

But the two men knew of a location said to be loaded with food and water.

But the location was far, and the men were weak.

And the journey was known to be dangerous.

The men were hungry and knew they had to risk this journey. To reach the location, the men would have to travel down a river with rapids so fierce few ever survived.

And if the men did survive the river journey, they had to cross through a dense and dangerous jungle to reach the food.

And to make matters more complex, neither of the two had a raft.

So the two began to build.

They knew this raft had to be perfect to endure the deadly rapids.

The two quickly got to work.

They cut down trees, removed the limbs, and cut the logs to size.

This work took weeks.

They then stripped the bark, used their primitive tools to shape the trees, and laid the logs on the ground to ensure the raft was the correct size.

This work took days.

Next, they tightly lashed all the logs together with vines from the area.

This work took hours.

And finally, the pair believed their raft was water-ready.

They dragged the raft to the water, pushed off, and hopped on.

It took only moments before the two were pounded by the powerful whitewater.

The men hung onto the raft as it careened down the river.

The water battered the men and the raft relentlessly.

There were few calm spots on the river, and the trip seemed endless.

Finally, the men and their raft washed ashore at the steps of the jungle they had come to cross to find food.

Their energy was depleted, and their stomachs were empty.

Each movement for the men was complex.

But they needed to cross that jungle, so they rolled off the raft, grateful to be alive.

But when it came time to enter the jungle, the pair, who had clung together and survived the rapids, began to argue bitterly.

The argument was critical.

Because it was about how they would travel through the jungle.

3.

On July 2, 1994, a wildfire broke out on Storm King Mountain near Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Initially, the fire wasn't a huge priority. The fire burned harmlessly for a few days.

It started with a lightning strike and didn't appear to threaten people or residences.

However, the fire began to increase in strength, so the firefighters began to escalate their actions.

But on July 5, firefighters began more aggressively attacking the fire.

Crews built firelines or firebreaks to stop the spread of the fire.

The fight escalated ever more when smokejumpers were called in. These smokejumpers have specialty training to fight fires in rough terrain and wilderness areas.

Smokejumpers parachute into these remote regions to fight the fires from the inside.

The dry weather and high winds made the fire difficult to control, so even more firefighters were called in.

A group of hotshots from Pineville, Oregon, parachuted into the fire.

The term 'hotshot' is not just an empty compliment.

Hotshots, or a shot crew, is a 'team of 20-25 elite wildland firefighters that mainly respond to large, high-priority fires across the country.'

These hotshots are expertly trained and are considered the most skilled wilderness firefighters.

They are the elite.

That day, they were positioned on a rocky hill on Storm King Mountain, trying to control the fire.

But toward the end of the day on July 6, that wind turned even more wicked and drove the fire rapidly in the direction of the hotshots.

The flames raced toward them.

The firefighters had to retreat immediately. They were forced to turn and run to survive.

These men were a mere 200 feet from safety.

They could see where they needed to get to - only 200 feet away.

Not even a football field away - that's all the distance they had to run to escape the fire.

But they were on a rocky hill, and much of the 200 feet was uphill.

So, they turned to run from the fire.

Just 200 feet.

Most didn't make it.

The fire roared toward them and overtook them.

Fourteen firefighters were dead by the end of the day - four women and ten men.

Fourteen lives were lost, including nine members of the elite hotshot crew.

The Takeaway:

So what does a man with a fake ID in 1974, a parable about two men and a raft, and a tragic wildfire all have in common?

They are all stories that can teach us lessons and remind us about leaving things behind.

They can remind us to reexamine and reconsider what we think we know.

Let's take a look.

The man with the fake ID wasn't Phillip Asher.

Nor did he work for the Fisher Industrial Fence Company.

And while he had been planning a mission, his goal didn't involve anything that would harm anyone.

But his mission was illegal.

The building he had been surveilling and smuggling gear to the top floor was the World Trade Center.

It was 1974, and the Phillip Asher ID card drew no attention because the Twin Towers were still under construction. Workers were everywhere, so an industrial fence employee garnered no second look from anyone.

But, of course, the man's name wasn't Phillip Asher.

The man's real name was Philippe Petit.

Philippe Petit was many things, but a fence installer was not one of them.

Petit was a French magician, a circus performer, a unicycle rider, and a juggler.

But most of all, he was a highwire walker - a tightrope walker who walks between objects high in the air on a small steel wire.

And Petit was an expert wirewalker.

And it was his highwire act that was his mission.

Petit's six years of planning and practicing were so that he could walk on a wire from one of the trade center towers to the other.

A seemingly impossible and dangerous task.

But on August 7, 1974, Philippe Petit did just that.

He spent 45 minutes crossing back and forth between the towers on a thin steel wire.

He was nearly a quarter mile above the ground.

People below were alarmed but mesmerized. Few could believe what they were witnessing.

And Petit, the performer, gave them a show.

While on the wire, he danced, sat, knelt, and walked.

He performed.

When the show ended, and he finally walked off the wire, he was promptly arrested.

However, the charges were dropped on the condition that the French wirewalker conduct a free class for children in Central Park.

Petit was delighted to do so.

He was also given a free lifetime pass to the Twin Towers observation deck.

In interviews that followed, Petit was often asked if he was afraid when he walked on the wire, suspended over 1,000 feet in the air.

His response to the question could be a lesson and a great analogy for those looking to do something new in their life or career.

Petit trained relentlessly, and fear fades as skill increases.

He always told reporters he did not have any real fear, but there was always anxiety at the start.

But Petit said it was not the first step out on the wire that produced the most fear or anxiety.

It was the second.

He explained that the first step was easy. It only requires placing one foot on the wire - the other foot is still firmly planted on secure and stable footing.

You don't commit with the first step, Petit said.

It is the second step that requires bravery.

The second step forces you to leave the comfort and safety and move fully on the wire.

He says it is when you take that second step that you completely commit to the task.

And Petit's answer can offer guidance for many things we are attempting in life.

The first step toward anything new is challenging.

But it is that second step where we leave comfort behind. That second step catapults us toward a new task - but we must leave comfort behind.

Doing something new or different often requires us to leave something old behind.

And that second step is exponentially more difficult than the first.

***

The story of the two men and the raft is an ancient one.

Variations of the parable have been around for centuries.

The story is told to teach.

Recall the two men who spent much time and effort constructing a raft to travel in dangerous rapids.

Upon surviving the rapids, the two began to quarrel about how to travel across the jungle.

Why did the two argue after surviving the rapids?

The argument occurred because the first man insisted that the two men bring the raft with them on their journey through the forest.

He explained that the pair had spent many weeks building the raft and spent many hours clinging to it as they survived the rapids.

He said the raft saved their lives and argued they could not abandon something crucial to their survival.

The second disagreed.

He told the first man that the raft had saved them in the water.

And the second man reminded the first that the raft would serve no purpose in the jungle. Yes, he agreed the raft had been useful earlier but would not help them in the future.

The raft would be a burden, the second man said.

The first wondered how something that saved their lives could be a burden.

The two never came to an agreement.

The parable has been used to illustrate the need for change and how people need to abandon that which serves no purpose.

Buddhist teachers used the parable to remind students not to cling to ideas or teachings.

Some of us still dig our heels into solid ground when we know we should move ahead. Or we cling to our version of a raft when we know we should let it go in order to move more quickly or try something new.

Giving something up is challenging to do. Abandoning beliefs is difficult, too.

Things and thoughts that once served us can sometimes hold us back.

***

Adam Grant uses the story of the fireman at the start of his book Think Again, a book about changing one's mind.

Grant describes the fire in his book but also details the investigation into the deaths that followed the fire.

And sadly, the investigation concluded that most of those killed in that fire could have survived.

But the firefighters didn't survive because they made one poor decision.

It was a simple decision.

As the firefighters turned from the fire and began to run up the hill, they could see an area of safety.

But the fire was fast, and the firefighters were slow.

So what was the one decision the hotshots made that cost them their lives?

It was simple.

They didn't drop their gear when they decided to run.

The investigators concluded if those men and women had simply dropped their equipment on the ground, they would have been lighter - and faster.

In fact, the investigators concluded that the firefighters could have been 15-20 percent faster by shedding their gear.

And the investigators also concluded that extra speed would likely have saved their lives.

But why didn't they think of this?

These wildfire specialists often carried rations, water, packs, shovels, and a chainsaw. They are loaded with equipment. A typical chainsaw weighs 25 pounds.

Wouldn't they have thought to get rid of the gear and run?

Wouldn't everyone logically throw down their equipment and run in this life-or-death situation?

But as Grant writes, 'If you're a firefighter, dropping your tools doesn't just require you to unlearn habits and disregard instincts. Discarding your equipment means admitting failure and shedding part of your identity.'

These men and women were some of the most highly-trained firefighters. Their training was extensive and intense.

And this training taught them that their tools were the key to survival in nearly all fires.

But not this one.

One victim was discovered clinging to his saw.

Grant uses the story to illustrate how our default thinking defines our lives.

He uses this story to show there are times when we must abandon 'our tools' - no matter what those tools are or how important they might be.

And our tools might also include some beliefs.

Most of our decisions are not life or death.

However, some choices require us to abandon what we once believed or found valuable.

To do this is no small task.

Philippe Petit's sense of security had to be abandoned to step out on the wire.

The life-saving raft had to be left behind if they wanted to successfully travel through the jungle.

And the tools that the hotshots relied on should have been dropped on the ground to survive.

'What got you here won't get you there.'

The above phrase (and book title) often means people must add new skills and learn new things to gain new heights.

But it can also mean we need to give up things.

For those looking to change paths and do something different, the journey might require abandoning things that once served you well.

3 things before you go:

1. watch: just a great story on a great person; inspiring

2. watch: are these two guys the greatest magicians of our generation? Still trying to figure out how they pull off these tricks; amazing and entertaining

3. listen: this group’s songs = energy boost

See you in 10 days. Thanks for reading.

-Jeff