Today’s Navigate the Chaos question is “How often do you find yourself obsessing over a dream so much that you forgo fortune, fame, and family?”
For some people who navigate the chaos, obsession takes over their entire life. Fred Beckey, was an American rock climber, mountaineer and author, who made hundreds of first ascents, more than any other North American climber.
His obsession was detailed in a 2017 documentary film on his life, Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey. Beckey was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, and his family immigrated to the United States in 1925, ending up in Seattle, Washington.
He started climbing in the North Cascades as a teenager around age thirteen, learning the basic concepts from the Boy Scouts and later, The Mountaineers but quickly going on to harder climbs on his own. He managed to continue this focus on climbing for more than seventy years and has become an icon in North American mountaineering.
He attended the University of Washington and received a degree in business administration in 1949.
He entered the printing industry and soon discovered that his work assignments encroached upon his climbing goals. He eschewed the printing industry to gain more climbing time. He worked as a delivery truck driver, which left him time for climbing. As time went on, he decided that climbing was his life's focus. He never married or had children, he never pursued a professional career, he never sought money or financial security as a goal—his goal was to climb mountains.
As Beckey said in a 2010 interview “I just climb for the fun of it. I'm always motivated to try something that people haven't done. I guess you get a reputation that way, and an award goes out because of it. I'm not into awards. I don't do stuff for awards. I do what I feel like doing.”
How often do you find yourself obsessing over a dream so much that you forgo fortune, fame, and family?”
Comments