One of the the best keynotes I have heard was at a telecom conference when I was in college. The speaker was Captain James A Lovell who commander of the Apollo 13 mission. After retiring from NASA, he ran a phone company which is why he was invited to speak. Of course, he didn’t mention phones except during his introduction. The entire hour was about space, and orbiting the earth etc.. Fantastic talk.

Where is this going? Well, today Guy Kawasaki posted a blog entry with an MP3 of a keynote Jim Whittaker gave at a conference Mr. Kawasaki’s company sponsered. Mr. Wittaker is most known for being the first American to summit Everest, as well as being the first American to summit K2.

While not specifically Process or Quality related, some of the stuff could be applied to Testing. It’s a good listen irregardless. And as usual I took notes.

  • Mistakes should be called lessons, because we learn from them
  • Know fear. If you don’t know it, you will make terrible mistakes
  • The summit is optional, getting back down is mandatory
  • It’ss not about how hard you fall, its about how high you bounce back up
  • Success is sweetest for those who have tasted defeat
  • Picked people for his team with some proof that they could climb
  • Used the smallest team possible
  • Surround youself with people you can trust
  • Make sure no one loses face