Inspiring Success with Jake Meyer

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts” (Winston Churchill)

Senior School students sat in admiration last week as Jake Meyer, world record breaking British mountaineer and adventurer, told his incredible story of chasing his mountaineering dreams and the tenacity and perseverance of coming back to K2 again and again following repeated failure to ultimately triumph on ‘the Savage Mountain’. He covered the highs and lows of expeditions and gave a real insight into what it takes to succeed as a professional mountaineer.

The special Q & A session aimed to equip students with the strength to pursue their dreams and the understanding that perseverance and determination can help to take them where they want to go; the event was hugely motivational to everyone who attended.

In 2005, Jake became the youngest Briton to climb Everest and the youngest man in the world to climb the highest mountain in each continent. In July 2018, after 10 years and 3 attempts, Jake successfully reached the summit of K2, the second highest mountain in the world, and arguably one of the most difficult and dangerous mountaineering challenges.

After acclimatising on Broad Peak (the 12th highest mountain in the world) Jake and his team mate Tomas along with 3 Sherpas reached the summit of K2 at 0800 on 21st July 2018. For Jake it was an incredible end to a 13 year dream and proved that determination and perseverance can pay off in the end.

Jake is also a commissioned officer in the British Army Reserve and a full time management development consultant for the Inspirational Development Group, an award winning business performance improvement organisation who work with countries, corporations and enterprises around the world.

Student, Lily, commented: “Jake Meyer gave us a passionate and deeply personal lunchtime talk, with a series of anecdotes that demonstrated the power of achieving step by step success in enabling us to reach an end goal that might otherwise seem impossibly daunting. His storytelling was particularly powerful as was his approach to welcoming us all individually.”