Today, I am thankful for those who remind us of the potentially fatal cost of blind ambition.
Yesterday, we conquered the topic of ambition vs. aspiration. I shared how Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first humans to stand on top of the world, after reaching the peak of Mount Everest. Their treacherous exploration of the tallest mountain on Earth at 11:30 AM on May 29, 1953, added another feather in the cap of human achievements that were once deemed impossible. After reaching the summit, Hillary took a few pictures of Norgay, with ice-axe in hand, to commemorate the event. He refused to have his own picture taken, as Hillary felt the achievement was one that should showcase his most trusted guide, with whom the milestone would have never been accomplished. He left some chocolate and a cross at the summit, as a gift and guide for those who might follow. He took nothing in return. When he eventually made it down the steep cliffs, he dedicated a significant portion of the remainder of his new-famed life to care and provide for the Sherpas in the Himalayan villages in Nepal.
In contrast, let’s dissect the quest of another explorer, who taught us that an expedition led by blind ambition can be extremely perilous.
Hernando de Soto, the great Spanish explorer, landed in Florida, near Tampa Bay, on this exact day 481 years ago (May 30, 1539). As one of Spain’s great conquistadors, de Soto was no novice to exploration. In years leading up to his arrival in North America, he played an integral role in the infamous expeditions leading to the discovery of Nicaragua, the Yucatan Peninsula, and Peru, ultimately returning to Spain in 1536 with a multitude of spoils from his conquest of the Inca Empire. However, he is most famous in our textbooks for his odyssey that led him across most of what is now the Southeastern portion of the United States. When de Soto landed in Florida in 1539, his intent was to complete a 4-year ‘pillage and plunder” trek of the North American region in search of gold for the Spanish Empire. With over 600 men, 220 horses, 200 pigs, and a slew of bloodhounds, he trailblazed a path that would take him up through modern-day Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, and then southwest to Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Nearly 2 years later, in May 1541, he would become the first European to cast eyes on and navigate the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, his trail was one filled with much misery, anguish, and sorrow – and no gold. De Soto terrorized the Native Americans with his hostile, abrasive manner, and, to make matters worse, spread diseases, such as measles, smallpox, and varicella, to these non-immune populations. In a somewhat fitting retribution, the strident winter of 1541 would strike back and decimate his troop. De Soto died the next spring of ‘fever’ and was buried along the western bank of the Mississippi River. By the time the expedition ended in late 1543, his entire outfit was torn asunder, with only 300 men surviving. Although the European world glean knowledge of the geography and biology of the southern US from the recorded chronicles of his adventures, de Soto left behind a truculent mistrust of Europeans, a litany of infectious diseases, and a slew of swine (the ancestral lineage of the feral razorback hogs that still ransack the South today).
To put it briefly, de Soto’s abrupt expedition was not a success, but his trek taught future explorers the consequence of blind ambition. I find the juxtaposition of the achievements of Hillary & Norgay (in 1953) and the consequences of de Soto (in 1539) as fitting reminders of the differences between aspiration and ambition.
As you set out on your explorations today, please make sure not to tread on others in your pursuit of your goals.
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