Five fingers and ten toes

Five fingers and ten toes

　　The staff of the British National Military Museum approached Mike Lane, who was a member of a British expedition. With admiration, they asked the brave adventure survivor for souvenirs related to his ascent of Mount Everest that year. The souvenir Ryan sent was neither the snow and ice on the top of Everest, nor the climbing tools of the team, nor any commemorative photos, but his own ten toes and five fingers which were amputated due to frostbite back then.

　　Faced with puzzled eyes, Ryan told the story of his own adventure.

　　In 1976, a young Ryan successfully climbed Mount Everest with a British expedition. But on the way down, they encountered a fierce wind and heavy snow, and, there was no sign of stopping. At that time, they had very few provisions left. The expedition was faced with a severe test of life and death.

　　Ryan proposed a plan of action to his teammates, which was to discard all the accompanying equipment, leaving only a small amount of food, and travel lightly. But the program was strongly opposed by the team, they believe that the fastest time to the bottom of the mountain will take ten days. This means that in these ten days not only can not set up camp to rest, but also may be due to lack of oxygen and the body temperature drop, freezing body, lose life.

　　Ryan said very firmly: "We have no choice! This kind of snowy mountain weather ten days or even half a month may not get better. Further delay the signposts will also be all buried, we only wait for death. If we throw away the heavy things, we will not have any more distractions, and we can increase our speed by traveling lightly, and we still have hope for life!"

　　Finally, the team took his advice. Everyone threw away the provisions and the illusions, endured fatigue and cold all the way, encouraged each other, and reached safety in only eight days, regardless of day and night. In fact, the bad weather never improved, just as Ryan had predicted. Back at the bottom of the mountain, they had nothing and all their equipment had been left on the mountain. Ryan's sacrifice was even greater, as the cold froze his ten toes and five fingers, but his choice saved the entire expedition. After the amputation in the hospital, he saved his fingers and toes because they were the only souvenirs he could save from bringing them down the mountain.

　　In the pursuit of success, we are often like Ryan, facing many serious choices, many times, mediocre people often because of the greed for what they already have and ultimately to failure, and extraordinary people often because they know the necessary abandonment and ultimately won the glory. Success is not difficult, the hard part is whether we can have the courage and determination to pay five fingers and ten toes.