I recently watched the movie Everest about a fateful expedition to the summit twenty years ago where eight people were killed. The movie has some seriously sad moments. The story highlights some leadership lessons that I couldn’t help recount as I thought about the story.

Hope isn’t a strategy. There is a point in the story when a climber chooses to ignore the turnaround cut-off and continue to the summit hoping he could make it. This choice fatefully kept him from returning safely. As software developers, we often ignore facts and let optimism drive us. We want something to take less time that it will. Use data and history to figure how long things will take to complete and predict what to expect in terms of complications.

Keep moving forward. As things got worse on the mountain, a common refrain from the support team was “put one foot in front of another and get moving.” Progress is made one step at a time, even when that step is a small one. When you continue to move forward, you learn more and are better able to take the next step. Consider what the next small step you can take will be, and keep moving forward towards your goal.

Listen to your advisors. As the weather got worse, another climber with a vantage point of the mountain radioed to the expedition lead to get moving off the mountain. An outside perspective almost always will help you stay rooted in objective facts. Your trusted advisors need to be able to tell you when to give up and turn around. You need to be willing to listen to a contrary opinion from someone who isn’t in the heat of battle.

Never count yourself out. One of the climbers spent the night freezing outside shelters and lived through the ordeal to walk themselves back to camp. You will have more options than you initially see before you, and when you dig deep you will discover your own resourcefulness. You can do more than you think when you push yourself.

Your network can be your lifeline when things go badly. On Everest, as things went sideways, other hikers offered their caches of oxygen for the stranded climbers. Maintain a network of people that you help and can help you when things don’t go well. Invest in your network when it’s calm, so you’re not all alone when you get caught in the storm.

Choose to do hard things. To summit Everest is to choose to suffer for months to achieve something very few people achieve. When you choose to do hard things, you will find yourself facing adversity. The challenges you face will be proportional to the success you achieve when you accomplish what so few others have accomplished. Whether starting a company or building something new, if it is hard you will suffer on the journey.

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