Even with his eyes closed — literally and figuratively — Erik Weihenmayer is able to inspire a lot of people simply by sharing with them lessons he himself learned along the “unlighted” path of his life.
Born in 1968 with a disease called retinoschisis, it was never easy for Erik to accept his blindness. “When I was going blind, I was sort of living in the past,” he narrates. During this time, neither was he using his cane nor learning Braille. “I was sort of refusing to see myself as a blind person because I didn’t wanna be blind.” Life took a 180-degree turn when one day while walking down a dock, he stepped off the edge. He recalls the experience, “I did a flip in the air and landed on my back on the deck of the boat. I thought that was a good turning point because I realized that it didn’t matter so much that I didn’t like what was happening.” He later on understood he had two choices in front of him: one was just to sit and listen as life goes by; the other was to climb his way out. He made the obvious choice and he never looked back. Erik learned the skills, understood his situation, identified the challenges and faced them head on. “Sometimes you need to get punched a little bit before you wake up. Sometimes it takes falling to learn,” he adds. That particular experience started him to a path of accepting his blindness and beginning to figure out what he needed to do.
Erik totally lost his sight at the tender age of 13. But this condition didn’t stop him from living his life and eventually inspiring others along the way. Compared to sighted individuals, Erik had a vision more powerful than theirs. And definitely clearer. For the next six years of his life, he became a teacher to fifth and sixth graders in the US. “I loved it,” Erik says. “I was very proud to be able to be in front of a classroom full of sighted kids and teaching them, being responsible for their safety.” Being in charge of these kids and helping them become leaders themselves was an excellent source of pride for him.
And although denied of the spectacular scenery from the top of the mountains, this blind man made history in 2001 when he reached the summit of the world’s highest peak, Mt. Everest. A year after, he completed his seven-year quest to climb the Seven Summits — the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, joining only 100 mountaineers to have accomplished that feat. At age 33, he was also one of the youngest. But more than the feat itself, Erik considers it a great celebration because of all the friends who have helped him in that journey.
So how important is friendship to a guy who couldn’t see anything but still manages to accomplish things even a sighted man could not have achieved? His face lit up and although his eyes couldn’t sparkle, his smile is more than enough assurance, knowing an array of memories came rushing into his mind. “It’s very important,” he stresses. In fact, the biggest compliment said of him was in an Australian article that reviewed his book. “They were trying to criticize me in my first book. But they said something like there’s nothing remarkable about this man except for the fact that he’s got some amazingly loyal mates that have helped him climb these big mountains.” True enough, Erik acknowledges his “amazingly loyal” friends for being with him through all these quests. “In your life, you have to believe in what you’re doing and you have to believe in each other. I think to entrust each other (is) the foundation to any team.”
This and many others were what Erik was here for — to share his inspiring story and secrets to success to the Procter & Gamble Philippines team. It was a year ago when P&G Philippines set a new vision that has since become the principle that defines how the company operates. That vision was to be the “Greatest of All Time.” Being the third oldest P&G subsidiary globally (it has been in the country for 73 years now), the team is encouraging its members to strive for greatness and be the best that they can be. Last year, they drew inspiration from known personalities who have shown what it takes to be called “great” in their respective fields: five-time Olympic gold medallist Nadia Comaneci and world-class bowling champ Paeng Nepomuceno. This year, the P&G team had the privilege to learn from the inspiring words of Erik himself.
“Before I climbed Mt. Everest, somebody said that if that blind man’s going to climb Everest, people would have laughed. I think it’s very similar to doing anything great. There are a lot of people who don’t share your vision and they don’t believe you. But you have to create a plan and build a great team around you,” Erik philosophizes. “As you move along, build your systems and strategies that are going to make you the best. That’s what I’ve had to do essentially as a blind climber. I had to create all those systems that support me in terms of infrastructure as well as a team. (It’s important for me to) build the right people around me.”
Erik furthers that it was an honor for him to tell the P&G people his story and for them to hear the perspectives of a blind climber because when he speaks about how he did this or that thing and how he built his team, the P&G team members completely see themselves in his words — in terms of building their own team, trying to create more efficiencies and overcoming challenges that come along their ways.
Tests and trials are always present to tear us down and make us feel low. And Erik, having surpassed many an adversity in his life, had this to say to people who face their own adversities: “I think most adversities provide us with an opportunity to be better. So in a way, that’s changing our mindset a little bit and understanding that those adversities in our lives, there are ways of using them as a fuel to become better.” He continues, “I know it’s a bit cliché but most of the adversities, when we focus on them, can be used to make ourselves better and stronger. And I tried to look at adversities in that way. I think it’s a bit of a mindset, it’s seeing adversities not necessarily as an impediment, but as a path towards where you want to go.”
It is because of this gift of “seeing” things in a different perspective that Erik proves more and more that he has a “vision” a man with a 20/20 could never see. His vision, without doubt, is of incomparable clarity.
* * *
(E-mail the writer at jernicamposano@yahoo.com)