Guests: Andy Schell, a highly experienced sailor and the co founder of 59º North Sailing, an ocean sailing adventure company.
In a Nutshell: The most challenging environments often teach us the most important lessons about leadership. Whether you’re steering your company around a storm or navigating high interest rates with nervous clients, if you’re resilient enough to reach the other side you’ll be that much more prepared when the clouds roll in again.
On today’s show, Andy Schell discusses how the principles of seamanship are similar to the skills that you need to guide your clients through economic uncertainties and market fluctuations. We also discuss how the unique challenges and profound rewards of life at sea mirror the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey.
.Andy Schell and I discuss:
- Applying Andy’s three principles of seamanship to crisis situations.
- Finding the right balance between confidence and humility as a leader and as an entrepreneur.
- How Andy learned the value of patience and slowing down.
- Why Andy describes himself as an “empathetic leader” and whether that characteristic is teachable or innate.
- The checklist-driven preparation that’s essential to Andy’s sailing adventures and his business.
- The technical and philosophical considerations Andy weighs when integrating new technology.
- How Andy’s company inspired an organic community of enthusiasts and how his company cultivates that connection.
.Andy Schell Quotes:
“Lack of knowledge is the basis of a stressful situation. When you know exactly what to do, it’s not stressful. What is stressful and what generates fear is, fear is the unknown, fear is not knowing what to do. So I think in those stressful situations, you have to fall back on knowledge and if it’s not there, then that’s when the stress starts.”
“I think with depression and burnout, by the time you realize what’s happening, it’s too late. You’ve already gone off the cliff and now the hole’s too deep to get out of by yourself.”
“You can have all the knowledge in the world, but at some point you need to apply that knowledge and test that knowledge. So you read as much as you can, you study as much as you can, and then you start applying that. And I think that needs to come in that order.”
“I love the idea that we are driving our little spaceship through a hostile but beautiful environment entirely reliant on everything we have on the boat to get us there safely.”
