Ep 143: Becoming Singapore’s 1st Professional Adventurer - You Never too Old to Take Risks! | Khoo Swee Chiow

Would you die for your passion?Most wouldn’t but for 58-year-old Swee Chiow, Singapore’s first professional adventurer, it’s a question he must face every day.And it all began when he caught a glimpse of Mount Everest from a plane.He was working in IT (Singapore Airlines) then, but he decided from that one glimpse that he wanted to climb Mount Everest - a dream that took him a mere 10 years to achieve!The journey was hard.He knew nothing. So he read many books & even went on a 10-day mountaineering course at Mt Cook that he flunked because he wasn’t fit enough!In 1998, he joined Singapore’s first Mount Everest expedition. It was a disaster at first because:❌ Their tent collapsed during a freak storm❌ Their first attempt at the South Pole failed as they didn’t have enough rope - the Singapore media hounded them & issued headlines declaring that the expedition had failedBut they didn’t give up.Their second attempt was a success!But an exhausting one. In the midst of the media glory, Swee Chiow knew he had to take advantage of it so he immediately launched Singapore's first Antarctic expedition.Since then, he has:Climbed Everest x3 and K28,000km cycle from SG → Beijing (China) = 2003Swam 40 km across Malacca StraitsKayaked 3,000km across PhilippinesBroke his first Guinness World Records for the longest scuba submergence (220 hours)Rollerbladed 6,000km from Hanoi SG in 94 days (and broke the Guinness World Records in 2008)Highlights:3:34 Why Why Why?!4:12 Fear of heights5:00 Computer science in Kansas6:11 Saw Mount Everest from a plane6:51 Not giving up after 10 years7:24 The mountain is magical & spiritual?!9:06 Lessons learned10:27 Altitude sickness / AMS12:04 Pulling Singapore’s first Everest expedition together13:25 You can’t fail!14:19 What should people know about Everest?16:45 Quitting his day job17:45 Antarctica19:38 Commercialising his adventure business20:32 Swee Chiow’s value proposition?22:02 How he builds trust with his clients24:11 Risks & death25:11 Any trick to staying calm?25:24 Drifting to Taiwan & near certain death27:37 Never let your ego take over29:28 Dealing with the media30:55 Never doing K2 again32:19 The ghosts at Tibet’s Xishapengma36:12 Adventurers hogging the limelight37:04 Collaborating with AirAsia X40:16 How Swee Chiow decides on his adventures41:43 Advice for those in their 30s45:28 What’s next?46:26 The second act of his career?47:36 Leadership principles to be an effective guide for his team49:15 What drives you to push yourself to the extreme each time?50:23 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?51:06 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?51:27 What are the most important qualities of a successful person?Special thanks to Limpeh Studios (Hepmil Media) for the studio!🙊 Like STIMY? Buy us a ☕️?: https://beacons.ai/sothisismywhy 📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/143  💌 STIMY Newsletter on the art of storytelling + building your personal brand (+snippets of STIMY behind-the-scenes): https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/acd5bd1062✍🏻 Leave a review on STIMY: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/so-this-is-my-why/id1521191442