Ep. 59: Cathy O'Dowd - Decision-making and Risk on the World's Highest Mountains

This week, we talk mountains. My guest is Cathy O'Dowd. Cathy is an adventurer, speaker and author. She was the first woman to have summited Mount Everest from both the North and South sides. In addition to the Himalayas, Cathy has climbed mountains in Central and Southern Africa, the Alps, and South America. She also completed a dog sled expedition across the Norwegian Arctic. Cathy speaks and consults to businesses and other organisations. As soon as you start to listen to this episode, you will soon find out why. Cathy's experiences in mountaineering and adventures provide a number of incredible insights applicable to many other aspects of life. As soon as I finished speaking with Cathy a few weeks ago, I could not wait to bring this conversation to you! We get into a variety of things, including:  Cathy's background growing up in South Africa; Her first expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro; Her first Everest expeditions; Teamwork; Decision-making and risk-taking under conditions of acute ambiguity – and in which getting it wrong can mean paying the ultimate price; Achievement and performance; Failure; Leadership; Tackling the unknown Much more! I loved every minute of this and hope you do as well.  Show notes: Cathy's website; thebusinessofadventure.com Cathy on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CathyODowd Cathy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyodowd/ Cathy on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CathyODowdEverest Cathy's Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathy_O%27Dowd Reinhold Messner Ramsden and Fowler's 3rd Piolets d'Or ____ Like what you heard? Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on: iTunes: http://apple.co/1PjLmKh Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast Check us out wherever great podcasts are found – www.allthingsrisk.co.uk