Peak Performance

Following the launch of his latest book, K2: The Tragedy and the Triumph, adventurer and business coach Adrian Hayes talks to Gulf Business about how his perilous ascent of the world’s most dangerous mountain can provide lessons for those looking to excel in the corporate world

- Neil King

IT IS NO small mercy that I meet Adrian Hayes just days after the launch of his latest book, K2: The Tragedy and the Triumph. This way there is a specific focus for our conversation – a blessing given it might have otherwise been difficult to know where to start.

A brief look at his biography starts to explain why. Titles including adventurer, author, speaker, record breaker, documentary presenter, business coach, consultant and campaigner only scratch the surface of the former army officer and special forces soldier’s activities and achievements.

But it is his new book and the lessons therein that shape our discussion in the aftermath of its launch on the final day of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature – an event that confirmed to Hayes that the book was well worth writing, despite some initial concerns.

“It went very well – I had many people tell me that they were in tears at some things,” he says.

“It was never my intention to write a book on this journey. I really thought that there wasn’t a market any more for mountaineering books or adventure books, because the simple fact is that most of the ‘firsts’ have been done.

“But I was convinced that the story was powerful enough, and what really made me want to write this book was that it was not just a mountaineering book – not just about climbing.

“I wanted to bring right from the start some elements of the book I was hoping to write next – a book about team development and leadership development. I wanted to bring elements of that book into it, as well as a third element – a very personal story that was so intrinsically involved that is became impossible not to bring it in altogether.”