Ascending with the Sherpas

Not yet signed up to receive more insights from Fortis CEO Nathan Foy? Subscribe here

It was around Christmas last year that I saw a captivating story on 60 Minutes. Watching with my kids, the story was about the sherpas of the Himalayas. They interviewed a very impressive young sherpa named Nima. Nima Sherpa (his real name), at the tender age of 18, had become the youngest sherpa to ascend the tallest 14 peaks in the world. Some of these peaks have over 20% fatality rates. Despite the superhuman accomplishment, Nima came across as remarkably humble in spite of his big achievement.

For a long time, I've thought of sherpas as the perfect model for service. They are experts in the Himalayas. They know the terrain. They are physically fit and acclimatized to their region, often ascending with little or no supplemental oxygen. They are selfless, making their goal the success of their client. To my knowledge, there's never been a sherpa tell-all book written to tout their own glory.

Yet the sherpas are little known or celebrated. Hollywood celebrities, famous athletes, and politicians seem to dominate headlines when people like the sherpas are real unknown heroes—willingly laying down their lives for their clients in often terrifying situations. Their press-shyness and code of humility work against them being noticed.

Nima related in the 60 Minutes interview that he wanted the sherpas to get sponsors from western companies and get more sophisticated training. I was inspired by that vision. Fortis, after all, has worked for more than two decades to train and elevate the status of service providers around the world—chauffeurs, security personnel, and others that help our clients achieve more.

In the 26 years of Fortis, we'd never sponsored an athlete, celebrity, or company. Nothing seemed to fit. We didn't want to force an alliance.

I reached out to Nima with a blind email. I was surprised to get a quick reply. He was very interested in working together. We set a time to meet up in Colorado in the following months.

Meeting Nima was a thrill. He was even more humble and happy than he seemed on camera. He told me his book about his adventures is coming out in the coming months. He even invited me to ascend to Everest Basecamp with him.

Most importantly, we finalized a deal. Fortis will sponsor Nima and his Sherpa School. We will work to provide more training and equipment for the heroes of Nepal and seek to tell their stories. I'm thrilled that I'll be able to join Nima in Nepal in February to help train sherpas at his school.

Our vision is for a global certification of sherpas that can travel continents to do their important work with a single standard of care globally. This will bring income, safety, and scalability to the sherpa world. We view this as a natural fit—Fortis and the Sherpa School both serve high achievers striving to reach their highest peaks. We both want to help clients ascend to achieve their goals with safety at the forefront. And we both love welcoming challenges.

As we met with Nima in Colorado, I was accompanied by my two sons, ages 12 and 10. It struck me that Nima was world famous for his accomplishments, yet he was only seven years older than my older son. It struck me that we are able to accomplish so much more than we think we can when we push ourselves to do the impossible.

We are honored to partner with Nima to help make that possible for even more young servants.

Nathan Foy

Fortis CEO and author of What Rich Clients Want (But Won't Tell You)

Follow on Linkedin