It’s always further than it looks. It’s always taller than it looks. And it’s always harder than it looks.

—The three rules of mountaineering

The climb is always hard. The journey always long. In one moment you feel like you are on top of the world and then the headwinds hit you. This is just the way it is. We have never met a significant leader who hasn’t missed a step or fallen down at one point or another. And that’s just climbing on your own—it’s even harder leading others up a mountain.

This quote from Mark Horrell puts the journey into perspective:

For the first 29 years of Everest’s climbing history the death rate was 100%. Then Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary climbed it in 1953 and came back down again. Suddenly the death rate was down to 50%, and it’s been going down ever since.¹

For some of you, the building of people while climbing yourself, feels daunting, tiring, and useless. People are just messy, work is hard, and expectations go unmet at times. Leading can feel like dying and to some degree it is. However, the more you experience the more realistic your expectations become.

Here is my (Jeremie’s) story of dying and of starting to become a Sherpa:

It was 2012 and I was done. Since 2007 I had been leading the John Maxwell companies that we had bought and merged into GiANT. We had grown the Catalyst conferences into a national brand and successfully created a brand called Leadercast to become one of the largest leadership events in the world. We also had partnerships with significant thought leaders with the goal of changing the leadership landscape.

The problem was that as the leader, I was just dying. I was leading in what was my learned behavior, but not in my sweet spot. I was drained from work that was not life giving or energizing and drowning in detail. I was working on good projects that weren’t satisfying my purpose or skills and so my mind was on the work more than on growing the people.

Steve and I decided that we would help coach each other as we were both dealing with some difficult things in each of our own worlds. During that time period I realized that my personality and my wiring were not designed to be as effective in the current role. We wrote more about this in our book 5 Voices to help others understand how they are truly wired with their personality and how to become liberated and function more effectively.

Steve acted as a Sherpa to me and I realized that I was sinking under the weight of activities that were not in my natural strengths. He fought for my highest possible good in my job as I fought for his highest possible good in moving from the nonprofit world to being confident to leading in the business world.

Through that period of time I then began the arduous task of learning how to multiply my skills and expertise into others. The ongoing process of mastering multiplication does not come naturally to many, but it can be learned. Though I carry some scars along with stories of climbing and helping others climb to higher levels, I am still going after the higher levels myself.

All the tools we have created and shared in this book are from our experiences, and sometimes, our failures. What we have written comes directly from our real-life stories of climbing and multiplying. We want the highest good for you and can’t wait to help you along the way.

Here is Steve’s climbing story as it relates to becoming a 100X leader:

Just over a decade ago, my long-suffering wife and daughters moved with me from Yorkshire, England to Phoenix in Arizona. In total we were to spend five incredible years in the United States, two in Phoenix and three in a wonderful place called Pawleys Island in South Carolina.

Looking back, I realize that I had traded on talent, charisma and (debatable) charm for most of my life and never truly disciplined the talents I’d been given. This all changed when I arrived in the United States and started working for a highly charismatic leader. This leader constantly challenged me to become more intentional in every area of my life. He taught me how much could be achieved when natural talent was aligned with consistent discipline over an extended period of time. For some this boot camp experience would have finished them, for me it was exactly what I needed. I needed to be pushed.

I remember vividly a conversation at Starbucks that was particularly formative. I had become a healthier leader in every area of my life since arriving in the United States and had worked incredibly hard to master the content and methodology that underpinned our consulting business. The leader, acting as my Sherpa, told me that the next stage of my development was to decide what I wanted to be known for in 10 years’ time. The natural answer for my personality type, who likes maximum influence with minimum responsibility, was to say, “world class communicator”! But deep down I knew that I would rather be known as someone who developed and apprenticed others. I didn’t have the 100X leader vocabulary then but looking back this was instinctively what I wanted.

I remember inviting five leaders into a weekly coaching group with me after that Starbucks conversation and beginning to intentionally transfer what I knew into these five people. I think I learned more than they did but it was the start of what is now a foundational part of who I am.

Multiplication is far from glamorous. It’s costly in terms of your time, talent, and treasure. It is an unseen commitment to support and challenge over an extended period of time, and there are no guarantees. Those we love and invest most in have the greatest potential to cause us joy and pain.

However, the fruits of multiplication are more rewarding than any public applause from a stage or dollars in your bank account. There is nothing like the pride of seeing someone you’ve invested in go on to do incredible things he or she didn’t believe were possible. And, the fruit of multiplication lasts longer than you would imagine. People credit you over time with far more than you deserve. It’s an investment that only grows over time as they forget how much challenge you had to bring to help them grow.

Ready to Climb

As you stand at base camp staring at a summit thousands of feet above, you can get spooked. Is this really worth it, you ask? The wind hits you as you step out of your tent. You are dressed and equipped. Your guides are rounding up the team, calling you up to steeper heights. It is time to climb.

Some of you will spend years climbing before you can lead others up the mountain. That is okay. The journey of 100X is actually the journey of being intentional—to wake you up from the accidental leadership that tends to lull people across the globe to sleep. You only get better when you practice, and we want you to start practicing climbing to 100% and once you are there, to start to practice the X—to multiply what you know to others.

There are great leaders who people want to follow, but the leaders’ inability to multiply limits their influence and often frustrates those trying to follow them. Many well-known “gurus” fit these criteria as they have great wisdom and appear hugely influential through their writings and speaking, but they are not prepared for the incredibly hard, unglamorous yards of devoting their time, talent, and treasure to helping others climb. You want to follow the leader who is creating an atmosphere where people want to be, not where they’re forced to be. The test is to look at the team and culture around them rather than their bank balance or possessions.

If you have made it this far in the book, we believe you want to become one of the servant heroes—a Sherpa, who liberates those they lead. Some of you have been longing to be a 100X leader, but you didn’t have the resources or know how to start or even if you had it within you to do the hard work. It always takes longer than you think and is much more difficult to become a leader that someone actually wants to follow. It’s time.

We have provided the tools and equipment you will need to climb, as well as given you a vision to be the best leader possible, while remaining healthy yourself in the process.

Plotting Your Course

It is important to understand the best way up the mountain. Do you really want to meander through life without a sense of purpose or direction? By bringing our unconscious tendencies, struggles, and frustrations to light, we can begin to address our underlying issues with intentionality and make tomorrow’s version of ourselves a better one than today’s. That is the mountain we must climb.

So how can you lead yourself better today in order to become the person you want to be tomorrow?

Whatever you expect of others, you must first expect of yourself. This cuts to the heart of leadership and influence. Leading yourself means having expectations for yourself, which means that all that you have learned from this book must begin in you first.

Why is this so difficult for leaders today? Most likely it’s because we rarely talk about the need for leader consistency, nor do we often experience others who model the concept for us. Here are some areas you can apply to become a 100X leader:

• Go deeper—They say a tree grows up in direct proportion to the depths of its roots. If you want to truly climb to the top, then you must go to the core and build from the inside out.
• Maintain inner health—To get to 100% you must improve your spiritual, mental, and emotional maturity. If you are not healthy on the inside nothing can be healthy on the outside. Take time to recharge, rest, and center yourself each day, whatever that may mean for you. Many people have used our book, 5 Gears, to help with how to be present and productive when there is never enough time. Remember, liberation begins with self.
• Stay focused on the vision—Remind yourself what you want and what your summit is because we all have different ones. Begin with the end in mind and create your map to the higher levels.
• Live self-aware—Be self-reflective in the morning, after lunch, and after dinner. To lead yourself means you must know yourself first. If others know you better than you know yourself, you are not ready for the top.
• Leverage language—Language sets culture. Leverage the positive by using the 100X tools you have learned to lead those in your world. Once they learn the objective language, they will begin to experience the same levels of growth they have seen in you.
• Ask others to join you—Make leadership a daily process. Get others involved. If you have focused on the preceding steps, you will see your leadership capacity and influence improve on a daily basis.
• Fight for others best—Let people know that you are for them by calibrating high support and high challenge for their best and begin to act like a Sherpa.

Becoming someone worth following is the 100%. There are plenty of leaders worth following who never choose to function as a Sherpa for others. This is the distinction between a 100 leader and a 100X leader, and 100 leaders often disappoint those they lead because for some reason they never multiply in the way they could. Their legacy is sadly less than it should have been.

100X leaders are incredibly rare. We want to help raise an army of them; leaders who have the capacity and desire to change the cultures of families, teams, organizations, and communities.

Choosing Your Guides

Getting healthy yourself is the first part of the climb. If you want to become a 100X leader, you need to be connected to leaders who are living that kind of life. That is what we do. We have multiplied GiANTs into Sherpas who are helping leaders summit.

We have laid out much for you to follow here, but the nuances of your real life need to be addressed for you to have the best chance of climbing the mountains ahead. We have also given you a path to climb at www.giant.tv to set out a clear process for your 100X leader journey.

We still believe the relationship with a coach, guide, consultant, or friend is most crucial to hold you accountable and get the best out of your leadership. We at GiANT are a resource, but there are also thousands of others who are qualified to help you in your journey to liberate yourself and others. The key is to find someone you trust, with credibility and integrity, whether a GiANT or another resource.

In the end, we simply hope that you will go for it—that you will climb the highest levels for your benefit and for those you lead in every circle of influence.

The Why

This book is not just leadership jargon but also a manifesto of what we truly believe the best leaders in the world to be. We became passionate about 100X leaders for personal reasons.

I (Steve) hadn’t experienced much healthy multiplication, usually due to the insecurity of “legacy leaders” who always made it about themselves. True 100X leaders are humble. They don’t seek the publicity or adulation of the crowds because their true reward will always be over a dinner with the individuals whose lives they changed forever, not holding them up as trophies but, rather, enjoying the quiet satisfaction of seeing others liberated.

This is the filter for those who are really ready to climb. For many leaders the lure of the spotlight is too great! We still struggle like everyone else with our own tendencies and insecurities, but we have set ourselves on a path and function as a group of Sherpas constantly encouraging and challenging each other to keep going.

Remember, the Sherpa doesn’t celebrate how many times they personally have been to the summit but how many times they help others get to the top.

My (Jeremie’s) passion for 100X leaders came in the desire to be something that I had seen but hadn’t fully experienced. In my early years I had benefited from a few amazing mentors who were truly 100X leaders and I wanted to be like them. But I have always found it difficult to have the patience or desire to truly multiply (X). Through some traumatic events, mixed with these good examples, I decided to become more intentional than accidental, which is not my natural personality trait. Truly, I struggle with both 100 and the X, but because I am committed to the climb, have worked hard on my gear, and have Sherpas around me, I continue the climb. That is all we are asking of you.

Your Turn

Our assumption is that many leaders will work on getting themselves healthy—shooting for 100%. A good few may start the early climb of multiplication but for those who want to function as true Sherpas—full 100X leaders—then in our experience there are three filters/questions that every person must address before the climb.

1. Are you prepared to deal with your own wall of self-preservation? Ask the three questions again.
   1. What are you afraid of losing?
   2. What are you trying to hide?
   3. What are you trying to prove and to whom?
2. What does success really look like for you? Is it about your name in lights or something even higher? If it’s just about you, then you won’t become a 100X leader.
3. Are you prepared to invest your life and talents in others with no guarantee of a return? Those we invest the most in have the greatest potential to cause us pain, but we believe the prize is worth the price.

Assuming you come through the tough questions, then it’s time to quantify your reality. You need to be aware of your true starting point—to see what it is really like to be on the other side of you.

We have created an assessment for you to take to see where you are as a 100X leader. Simply go to www.100XLeader.com and take the 100X assessment.

You may not be thrilled with the results, but use it as a starting point to growth. If you want to become the best, then you must accept reality, plot your course, and create your game plan for liberation—for becoming a leader worth following.

The Reward of the 100X Life

The secure and mature leaders in this world have a “for others” more than “for ourselves” mentality. The rewards for living the 100X life are limitless:

• You will expand your influence further than you ever anticipated.
• You will have garnered the respect from those you lead in a healthy way.
• You will have created a legacy of which you and your family can be proud.
• You will get to see other people make different mistakes than you did as they climb to higher levels.
• You will receive the joys of having multiplied people and seeing their accomplishments benefit many.
• You will receive the gift of relationship as people will want to be around you.
• You will continue to grow yourself as you have adopted self-awareness as a guide of continual improvement.
• You will have more rest and peace in your heart and mind knowing that you are leading in the best way possible.

Living for others and leading from a place of health is truly remarkable. It is not idealistic, but entirely feasible. You will simply need to make some decisions. First, are you willing to go for it? Second, do you have the right equipment? Third, do you have the right guides?

Since you only live once, wouldn’t living as a Sherpa be worth the try? There is peace and joy and freedom in this style of leading, even amid the many hard days and frustrations that come by serving people and pushing them to higher levels.

We encourage you to not miss the opportunity to see the incredible views when you help others summit.

Sherpa Challenge

There are just too few leaders who are willing to give themselves to help others get better. Some call this servant leadership, but we think it’s even more than that. Yes, a Sherpa serves, but they also fight. That is the beauty of liberation. A liberating leader does both, serves and fights, because both are needed.

A 100X leader will leave a legacy because liberating leaders become significant and memorable in the lives of those they lead. Remember, true legacy of a leader is not how many times they have reached the top, but how many times they have helped others reach the higher levels.

This is a good time to do something for those who have been liberators to you. Take a moment and write a letter or note to someone who has been a Sherpa to you and share specific instances that helped you reach higher. Thank them either in person or in writing and tell them why you are doing it.

And, commit to becoming a Sherpa for others.

At the end of the day, there must be no excuses or regrets. You have a mountain to climb and there is a mountain that you can help others climb.

May you be one that sets a new trajectory for you and for those you lead. And, may you celebrate the summits of those you lead and train them to do the same. When we do that together, we just might create the plan that changes cultures around the world.

Don’t wait to liberate yourself and lead yourself to heights you once thought unimaginable. Do it.

Don’t wait to dream higher for people and hold them accountable to their own dreams. Help them.

Don’t wait to calibrate high support and high challenge for others. Learn how to lead more effectively.

Don’t wait to create the culture of empowerment and growth. Help the subculture leaders.

Don’t wait to give something away to someone who needs it. Resource them.

Don’t wait to call people up, not out, as you help them see an area of growth in their life. That is how people mature.

Don’t wait to give more of yourself to family, friends, and colleagues. When you give it away you get far more in return.

Please don’t wait to bring life in a world that is full of chaos. People need you!

This is the Sherpa challenge and why the analogy is so powerful. The Sherpa are worth following because of their skills, expertise, and professionalism. And even more because their humility means their true success is not about them, it’s about those they help climb.

Fight for the highest possible good of those you lead—live as a 100X leader!