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“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said Eddie Backler. “One night on top of the mountain we were sitting in a circle trying to keep warm by a small fire. Just then our Sherpa, Jangbhu, scooped up hot coals in his hands to bring them closer to each of us to keep us warm.”

Eddie Backler, CEO of the Charles White Company, a property development company in Edinburgh, Scotland, was on a climb of the Mera Peak in 2009. At 19,000 feet, in the shadow of Mount Everest, Eddie and three other climbers put their faith in the hands of Jangbhu Sherpa who had summited Everest nine times before. Jangbhu quickly captured their respect as they were testing their limits like never before. “We knew he had the wherewithal to get us up the mountain, because the Sherpa was the key to our success,” said Eddie. He goes on to share his experience: “Jangbhu knew what we needed before we did. He knew how to be ahead of us and when to be behind us. It is a real skill. He could read our team and get us to work together without us knowing it. He was assessing us constantly because he had to get us ready for the next levels. And while he could be quite stern, we totally knew he was for us.”

Eddie went on to share how Jangbhu Sherpa was so intentional with resourcing the team with the proper food and gear and had a clear plan of attack to climb the mountain. Jangbhu created the trust that all four of them could summit and would do so.

Eddie went on to share, “Jangbhu wasn’t a servant ...