David and the Mountains

He spoke fast, often with a smile and peering down through his spectacles whilst he tucked into his favourite banana leaf lunch at Samy's. David Lim, 42, the leader of the first Singapore Expedition to climb Mount Everest, needs no introduction. A little known fact, however, is that he studied law in Cambridge

'If you are passionate about something, you will do well in it,' he said referring to the wine examinations that he took in London whilst studying for the solicitors' final examinations. 'It's important to do something that you love. Even if you do not excel in it, it will fulfil you.' Happiness and fulfilment in life are matters close to his heart. Although he did not clear his solicitors' examinations twice, he was not disheartened. 'On hindsight, failure was good for me.'
Incidentally, he did well in oenology and went on to work in the wine trade. After realising that there was no money to be made in the wine business, he went on to work as a Conciliation Officer in the Solicitors' Complaints Bureau in London. He explained in jest the reason for this career choice: 'If you can't join them, beat them.'

A chubby teenager, David took up sports in 1981 to lose weight. After reading The Shining Mountain, he was taken by Peter Boardman's description of the overwhelming experiences derived from mountaineering. He then decided to climb mountains himself. 'I felt that climbing Mount Everest would be a great way to push myself further.' After leading Singapore's first Mount Everest Expedition in 1998, David was inflicted with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare nerve disorder that took him six months to recover. As a result, he walks with a slight limp in his right leg. An advocate of the cause of the disabled, he asks, 'What took Singapore so many years to make the public transport accessible for the disabled?'

Recollecting the months he spent recovering from the nerve disorder, he says, 'It strengthened my belief in the greater being. The illness had nothing to do with mountaineering. One out of 100,000 people suffers from this disorder. In fact, my type of the disorder afflicts only one out of two million people.'

In 2001, he climbed Mount Everest again without oxygen supply. He did not reach the summit in both expeditions. Asked whether he will climb Mount Everest again, he shook his head and said that there was no more 'emotional juice' in doing it. 'I had already tasted the "high" of that experience. That's enough.' So far, he has led 32 other mountain climbing expeditions.

'I wanted to find out what made people overcome obstacles. So, the Everest Motivation Team was set up in 2004.' His name card states he is the Chief Motivating Officer of Everest Motivation Team. He has conducted corporate training programmes, executive coaching and motivational talks 70 times a year in 35 cities in 19 countries. Having acquired the professional qualifications through reading and attending trainers' programmes, he is still very excited about his job which pays him 20 times more than his last income drawn in 2001. 'It is not work for me, but play.' He says it with such genuine sincerity that you believe him.
I then engaged David's views on various aspects of his core businesses.

Coaching
He does not dismiss coaching as a fad. Describing the coaching business as a new, unregulated field in Singapore, 10 years behind America, he quantified the return on investment as 600 per cent. According to David, there are two broad categories of coaching - Life Strategy Coaching and Corporate or Executive Coaching.

'It is a tough job as it involves working on people's minds. The coach, besides possessing the relevant credentials, must have life experiences to help him in his job.'

He went on to elaborate the concept of coaching as a relationship based on trust and commitment for the client. For the coach, he must honour the rules of confidentiality and conflict of interest, which requires David to stop coaching a person if the latter is looking to coaching to get out of his job.

The Coaching Process
Before formal coaching begins, certain parameters such as the deliverables, the length of the coaching programme, the quantitative measures and the exit strategy must be put in place. Then the relationship begins. Describing it as an 'intensive conversation' between the coach and the client, the goals of the clients are co-created. The coach, in fact, is conducting two dialogues, one with the client and one within himself. 'The analogy that I would draw is the Windows program and the MS DOS that is running it.' The coach has to suppress his thoughts and the temptation to guide the client ?towards what the coach feels is right.

Counselling, Coaching and Mentoring According to David, there is a clear distinction between counselling, coaching and mentoring. 'Counselling is a form of psychotherapy while mentoring is a consistent, long-term, semi-formal programme. Coaching is different. It is a positive, objective driven, forward looking self-actualisation exercise. 'Goal Setting and Goal Getting 'We hear many people say they want to be rich and then they do not do anything about it. Is that a goal? I don't think so. It is at best a desire. It will only become a goal if the person has the discipline and deep commitment to work out structured goal setting and goal getting objectives. He has to get rid of unproductive mindsets and replace them with productive mindsets,' explains David. Experiential Training The personal training course I attended some years ago had a component of experiential training. This is facilitated learning from an experience. Some participants undergo a personal transformation during this type of training. I was eager to hear David's take on experiential training. Describing it as having originated from the late 1980s, he said that this type of training creates different experiences for different teams. He felt that the facilitator must have relevant and sufficient skills to conduct it. Asked whether transformation is a desirable effect, David did not think that it is any different from the changes an individual undergoes after a religious retreat.

The Distinction between Team Building and Team Bonding
Are team building and team bonding exercises similar? 'Of course not,' asserted David. 'Many people confuse both kinds of programmes. Team bonding is filled with having-a-good-time activities. On the other hand, team building is serious business. It is about learning good team behaviour and creating high performance teams.' As in coaching, David proffered that the facilitator has to find out the client's objectives and desired outcomes. He then assesses the team before and after the event. During the event, he observes the team's behaviour and the specific behaviour of its members. The team conducts its own review process followed by the facilitator's review.

The Popularity of Training Programmes in Singapore David summarised the reasons for the popularity of such programmes as curiosity, benefit and peer pressure. Others take it up as they do benefit from it. The last group attends such training programmes because of their friends whom they see benefiting from it. As for companies, they want to maintain high retention of good staff or improve bottom lines. Many employees have self-beliefs, emotional baggage or past experiences which create obstacles in their career. Employers now see corporate training programmes as the solution.'
The Singapore Employer and Employee
David lamented that the Singapore employee's immediate reaction, when offered an executive coaching or corporate training programme would be 'Why? What's wrong with me?' Foreigners, on the other hand, view these as employment perks. 'So, you see the different perspectives. It's all about courage, both for the employee and the employer. I feel that the Singapore employer lacks the courage to do the right thing. As a leader of a company, you have no choice but to manage well and do the right thing.'

Staff Motivation
'You cannot motivate staff. I cannot motivate my client's employees,' David stressed. From David's perspective, employees are no longer motivated by money alone. In fact, it ranks last, he said, after recognition and contribution.
Do We Need to Attend Such Programmes?
David's answer was that one should examine one's objectives and desired outcomes before embarking on such programmes. 'It always starts from there. For some, it can be as simple as creating energetic staff.' Energy flows where attention goes as directed by intention,' he surmised. He, however, cautioned that consumers must shop carefully as there are many unqualified and inexperienced trainers providing this service.

Talking about his previous career, David said he spent nine years in Singapore Press Holdings' ('SPH') various departments after his return from London. 'I liked SPH because they allowed me to try my hand at different aspects of the business. I like having options.' One day, however, he felt that he had stopped growing in his career. Hence, He quit his job in 1998.

Describing himself as highly active and a big-picture guy who is low on details, he clarified that his drive, passion, dedication and high energy are not new found. They were always in him. 'I now feel as if I have lived several lifetimes in the last decade.' His philosophy towards life is simple: 'Enjoy it. I use money to live the life I want and contribute to community.'

Married with five cats and two dogs, David's own goals are to grow his business, start a second business on soft adventure tourism and yes, climb yet another mountain this year. At 2pm, he ended the interview promptly and took his leave. You cannot help wondering whether you had missed out on something during the interview. He's just so simple.

To read more about David, his work and beliefs, visit his website: www.everestmotivation.com

Rajan Chettiar
Rajan Chettiar & Co
E-mail: rajan@rajanchettiar.com