Small Steps to Big Summits

Persistence and Imperfection in Mountains and Boardrooms

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Paperback / Hardback

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If the mountain doesn’t care, should I still dare?

How long should I grit, and when is it wiser to quit?

Do I stay in place, or run a new race?

What if resilience isn’t about conquering mountains at all, but about laughing at the times you nearly fell off them? If you’ve ever wondered how climbing Mount Everest can lead to evading soldiers in Russia, skiing away from polar bears in Greenland, or having a mental breakdown in the middle of Seoul, Small Steps to Big Summits has some answers — just don’t expect tidy ones.

From the thin air of Everest to the fluorescent glare of management consulting strategy sessions, Jane Lee has chased records, promotions, and that elusive thing called “purpose.” She has led teams where the stakes were life or death, and others where the greatest peril was a poorly formatted PowerPoint deck. Along the way, she has discovered that whether you’re wearing climbing boots or power heels, progress usually comes with blisters, detours, and the roaring avalanche of self-doubt.

This is not a book about heroic summits. It’s about becoming an accidental leader, coaxing performance out of unlikely teams, and recognizing the questionable wisdom of chasing conventional success — while finding meaning instead in the missteps, heartbreaks, and near-misses.

Part expedition log and part boardroom confessional, Small Steps to Big Summits speaks to anyone who has ever climbed too high, worked too hard, or lived too neatly, and discovered that the best stories come not from the summits, but from the glorious art of stumbling forward.