Andrew Skurka famous quotes

My first trip was the Appalachian Trail, and I was able to finish it despite having no skills and no experience when I started. In comparison, I can think of only a few individuals in the world who have the potential do complete the Alaska-Yukon Expedition.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Thinking #Alaska #Skills

Buy your freedom. Work really hard when you're young, save every penny, make a lot of money, and retire at 40, or 30 if you get lucky.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Lucky #Pennies #Young

I'm focused on doing what makes me happiest and on how I can make real improvements and contributions to my immediate niche, i.e. my family, friends, and local community.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Real #Community #Improvement

My pride and identity is wrapped up in my big trips. But I can't always be on one - I need to plan them and fund them, and I want some semblance of a normal life too.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Pride #Identity #Needs

The smaller trips are useful in between the big trips: they help me gain new skills and experiences, they solve a perpetual case of cabin fever, and they are accommodating to an ambitious public speaking schedule and to some private guiding.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Skills #Ambitious #Cabins

I think planning to be a "professional adventurer" is about as realistic as planning to be a basketball player, so I don't usually encourage it.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Basketball #Player #Thinking

I would describe myself as a "budding adventurer." I've transitioned away from being a straight-up backpacker, but I think I need another trip or two to get the adventurer degree.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Thinking #Two #Degrees

Mobile communications have two functions: as a safety net, and as a marketing tool. I think it'd be foolish to not carry one for safety sake. Using one for marketing is an optional activity, and I've generally stayed away from extensively using one for this purpose because it's a distraction.
-- Andrew Skurka

#Communication #Thinking #Two

Goodbye, my almost lover. Goodbye, my hopeless dream. I'm trying not to think about you, can't you just let me be? So long, my luckless romance, my back is turned on you. Should've known you'd bring me heartache. Almost lovers always do.

Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.

Far better to think historically, to remember the lessons of the past. Thus, far better to conceive of power as consisting in part of the knowledge of when not to use all the power you have. Far better to be one who knows that if you reserve the power not to use all your power, you will lead others far more successfully and well.

Some of my academic friends think Ive fallen from a very special grace.

I think I feel rather differently about sympathy to what seems the normal view. I like just to feel it is there, but not always expressed.

Because of a friend, life is a little stronger, fuller, more gracious thing for the friend's existence, whether he be near or far. If the friend is close at hand, that is best; but if he is far away he still is there to think of, to wonder about, to hear from, to write to, to share life and experience with, to serve, to honor, to admire, to love.

We'd find more energy in the attics of American homes (through energy conservation measures) than in all the oil buried in Alaska.

On the lip of the Grand Canyon. I've always wanted to do that. My very first TV special out of the Olympics was on a glacier in Alaska. Right after that one, I went and pitched this idea to skate in three National Parks. Like Voyageurs National Park, because it freezes over and you have these little islands that you can skate around. [The networks] were like, 'Way too expensive.'

Most people believe that great leaders are distinguished by their ability to give compelling answers. This profound book shatters that assumption, showing that the more vital skill is asking the right questions…. Berger poses many fascinating questions, including this one: What if companies had mission questions rather than mission statements? This is a book everyone ought to read—without question.

The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skills. To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science.