Shackleton's Way

Discovery Channel #1 Survival Story Video - Sir. Ernest Shackleton 

About the Authors

Margot Morrell

Margot Morrell has worked in corporate America for twenty-four years. She has been a student of Shackleton's life and work since 1984. Her deep interest in Sir Ernest's leadership qualities and the group dynamics of the Endurance expedition have taken her to the Antarctic twice and on numerous trips to the U.K. to spend days immersed in the archives of the Scott Polar Research Institute and Dulwich College. It also led her, as an independent project, to transcribe two of the diaries from the Endurance expedition -Thomas Orde-Lees' (500+ pages) and Frank Hurley's (250 pages). She is currently at work on a third, Dr. Alexander Macklin's. She has a degree in art history from Newton College of the Sacred Heart and a master's degree in library science from Simmons. She lives in New York City.

Stephanie Capparell

Stephanie Capparell, a journalist for more than 20 years, is an editor and writer at The Wall Street Journal. She joined the paper in 1990, working in the European edition's Brussels office. Today, she is editor of the U.S. paper's Marketplace-page columns, which offer advice on career and management issues, among other things. In the late 1980s, she lived in Istanbul for more than two years, helping launch and becoming editor-in-chief of an English-language weekly newspaper. She has contributed to Macmillan's "Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East" and to "The Rough Guide: Turkey." Currently, she is producing a documentary film on Turkish dissident poet Nazim Hikmet through her company, Substantial Films Inc. She has a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University and a degree in journalism from Boston University, and attended St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Ind. She lives in New York City.

About Shackleton

(taken from www.shackletonsway.com)

Sir Ernest Shackleton has been called "the greatest leader that ever came on God's earth, bar none" for saving the lives of the twenty-seven men stranded with him on an Antarctic ice floe for almost two years. Now, Shackleton scholar Margot Morrell and Wall Street Journal writer Stephanie Capparell have teamed up to present Shackleton's timeless leadership skills-skills that can be learned by anyone-to a new generation.

From 1914-16, Ernest Shackleton and his men survived the wreck of their ship Endurance in the crushing Antarctic ice, stranded 1,200 miles from civilization with no means of communication and no hope for rescue. The temperatures were so low the men could hear water freeze. They subsisted on a diet of penguins, dogs, and seals. And when the ice began to break up, Shackleton set out to save them all on his heroic 800-mile-trip across the frigid South Atlantic-in little more than a rowboat. Unlike most other polar expeditions, every man survived-not only in good health, but also in good spirits-all due to the leadership of Shackleton.

This once-forgotten explorer is riding a wave of Shackleton-mania? as described in a 1998 Wall Street Journal article by Stephanie Capparell. Those who have taken Shackleton™s leadership lessons to heart include the Secretary of the Navy, the commander of Apollo 13, and the co-founder of TheStreet.com, and they detail how Shackleton has helped them lead the way throughout their careers. Now, in Shackleton's Way, the secrets of Shackleton's leadership success are fully analyzed for the first time, and are ready for application by anyone in a position of leadership today.

Written by two business veterans, Shackleton's Way details universal leadership tactics set against the thrilling survival story of the Endurance expedition. Whether it's hiring good workers, supporting and inspiring employees to do their best, managing a crisis with limited personnel and resources, creating order out of chaos, or leading by personal example with optimism, egalitarianism, humor, strength, ingenuity, intelligence, and compassion, Ernest Shackleton set an example we can all follow. Illustrated with photographer Frank Hurley's masterpieces and other rarely seen photos, Shackleton's Way is filled with fascinating and practical lessons of a leader who succeeded by putting people first and triumphing brilliantly when all the odds were against him.

About Shackleton's Way

“If you must lead through crisis and uncertainty—and who doesn't these days?—you must read this book. Shackleton's Way reveals the true leadership lessons of the 20th Century's greatest unsung hero. And unlike most business books, this one is full of excitement, emotion, and true literary elegance.”

—Thomas Petzinger Jr., former Front Lines columnist, The Wall Street Journal,
author of two New York Times Notable Books, and CEO of LaunchCyte LLC

“This portrait of Ernest Shackleton reminds us that leadership is not about technology or title, but about motivating under adverse conditions. Shackleton's Way instructs today’s business leaders on how to inspire teams to perform beyond their perceived limits.”

—James Slavet, co-CEO, Guru.com

“I have read hundreds of management books in my career, but only two stick out as classics: The first was handed to me 20 years ago when I was at West Point; Shackleton's Way is the second.”

-Scott Chaisson, Vice-President - Branch Manager, Salomon Smith Barney

“Shackleton's Way is a classic, full of both pragmatic and philosophic leadership lessons that are equally applicable to the decks of a ship at sea or the management of a major corporation. There is a wonderful, luminous quality to Ernest Shackleton’s true grit and timeless leadership that carries clearly across the generations since his day and is perfectly illuminated in this fine work.”

—Captain James Stavridis, U.S. Navy

Additional Information / Links

Antarctic Connection: Shackleton & The Endurance