Nims Purja, a former Gurkha and UK SBS operator, shares how his 16-year military career—marked by extreme self-discipline (like 20km runs with a 75-pound backpack at 1 AM) and near-death experiences in the death zone—fueled his 2019 quest to climb all 14 peaks above 8,000 meters in seven months. The Netflix documentary 14 Peaks, inspired by his relentless drive, became a top-seven hit, proving that pushing beyond perceived limits reshapes lives and legacies, while his Big Mountain Cleanup Project now tackles environmental degradation on Everest and K2. Purja’s journey from poverty to elite soldier to mountaineer underscores how passion and sacrifice redefine human potential, even amid criticism or instability. [Automatically generated summary]
Going back into 206 years ago, the British, when they were trying to run over the world, take over the world, the British umpire was in India.
And when they were in India, they were trying to take over Nepal as well because it's a neighboring country.
But, you know, they didn't have luck.
They didn't have a chance.
So, at that point, what did the British government said was, hey, you know, we'll not attack Nepal anymore.
But, you know what?
Is there any chance we can have, you know, all these, you know, brave guys, you know, fighting for us?
And at that point, the Prime Minister, the government of Nepal were really, you know, sick of, you know, this heavy force coming with the artilleries, you know, the big guns and...
So my two brothers were in the Gurkhas and once they joined the Gurkhas, they were like, you know what?
I want my sister and my brother to go to the boarding school.
So they sent us to boarding school.
And my brothers are like my father.
My elder brother is 18 and a half years older than me.
So, wow.
So in this school, we are not allowed to leave the compound.
But I really wanted to be in the Gurkha.
So when I was 15, 16 years old, I used to wake up at 1 o'clock at night.
And I used to go, like, you know, without permission.
I used to run 30 kilometers in the morning before, like, anybody finds out.
And I come and pretend like I'm waking from my bed and I still, you know, walk with toothbrush and toothpaste pretending I have never left the compound.
But I had to make it work because I knew that the selection is so tough.
Because, you know, if the teacher would find out that I have left the compound, mate, they in Nepal, they beat like, you know, they beat the hell out of you.
Look, not really, because, you know, you start your, like, you know, school, like, if you stay in the hostel, you know, from 7 o'clock in the morning, and you have to have your presence over there, and then you finish around 4 o'clock in the evening, So it's a really tight schedule.
You study about 14 different subjects.
So, yeah, there wasn't really a way and many of my friends wouldn't know and many of my friends wouldn't probably do that.
But I knew that I had to push extra and I had to break that rules and that normal rules and regulation of school.
And then I found about, you know, the special boat service, which is, I mentioned, you know, like equivalent to your SEAL Team 6. So they operate from air, water, you know, underwater and land, everything.
So I was like, yes, I want to be part of that cool group.
And when I first talk about it, you know, all my friends, including my seniors, including captains and even some of the...
The senior rank that I look up to, like, you know, where I was like, you know what, I want to be like those guys, you know, some inspiring figures.
And they were saying, Nims is impossible, because no one has ever made this, you know, in the history of the Gurkhas.
And I was like...
Really?
And I said to them, look, it's possible.
And they started making jokes out of me.
Then it comes to a certain point where you don't talk about it anymore.
You know, I truly believe that to break this barrier of, you know, a Gurkha, you know, to get into, I knew that I have to put more.
And you know what?
The only big thing that the friends were saying was like, Nims, you know, it's not only about physical.
You need to have, you know, a great sense of humor.
You need to have, you know, common sense and all that.
So I was like, okay, then I start looking into English sense of humor.
And I was like, you know, so when you go in the selection, they will just like, the instructor, the DS we call it, directing staff would call it, hey, come here, fucking tell me a joke.
And the Nepalese joke is completely different to English sense of humor.
So every day I used to prepare different jokes.
And I used to go in front and I used to say like different jokes.
And this is how much I was prepared.
And this is how much I was willing to give.
And yeah, in 200 years of history, I've become the first Gurkha ever to pass the selection for SBS. That's amazing.
For example, you know, if your parents is waking you up at 6 o'clock, you still wake up.
If you're in the ring or if you're training, you go and you still train, but your coach is there and all that.
That's not good enough.
You know, what I mean by self-discipline and equally with that, the self-motivation thing that I really believe was key in my part is being able to wake up when no one is looking at me, when no one is waking me up.
Being able to go and train when no one is looking at me.
So the self-motivation and that self-discipline is where I really started looking into and believing that NIMS, if you really want to do something in terms of breaking the boundaries and in terms of reaching your full potential, you have to be different.
And I started kind of planting that into my brain and this is how I have been where I am today.
So you just sort of willed yourself into the state of discipline, knowing that if you were going to achieve great things, you had to be able to work when no one was looking.
So when I was a kid, I wanted to be a GACA and then obviously that wasn't the same level of training as I did for when I went for the Special Forces selection.
But it's a like build up as I grew up through the age.
And I think it's that dream.
To be able to see yourself in that career stage.
So when I was in the Gurkha, I just dreamed to be...
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a Gurkha.
Then when I was a Gurkha, I wanted to be that Special Forces.
And you know what, Joe?
I never used to drink anything until I was 25 years old.
I was that much, you know, I was ambitious and motivated.
So when I passed the selection for SBS, I was like, you know what?
I think what it got me or what it balanced the whole thing was my swimming element because I used to swim, right?
And then even though my training was super intense and it's like, you know, the gravity, the friction part, but unknowingly I was doing, you know, 100 laps.
And I think because, you know, that is more for like flexibility and all this stuff.
So, 2019, at this point, I served with the UK Special Forces for 10 years.
I've been around the world.
I have obviously done some crazy shit, you know, that people wouldn't probably see on the movies and all that.
So what happened in 2019 was...
I found the purpose.
And look, just to even put things into perspective, at this point, I had served 16 years in the British military.
I had only six years left to get the full pension.
So, you know, if you look from the financial perspective, You know, I'm really there to get the full pension.
But then I got this idea, like the 14 picks.
So why I'm doing this?
So I had two purposes.
The first one was Look, it doesn't matter where you come from, what your background is, whatever that is, you can literally show the world nothing is impossible, no excuses.
And the second one was, look, the Nepalese climbing community, the Seripas, are the king of a thousand years, but we never had the right, you know, like, credits.
And I wanted to raise the name of the Nepalese climbers.
And those two purpose...
Gave me the strength.
So what happened after that was Straight away, I went to the HR. I put my resignation and people went mental.
They were like, you know, my brother is specifically like, Nims, you know what?
You're so selfish.
Because at this point, I used to send, you know, a chunk of my salary every month to my mom and dad.
I really believe that when our parents, you know, they look after us when we were like kids and vulnerable.
And as I give back to them, when they get older, they're also invulnerable, they cannot work and all that.
So I was always, you know, like sending them money.
So when I decided about this project, And when I put the resignation, I know that there's no money going to them.
My brother went really mentally, like, Nims, you know, you are the most strongest financial contributor in our family.
And the guy who tried to break that record broke it only by one week.
So that was that.
And then I said, I'll do that in seven months.
And people were like...
No, it's impossible.
Again, you know, those guys who are listening, just to put this into simple perspective.
So if the record for full marathon is now two hours, what I was saying there then was, I'm going to do that in 10 minutes.
And that's why nobody believed in.
And Joe, it was crazy.
I used to wake up at like four o'clock, write the email, take early train to London, meet all the entrepreneurs, corporate organizers, and peace them, repeat the same thing, come back home, quick food.
Then I write again in the follow-up email, hey, nice to meet you today, and follow-up email.
And I write that in a very long letter, full hand written, and I cover that and put those in his stamp so that it will get his attention and nothing came.
So I was just going after everything, anything, from outdoor companies Outdoor clothing.
So going back into that one, Joe, what I really believed in was...
Okay, people don't believe now, but if I start climbing this mountain in the manner and in the style that I said I would do it, it's going to be possible.
So I took the flight to Nepal with 15% of the funding.
Then there were a bit of like a small, like, you know, I would say sponsorship came in, a few money from GoFundMe.
And at that point, when I fly to Nepal, I had 15% of the total funding.
So the first mountain I choose was Annapurna.
So in Annapurna is like where every four climbers who try to climb, three dies trying.
So that was my first mountain.
And you know what?
This was the first time ever in the history of my life.
Because I changed that statistics in 2019. When I went there and set the fixed lines with my team, more than, I think, 50 people submitted in 2019. Right, but here's the stat.
I think it's that muscle memory, you know, where I have been training, you know, since I was a kid and, you know, like non-stop.
And obviously, which, you know, we discussed earlier.
I think that's what it made me who I am today.
You know, the hard work, the training and training and training.
But Joe, you know, like, a lot of people think probably, you know, like, oh, yeah, Nims is from Nepal, he's from the mountains, and he climbed all this peak.
You know, I grew up in the most flat and the hottest part of Nepal.
They did this study on some of the Sherpas that assist the people on Mount Everest in particular.
And they said that they're so extraordinary...
That they were studying them.
They were saying it's literally had an effect on their DNA. Like living there and doing that and that this expression of being in that place, being in that environment has just made them just incredible specimens.
I think the dinosaurs probably were adapting, but a lot of other shit went down.
I think it's like the dinosaurs were lazy.
They didn't train hard enough.
I think there was like a big rock that had something to do with that, but it's still extraordinary that, you know, like there was this thing about these Sherpas where they were able to do things with no oxygen, that where the people that had tried to go there, that's like, there's so much recreational climbing, particularly in Everest, and you documented that in that crazy photo.
We actually showed that photo the other day on the podcast.
So, you know, when that picture came out, I heard a lot of negativity around the world.
And you know what?
The human beings, we are so, so negative.
And I think even in the workspace, nowadays, specifically because of that picture, if some of the work colleagues summit Everest, we'll say, oh, now you know what Everest is like, you know, every turist going summit.
But let me give you this example, everyone who's listening to this, you know, podcast.
There are more than 2,000 people running London Marathon.
But just because that number is high, will that marathon be easy?
No.
So it still is Everest.
It's still tough.
Now moving into this specific story, what happened was 2019, it was unfortunately only one day where we had the good weather.
So, look, I have never left anyone behind in my career in the Special Forces and in the Gurkhas.
And I know for this project, I had put everything down on the line.
But I knew that, you know, I was in my ability to go and save him.
So I put, again, I put all of my missile into Riks again.
So me and my team went, we rescued him, and we took him to the hospital.
But because of that, we missed the good weather in Dhawlagri.
So normally I climb one 8,000-meter peak in 18 hours.
Dhawlagri, it took us five days.
We didn't sleep at all.
We're like, keep pushing, and you can see on the film as well.
The weather was terrible.
And after the summit of Daulagri, we got back to Kathmandu, and there was one Chinese billionaire who said, Nims, I might go and climb Kanchanjangha, which is my third mountain.
So he was like, would you guide me?
And I was like, okay, because we didn't have the money.
And so, you know, fully hungover, I went to the airport and I had to go to Kanchenjunga.
And we climbed Kanchenjunga.
That was probably one of the craziest, you know.
It was so cold, like so sleepy.
We used to put snow in our armpit, you know, slap ourselves, all that.
So to get into your point, so I haven't slept for six days.
Summited, got back down and at 8,450 meters, we found a climber.
He was out of his oxygen.
So I got my oxygen out and I give him immediately the oxygen.
So I'm now out of oxygen, okay?
So just to put into the science here, Normally you climb without oxygen when you are acclimatized.
I was never acclimatized to that altitude.
So let's say on Everest or even in K2, you have to sleep at CAMFO without oxygen so that your body is acclimatized, you are building more red blood cells.
I didn't have done that.
So giving my oxygen, I knew that I could do it, but I knew it was a very, very high risk.
So I gave him my oxygen and we started bringing him down.
Then another hundred meter down, we found another guy.
And then there were people at CAM4, more than I think 60 people at CAM4, who went to like Summit Pus, like going from CAM1 they sleep, CAM2 they sleep, CAM3 they sleep, CAM4 they sleep, Summit and then back to CAM4. And they were not in the situation like us at all.
You know, our story is completely different.
It's like fast track, we haven't slept for six days and all that.
I went onto the radio and I begged for help.
Is there any chance can somebody bring us the oxygen?
And nobody came, man.
And it came to that point where people started turning their radio off.
Look, I'm not here to blame anybody, but, you know, a lot of people say, you know, like, yeah, they're badass and all that.
They can talk in the social media, but they all were at CAMFO. You know, they were earlier, they were well-rested, and they could come and help in another sense.
No oxygen for like almost now 11 hours and then and then now I got this guy and this is when you know like I started seeing things, like, you know, like, you know, in the book, Beyond Possible, I have mentioned, like, you know, I thought he was a yeti.
Every time, you know, I go to OnePig, we summit, and then there's a GoFundMe page, and then people are sharing, and, you know, a good friend of mine, you know, who was in a program called SES Who Does Win, he started posting and supporting, and then people giving £20, £30, and eventually, as soon as I climb one mountain, there will be money for her to climb the second mountain.
When I was a kid, we didn't even have a TV in the house.
As a kid, I used to go around to neighbor's house to watch the television and they would say, hey, get lost.
But from that point, today, I produce the biggest mountaineering film ever in the history.
So what I'm doing right now is not only about climbing.
Climbing is the easiest thing I have done.
So the whole of the 14 peaks It was my vision.
It was my idea.
We didn't even have the production crew.
I was climbing and flying the drone at the same point.
I was making sure that the teams were in the right place to capture the content.
All of this.
So again, you know, brother, nothing is impossible.
So that's the thing.
And the question that you asked me before, when did Netflix came in?
So when I finished the whole of the project, I had about more than 100 hours of footage in a hard drive.
Before I went to Nepal, at the start of the project, I had pieced this to everybody.
Can you film this?
Nobody.
So when I come with a hard drive, I was in different parts of the table, and we did a big, I would say, kind of like oxen who would come and produce this movie.
Out of, you know, four or five people, I decided to go with Noah because I felt like they were the right partners.
And then Noah put this together.
We had an amazing director in the Torquil Jones, you know, I think.
And it's also his baby, looking through 100 hours of footage and then stitching them.
Then Jimmy Chin, you know, from Free Solo, he came in.
Because I knew that this thing has got multi-layers of motivating factors.
A lot of people who want to go into the filming industry and all said, okay, because I didn't have this camera.
I didn't have this.
I didn't have Discovery, Netflix, or Crew signing this.
No, you can make things happen.
You just like...
It was really hard work when you are climbing in this like vertical slope and you are flying the drone and you know like climbing at the same point but I knew that I had to do this.
Even another tough thing was like you know the the sort with my mom when she was in hospital.
It was crazy because you are like saying hey guys we need to have the camera okay because but you don't feel natural because It's like acting, right?
But it's not acting.
I have never been in that part, but I was like, oh, it was so awkward, but I had to do it.
So I said, you know guys, let's get the camera out.
Yeah, that's a real problem with like, anytime you're trying to document reality and you have a camera, the camera just naturally changes the way people behave because they're aware that someone's watching.
But it's people like you and him that have done insane things that have that ability to express this because it's not just talk.
You've actually done it.
And that's the difference between, I mean, I don't want to call anybody out, but certain motivational speakers that they give these big tours and they talk in front of large groups of people, you can accomplish your goals, you can follow your dreams, but what are they doing?
For it to really resonate with a person, it takes someone like you that's actually done something spectacular.
So, over the course of the many months that you did this film, when you were close, was there ever a moment where you had to realize, like, we're almost there.
Like, we actually are doing this.
Because what you set out to do, if you brought that, I'm not in the climbing world, but from what I've read, if you brought that idea to anybody, they'd tell you to go fuck yourself.
They'd be like, that is the craziest idea ever.
You're going to do how many peaks?
Fourteen?
In how long?
Seven months?
Do you know what you're saying?
You're saying you're going to do one every two weeks.
That's what you're saying.
That's so stupid.
People will be like, get the fuck out of my office.
You can't do that.
You didn't even say, I'll do it all in a year, which would be crazy.
And, you know, like, to answer your question, you know, I climb Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, the world's first, fourth, and fifth highest mountain in 48 hours.
And when I summit and get back down, I would only drink half a liter of that thermos.
I always stay reserved, but I think it's the mindset, it's the training.
You know, you don't go so fast as well, so you are like super out of breath and you are dehydrating.
You know, every my pace is calculated.
And we know with the hot water, what I used to do is going into very basic, I scoop the cold snow, put the hot water and that, you know, that one liter can be like three liters, right?
I drink that and I always like preserve, you know, because in mountains, anything could happen.
You may be stuck for three days and if you just don't plan and start rustling and all those having that You know, survival kind of mentality, you will just be dead.
Because that's one of the things they say about people when they're at high altitude is they don't recognize that they're dehydrated and it becomes an issue.
I think many people who are probably at that survival stage wouldn't know, but I'm in full control, so I kind of know if I'm dehydrated and all that, and I kind of look into very details.
Hence why I keep saying, a small thing matters on the big mountains.
It's looking into really smaller things, and there's a saying like, It's not the rock that wears you out.
There was a big competition between Netflix and Disney+.
I don't know if I'm allowed to see it, I'm going to see it anyway.
But for me, money has never been my priority in my life.
Otherwise, I would never be able to quit my Special Forces career, sell my house, and go and do this.
And even though the money offered by Disney was way higher, we decided to go with Netflix because I really felt like the movie 14 Peaks would change so many people's lives in a positive way.
And the whole idea here is...
It's not about climbing mountains, really, Joe.
It's about, you know, we all have our own mountains to climb in life, you know, how we climb them.
Yeah, so that was the whole purpose, and I'm glad...
It obviously worked.
But you know what, Joe?
Not really, mate.
I think, again, at the end of the movie, you have seen if this was done by any European, Western climbers, or even American, look, I'm not racist, but then this would have been 10 times bigger.
I think they might be in that survival situation where they didn't have the option and when it comes into the stage of survival, Again, I give example of drowning in the sea because a lot of people understand.
It doesn't matter if your girlfriend or wife, you know, drowning next to you, you'll grab them and try to survive.
But, if you are not that, if you don't have time to do that, and, you know, if you have been working hard in your own world, in your work, and you have saved that money, you can go and climb with the support.
So, I take things completely in a different way, because even now people will say, oh, if I had the money, I would have climbed 14 peaks.
I'm like, bullshit.
I didn't even have the money.
So there's no excuses.
So I think everything in life, whatever you want to do, has got two angles.
Either you invest your career in that, you build up, you become so good, so you can do without bare minimum, or you're working in some industry, but you're saving up to do.
For me, let's say, for example, if Albert Einstein wanted to go and climb Everest, I would say, of course, because he can experience that.
82. So the big thing here is, you know, it's adventure, Joe.
What I really believe is a lot of people, like, they all have rights to the adventure.
And people don't really come and climb Everest or any 1,000-meter peak to be another nymphs die or another, like, you know, the legend.
But they come.
To experience something.
It's like running a marathon.
People run a marathon because from that journey, they take something away in their life.
And then whatever they are doing, like a corporate role or business, they say, you know what?
I ran that whole marathon even I was in agony.
I was in pain.
I can do this job.
So I climbed this Everest when it was so tough, but now I can do this thing.
So they climb for that experience, for that mindset to develop into different things.
And again, you choose, right?
You pick and choose.
Okay, if I want to go to space, well, either, you know, I be a scientist by myself, or I have the money, I use other people to the advantage and I go.
Right?
But it's about the experience.
And I think we humans should be more open to be helping each other and then cut all this negative away and try to see from their perspective before making the judgment or before making any calls.
And see, you gotta realize that haters are all losers.
And the people that are negative and they're constantly looking for a negative angle, most of them are failures.
But they find a reason to disparage people's success.
So if it's a bunch of rich people that are climbing Mount Everest, They decide to just shit on these rich people that are climbing Mount Everest.
Because it's an easy way to find a negative angle on what's a positive accomplishment.
But from their perspective, one thing that I do agree with them is that it is...
It's very unfortunate that the amount of human waste that's left behind this disgusting amount of human shit is left up there because they just leave it up there and they leave a lot of their trash up there they leave the bodies up there so from their perspective there is There's value to the fact that even though they write these articles shitting on these people, no pun intended, it at least brings attention to the fact that that is an issue.
Maybe you should stop this over, pretend you're outside.
unidentified
I'm playing my part.
with my upcoming project called the Big Mountain Cleanup Project where we'll be cleaning up all the mountains starting with Manasso in September, Everest in the spring next year that's 2022. I'm a Babylon Towards the end of autumn in 2022 again and K2 a year after.
I absolutely believe that this decade is hugely important for us in order to protect our planet or our home.
Yeah, but some of the bodies, you cannot find them because, you know, every year it's snowing and some of the body goes into crevasse like deep, you know, so you wouldn't find.
But some of the bodies that you see, most of the body that you can see are brought down.
I think at that point, if people want to have a shit, because it's not that really fast moving line, Joe, because people take one step and they wait for like three, four minutes to get another breath back.
And everybody's doing that.
And everybody's doing that.
So it's not like really QQ. And I think some of the people actually might like it because they don't have to push so hard.
I think it's the most popular, but, you know, there's another mountain called K2. Yeah, I've heard of that.
Which is, you know, quite hard mountain.
They call that K2 as a savage mountain.
And I think, though, if you heard that story or not, you know, last year we, you know, So K2 was the only mountain in the world above 8,000 meter peak.
No one had submitted in winter.
So all other 13 were submitted in winter and K2 was the last challenge.
No, I think at that point, being brutally honest, I didn't even want to go on K2 that year because I knew that the movie was coming and I was planning, okay, you know, when the movie comes, I'll have more reach out, I'll get more sponsorship, that means more money, and I can look after my family.
But then it was a huge race.
Every climber's from all over the world.
So this was 46 expeditions going on K2 winter to race.
And I was like, hey Nims, you know, you said you are never about money and all that.
Now you need to go.
And the reason why I went and made that quick decision was, look, we as a Nepalese climbers, brother, we have got 8,000-meter peak in Nepal.
It's our playground.
And none of them were submitted in, like, none of us have submitted in winter.
Not because we couldn't do it.
We didn't know the value of submitting in winter.
We had no idea, like, by submitting in winter is such a big thing.
So then we obviously started figuring out, okay, it's the greatest, the last mountaineering challenge remaining.
We were like, you know, the base layer, then we'll wear like mid layer, then we were like another jacket, down jacket, then we were another down jacket, and then big summit suit.
So your kit and equipment is probably around, I would say, 15 kg.
So once you've accomplished something like this and then you get done with doing press for it and then it gets very popular, Do you then sit around and think about what your next goals are?
Do you wait for your goals to just pop into your head and come to you?
Yeah, and then at that point, what I said to my team members was like, guys, at that point, a lot of people were dying because of the pandemic and so many crises.
I said to them, guys, we are from Nepal, very poor country, but let's send a message of unification.
And what I said to them was like, Every time in the history of mountain, there's always one person summiting.
There's only one.
Even though I was the expert leader, all my surplus were getting paid from the money that I was getting for my sponsorship and all that.
I could have been the first, but I didn't want that.
So I said, 10 of us will summit together singing the national anthem of Nepal.
And everybody looked at me, Nimzda, you're fucking serious.
Before 30 years old, you know, because, you know, going into Special Forces selection, carrying those big backpacks, running everywhere, I hated the hills.
I hated the mountain.
I was like, I never want to go and do this.
But when I was serving around the world, people keep asking me, hey, where are you from?
And I said, I'm from Nepal.
And they were like, okay, where is Nepal?
I said, do you know Mount Everest?
And they were like, okay, have you seen it?
And I was sick of saying no.
And that's the only reason I went to Everest Base Camp, to see the Everest.
Let's say a person who had never climbed anything comes to me.
I'll take them to Akankagua, which is 7,000 meter peak.
It's like really trekking peak, right?
Not technical.
And in this expedition, they learn about how they feel, how they adapt with altitude, because different people adapt differently.
Just to put into breaking down into perspective, for example, If you like, let's say you are reaching to the base camp, and for some people it can take let's say 12 days or 13 days.
But if you just follow that crowd even though you are struggling, That could jeopardize the whole thing.
But in another perspective, if you slow down by a day, you could be completely fine.
So it's all about like different people is different.
And then obviously, I take them to Manaslu, a thousand meter peak.
That's where, you know, they learn a bit more and then they go in Everest.
So it's with now like innovation, you know, technology and like with the science that, you know, how we know how the people, you know, adapt differently and all that is possible.
So some people that are going to do that, they will go and what will they do to get prepared for something that's going to take two and a half months for them to acclimate?
Yeah, it has to be something where, you know, they are doing that for a reason, either to get the experience to move on and take away from that experience to whatever they're going to achieve in life.
Yeah, it's the adventure.
You know, adventure is the biggest healer of any problems we have in life.
Look, a lot of people say, Nims, you know, why you climb and all that.
A few reasons, you know.
One, I climb, you know, so that I'm alive because I love putting myself into the ricks where...
I care about living and not just existing, right?
And like in other normal terms, you know, why adventure like and I say why it heals everything is because when you get into those mountains, things are very simpler.
You know, all these things that we worry about, you know, paying the mortgage or, you know, like entertaining this guy or making everybody happy, all those problems we have from the society, they all get dropped down because you are at that element of, I would say, not survival, but in that adventure field where nothing really matters.
Like, you know, for example, if you are doing a A fast four miler.
You're not going to think about all those things.
You are thinking about how you keep up the pace to meet that mission.
Well, I can imagine that the difficulty of it, the power of just being out there in that insanely beautiful environment, it's very hard to think about all the nonsense of the world.
You know, like being the first Gurkha in SBS, you know, passing it in the first time and serving around the world for 10 years, doing crazy shit, you know.
And you think you're invincible.
You really think you're invincible, you know, from this stuff that you have done.
And when I first went to the mountain, it really made me feel humble.
The nature was like, you know what, it put me back into my shoes and elements.
Then I really started loving that and I started finding the joy in putting myself into this self-voluntary torture.
And then obviously with that I found the bigger purpose and this is where I am.
And the key message in everything what I've done and what I say to people is, Look, whatever you do in life, follow your passion.
Because if you follow your passion, like when I did in Gurkha, it was my passion.
When I did in SBS, it's a passion because you put so much extra hours on this work.
And then if that's a work that you don't love, it's not a passion, you will go mental, you will go crazy.
So when you follow your passion, you know, extra work is not extra hours because you are enjoying it.
And that extra hours is like extra training.
And when you put so much extra training than the rest of the people, you, of course, become the best of who you are.
And with that being the best means, you know, of course there's then different source of income because you are the elite of that thing and the money that all these things will follow.
Fraught with peril and there's no definite like what you did when you retired from the military you you had no safety net and for some people that's Terrifying they live for a safety net.
You know, like with this, like in a movie, if I had to go through like, let's say, bigger production team, it would have never been signed because they were like, oh, it's such a huge risk.
Because it's crazy, but you know, you make things happen and we all are different.
And again, going into that perspective, what you said, you know, When I sold my house and gave up my prestige career in the Special Forces, all that pension, you know, my best thing was, you know what?
The worst thing is, what could happen?
I can leave off my tent.
And even I said to my wife, you know, let's, we're going to leave, you know, start from the tent.
And then even that is so, like, you are so tired that as soon as you stop, you'll fall asleep.
And you're like, oh my god, I may fall down.
And then you're like, start slapping in your face.
And then, yeah, you know, it's just like, you know, funny things, what I used to think was like, yeah, Nims, you know, you feel like in downtown in a club.
And you are like drinking and you are dancing and even it's like two o'clock in the morning you would still dance and you know and you are not even achieving anything but now you are here in the greatest mission and you want to sleep you know all these multi layers of like motivating factors you know and also like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel you know like I always knew like I had to finish this project and yeah.
During the first phase, when I finished it, the big sponsors started coming in.
A few hotels in Kathmandu and all they get in touch and they were like looking after my free stay and all that.
In one of the hotels, I took my mom and I asked for the mineral water.
And my mom told me, son, can you afford this?
And I said, mom, you know, nowadays, for staying in this hotel, these people not only give me a free stay, they are supporting by paying a bit of money into the project.
And the big thing here, what I really felt, where I was really upset was, I told you earlier, like, my dad was in Chitwan, my mom was in Kathmandu living in this small room, and I wanted to put them together.
And after I finished the project, Honestly, the bank, they trust me and they give me like loan and everything and it was around 600k.
I bought a really nice house in Kathmandu.
It was all like made and I was trying to put my mom and dad together and I remember it was 26th of February when I went to move my both parents.
My mom passed away two hours before I landed and that was when I really felt like Time, you know, it never waits for anybody.
And that was when I felt like that's the only mission I felt in my life.
You know, it's like, you know, but hey, hey, I hope, you know, you know, I still kind of like satisfy myself saying that, okay, at least you witnessed the airport stuff, the, you know, welcoming and all that, the positive experience.
That's something that's, I think, the hardest for people to recognize, the people that are scared to take chances, that are scared to live a risky life and to do something outside of a boring job that they hate.
While we are living every hour, every minute in that work or in that things that you are not loving, it's not good for your health, certainly for your mental health, and it's not good in terms of you living.
Well, what I've gotten out of this podcast that I didn't necessarily think that I wanted in my life, it just sort of happened.
Was an education in communicating with extraordinary people.
And when someone like you, like when I reached out to you, it's like when we started setting this up, I was like, that is exactly the type of person I want to talk to.
When Cam told me about you, and then when you reached out to me on Instagram, and then I reached out to you, and we started figuring out how to do this and coordinate and make it happen...
I was like, this is exactly the type of person I want to talk to.
That's what this podcast is about.
There's so many interesting and extraordinary people out there in the world, and so few people have access to them.
But through this podcast, I have been like an antenna for all these folks.
I've been able to broadcast all the thoughts and ideas of extraordinary people, so so many people get to think the way a person like you thinks.
Or all these other interesting people that I've had on.
I'm fascinated by the way people live their lives and the way they think about things and the knowledge that they've acquired and the way they've developed their discipline and their intellect.
That's just always been me, though.
I've always been fascinated by people and how their minds work.
You take the information out and you just hold that in a conversation.
And, Joe, you know, The big thing, you know, when I really decided to come over here, and look, I'm so honest, I was like, you know what?
This guy is fucking true.
I spoke with Cinemassist to David Goggins as well, and he's like, yeah, this guy is amazing.
I was like, yeah, you know.
But it's been a super busy time, and I was so happy.
I'm sure.
Again, like you said, you know, my key messaging was there's no excuse in life, right?
We all can make excuse and say, okay, wish I had that.
Had I been that, these people have been like, no, you know, like, As I said, you know, coming from barefoot, not even having a 10p in my pocket, you know, forget all that.
Today, you know, whatever angle you look, you know, I'm not only, you know, have this kind of, like, successful, like, career and documentary, you know.
Today, if money is something that attracts to you, yes, I'm already a millionaire.
So that weapon, when I received after six hours, wasn't even zeroed to my eye.
And I still remember, man, I was like trying to shoot and I miss it.
I was like, oh, it's not my weapon.
And I had to adjust on the ground and keep doing.
Yeah.
But again, you know, that's the reason why I keep fighting is like the mission statement.
So in 14 picks mission...
There were a lot of troubles.
Like, you know, the biggest painful was to me when your own people kind of, you know, like make the mickey out of you and they say negative things.
So I was in this evolution of raising the funding, Joe, and I went there and then it's all the Gurkha community and some of them Just said, yeah, you know what?
This guy is just doing for his fucking name and fame and he doesn't want to do it.
He just want to climb a mountain and he's doing that.
But they didn't really knew what I was really doing.
But it touched me because I'm also human, right?
And I was driving back on M3 motorway and I had tears in my eyes and I was like crying out loud.
Because at this point I was bursting, you know, because I had given up this prestige career, I had given up my job, I have sold my house, pension, everything and I'm trying to do this good thing and people are like, my own people are saying that it's a bit too much.
So I was like bursting in tears and I pulled my car in a lay-by off the motorway and And I was like, okay, now what can I think?
And I was like, you know what, Nims, you said that this project is never about you.
You said that you wanted to change the world for the better purpose.
You said that you want to completely paradigm shift in perception of human potential.
You said that you're going to give justice to the Nepalese climbing community.
Come on, how you feel, it doesn't matter.
So that's the centrality of the mission.
And I wipe up my tears and I drop down.
18 months later, I will tell you this.
The Gurkhas didn't have equal rights, equal pension in the British military, even though we have served for so many years.
So the Gurkhas have got more VC. Victoria Cross is the highest awarded bravery medal you can get.
The Gurkha Regiment has got more than any other regiment.
We still didn't have the Ecole pension.
So then there was a campaign by our own people, the Gurkhas, the retired, you know, Gurkhas like fighting on number 10 on the parliament saying that, hey, we need the Ecole pension.
And even to have the debate on Parliament, you need to have 100,000 of Paterson signed.
Okay?
So, they have done everything they could and they had only 23,000 Paterson signed.
I took over in a week, I made that 100k.
And it's a bigger impact, bigger reason.
And that's from the small perspective.
And when people say negative to me in my life, Joe, what I say is like, you know what, that's all they can think of.
Because Well, you know, nobody wants to be bad.
Nobody wants to be that, you know, like negative person.
Maybe he's saying that because that is what he's limited to or she's limited to.
I'm there who I can think bigger.
I'm there because I can, you know, I have this different mindset.
So forget that.
So I keep those things to the side and I move forward.
But again, things, you know, When I say the bigger purpose, bigger reason, I use the power of social media for the right cause.
If you put a bunch of crabs in a bucket, some crabs will try to get out of the bucket, and as they're trying to climb, the other crabs will pull them down.
And that's what it is.
It's some people that live these timid existences, that live these timid lives and don't take chances and don't...
They don't try to leave a mark.
They don't try to do anything extraordinary.
They get upset when other people do.
Some people get upset at other people's success.
Other people celebrate other people's success.
This is the difference in a lot of folks.
Some people will try to find the negative in people.
Other people will try to find the positive in people.
Like what you did when someone stole your oxygen.
Even though you were lying to yourself, you decided to frame it in a positive way that someone is going to go home to their family, save someone's life with that oxygen.
There's patterns of thinking, and some people, they are a prisoner to their own pattern of thinking, and they don't even realize it.
And maybe they do, maybe they know somewhere subconsciously that what they're doing is detrimental to their own existence.
But they can't help themselves, and then they lash out at other folks.
They try to find external reasons for why they're unhappy, external reasons why they're bitter.
So they look to other people that are successful, and they try to find the worst aspects of those people.
Oh, Nims is just doing it for himself.
He just wants attention.
And now, now that you've already done it, and now that you're You have a gigantic documentary on Netflix, and now that you're here on this podcast, now that the world is getting to hear your story, now they must be very angry!
Those people, whether they realize it or not, their failure to reason correctly, to think well in a positive manner, they're a lesson for other people.
The observers on the outside get to look at these bitter fools and go, oh, I see what you're doing.
You can and powerful people can and positive people can.
But there's always going to be negative people.
There's always going to be weak people.
It's just nature, man.
You see it in chickens.
It's a pecking order.
There's a weak chicken, the other one's like...
They start pecking at the chicken.
It's just natural.
There's some people that just can't help lash out at other people and what they fail to realize is the energy that they spend attacking another person is energy they could have spent elevating their own life.
Why are you focusing on dragging other people It's spending so much of your energy, time and everything when you can actually do good thing for yourself and you can be that another happy person.
Because they're trapped in a pattern of thinking where they feel that if someone is excelling past their own personal limitations or past their own personal success, they feel bad because they feel jealous and they feel envious.
So what they do is they lash out at that person and they try to find something negative about them.
It's so common.
It's so normal but it's really they're stealing from themselves because your time and your energy is so valuable and time that you spend worrying about what other people are accomplishing instead of what I like to do is I'm friends with a lot of these people like David Goggins and Cam Haynes and now I'm friends with you and people that do extraordinary things.
They're fuel.
They're energy.
They give you something.
By being around these people, you realize that so many accomplishments are possible that people never attempt because the human condition, the human spirit is limitless.
People I think are shitty people, but they do amazing things.
I like to compliment their amazing aspects.
And just acknowledge the fact that they're cunts, but say, even that, look at all the good stuff that guy's done.
He's pretty impressive.
There's value in that.
There's value also for you as a person that you can put aside jealousy and your petty envy and recognize that other people's success does not equal your failure.
And that you can benefit from other people's success because it elevates your own ideas of what's possible.
Because those are the people who cannot be you but they think they can be you.
And those people started dragging because they have been hanging around with you and they have known you and they don't realize like how much of hard work and the things that you have put together.
They don't see that.
They don't care.
They're like, oh yeah, I've been with this guy.
I know him.
I spend now.
He's that successful guy.
And yes, I could be that.
And those are also the people.
But the whole point here is, guys, there's so much negativity in this world.
But you know what?
Don't even focus on that.
You know, there's a very famous quote saying that if you are moving from A to B and there are loads of dogs who are barking at you, if you start throwing every dog that is barking at you, you'll never reach your destination.