I’m Still Growing

What Edmund Hillary Understood About Failure, Time, and Human Potential

This image of Alex Hammond reminds me of an image of Edmund Hillary I have in my head.

In 1952, Hillary was part of a British-led expedition that failed to reach the summit. The mountain had turned them back, leaving them exhausted and defeated by the extreme altitude and weather. Following this failure, Hillary was invited to speak at a formal event in London.

As he stood on the stage, he was positioned next to a massive photograph of Mount Everest. To the audience, the picture was a symbol of an invincible, cold, and unreachable giant that had just defeated the British team. Hillary looked at the photograph, reportedly clenched his fist, and addressed the mountain directly.

According to the popular account, he looked at the peak and said: “Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I’ll beat you the next time because you’ve grown all you are going to grow… but I’m still growing!”

This moment became legendary because it highlighted a simple biological and geological truth as a metaphor for the human spirit. Everest is a physical object. While it is massive, its height is essentially fixed—geologically speaking, it only grows by a few millimeters a year. It had reached its full potential.

Hillary realized that while the mountain was static, he was not. He could train harder, improve his technology, learn from his mistakes, and return with more knowledge and mental toughness. True to his word, Hillary returned in 1953 with the British Mount Everest expedition. On May 29, he and Tenzing Norgay stood where no human had ever stood before.

I think about that line often: “Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I’ll beat you the next time because you’ve grown all you are going to grow… but I’m still growing!”

Are you still growing? That’s all that matters.