Audi 2008 Annual Report Download - page 83

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Vorsprung Extreme experience
pose yourself to homeopathic doses
of danger and risk. “I am at my best
when things are really dangerous:
I am alert and cautious and can do
things I normally couldn’t,” he says.
In business, innovative ideas and new
strategies aren’t developed in the
comfortable routine of day-to-day
business, but rather in heated meet-
ings with investors and customers;
in moments when your own job or
even the future of the company are at
stake. “Pressure,” says Bubendorfer,
“makes us stronger.” Which is why you
have to proactively seek out such
challenges. In winter, Bubendorfer
wanders through dark alpine valleys
in search of frozen waterfalls that
form anew each year only to dis-
appear into melt water in the spring.
“There are a lot of conquests to be
made there,” he says.
The gentle words and lucid thoughts
of these extreme athletes almost
obscure the fact that their sports are
unforgiving of mistakes. In 1988,
Thomas Bubendorfer fell 20 meters,
broke several vertebrae and still has
a stiff ankle. Trubridge lost conscious-
ness at a depth of 12 meters during
an attempt to set a record in Egypt
and was rescued by his safety divers.
Dean Karnazes collapsed during a
marathon in Death Valley. Though the
extreme athletes discuss their near-
death experiences almost casually,
the stories always have the same end-
ing: “The fall shattered my bones,
but healed my head,” says Bubendor-
fer. “We learn more from our failures
than we do from our successes.” And
that applies to everyday and business
life as well. In addition to their athletic
careers, Bubendorfer and Karnazes
both work as management trainers,
where they share the insights and
routines gleaned from extreme situa-
tions with managers and business
consultants. One of their most impor-
tant lessons: “Success is dangerous –
it makes you satisfied, contented and
slow. A company that produces a suc-
cessful product cannot rest on current
figures – it has to continue investing
in the future.”
applies equally to the route up a wall,
to life in the office, or to the stormy
heights of executive suites. “There is
no greater risk than not taking any
risks,” says the climber in summariz-
ing his philosophy. He believes that if
you want to evolve, you have to ex-
“And then time stands still.” William
Trubridge dives without an oxygen tank
into the Blue Hole, a deep, dark hole in
the ocean floor off the Bahamas.