On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.
Interpretation
Achieving a significant goal brings immense satisfaction.
Edmund Hillary's quote reflects the profound sense of achievement that comes from reaching one's goals, especially when those goals are challenging and require immense effort, like scaling Mount Everest. His feelings of satisfaction highlight the personal fulfillment that accompanies such monumental accomplishments and the pride in being the first to achieve something significant.
In practice
During a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles and achieving goals.
I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.
Despite all I have seen and experiences, I still get the same thrill out of glimpsing a tiny patch of snow in a high mountain gully and feel the same urge to climb toward it.
I've always hated the danger part of climbing, and it's great to come down again because it's safe.
Even when you're 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.
Many people have been getting too casual about climbing Everest. I forecast a disaster many times.
I am a lucky man. I have had a dream and it has come true, and that is not a thing that happens often to men.
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
It takes 20 victories for people to recognize you as a great pitcher.
Winning or losing, it's always something special and something you'll remember, even more so when the match was as dramatic as it was today. It's even more memorable when I see my kids there with my wife and everything. That's what touched me the most, to be quite honest. The disappointment of the match itself went pretty quickly.
I'm literally driving in the middle of the night, and my phone rings, and my manager says, 'How would you like to be the host of the Daily Show?' I get out the car, and I didn't have legs. You know in those movies where there's an explosion? But instead of the sound of the explosion, you hear the silence. That's literally what happened.
It is the 'follow through' that makes the great difference between ultimate success and failure, because it is so easy to stop.
I was lucky. I grew up knowing that hard work and smart work has a greater impact on results than being passionate about something.
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