Ep 143: Becoming Singapore’s 1st Professional Adventurer - You Never too Old to Take Risks! | Khoo Swee Chiow

So This Is My Why

Would you die for your passion?

Most wouldn’t but for 58-year-old Swee Chiow, Singapore’s first professional adventurer, it’s a question he must face every day.

And it all began when he caught a glimpse of Mount Everest from a plane.

He was working in IT (Singapore Airlines) then, but he decided from that one glimpse that he wanted to climb Mount Everest - a dream that took him a mere 10 years to achieve!

The journey was hard.

He knew nothing. So he read many books & even went on a 10-day mountaineering course at Mt Cook that he flunked because he wasn’t fit enough!

In 1998, he joined Singapore’s first Mount Everest expedition. It was a disaster at first because:

❌ Their tent collapsed during a freak storm

❌ Their first attempt at the South Pole failed as they didn’t have enough rope - the Singapore media hounded them & issued headlines declaring that the expedition had failed

But they didn’t give up.

Their second attempt was a success!

But an exhausting one.

In the midst of the media glory, Swee Chiow knew he had to take advantage of it so he immediately launched Singapore's first Antarctic expedition.

Since then, he has:

• Climbed Everest x3 and K2
• 8,000km cycle from SG → Beijing (China) = 2003
• Swam 40 km across Malacca Straits
• Kayaked 3,000km across Philippines
• Broke his first Guinness World Records for the longest scuba submergence (220 hours)
• Rollerbladed 6,000km from Hanoi SG in 94 days (and broke the Guinness World Records in 2008)

Highlights:

• 3:34 Why Why Why?!
• 4:12 Fear of heights
• 5:00 Computer science in Kansas
• 6:11 Saw Mount Everest from a plane
• 6:51 Not giving up after 10 years
• 7:24 The mountain is magical & spiritual?!
• 9:06 Lessons learned
• 10:27 Altitude sickness / AMS
• 12:04 Pulling Singapore’s first Everest expedition together
• 13:25 You can’t fail!
• 14:19 What should people know about Everest?
• 16:45 Quitting his day job
• 17:45 Antarctica
• 19:38 Commercialising his adventure business
• 20:32 Swee Chiow’s value proposition?
• 22:02 How he builds trust with his clients
• 24:11 Risks & death
• 25:11 Any trick to staying calm?
• 25:24 Drifting to Taiwan & near certain death
• 27:37 Never let your ego take over
• 29:28 Dealing with the media
• 30:55 Never doing K2 again
• 32:19 The ghosts at Tibet’s Xishapengma
• 36:12 Adventurers hogging the limelight
• 37:04 Collaborating with AirAsia X
• 40:16 How Swee Chiow decides on his adventures
• 41:43 Advice for those in their 30s
• 45:28 What’s next?
• 46:26 The second act of his career?
• 47:36 Leadership principles to be an effective guide for his team
• 49:15 What drives you to push yourself to the extreme each time?
• 50:23 Do you feel like you’ve found your why?
• 51:06 What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?
• 51:27 What are the most important qualities of a successful person?

Special thanks to Limpeh Studios (Hepmil Media) for the studio!

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📍Show notes: https://www.sothisismywhy.com/143

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