Survival: The Personality of Leadership

All he had was a flimsy pocketknife, but it worked. Aron Ralston will share his harrowing survival story and the leadership lessons learned in his recent experience of beating unbeatable odds. Millions of Americans have been inspired by his story and his book, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for four months,continues to get rave reviews. Find out how many corporations and organizations around the world are inspiring their clients and employees through Aron's story.

Aron was pinned in a 3-foot wide slot canyon near the Maze District of Canyonlands National Park. Ralston cut through his own arm below the elbow then applied a tourniquet and administered first aid to himself before rigging anchors and fixing a rope to rappel 66 feet to the bottom of Blue John Canyon and beyond all odds, after walking more than seven miles, met rescuers. Ralston was hiking alone when the boulder fell and pinned his right arm . Ralston told rescuers that on Thursday morning he realized he would not survive unless he took drastic action. He had run out of water on Tuesday.

The episode marked Ralston's second brush with death since February, when he was buried in an avalanche while backcountry skiing in the Colorado Rockies. Ralston, an avid outdoorsman who is the first person in history to have climbed solo in winter all of Colorado's 59 14,000-foot-plus mountains, was buried up to his neck in the avalanche, managing to dig himself out along with a completely buried skiing companion within 15 minutes.

Aron Ralston grew up in the Midwest before moving to Colorado when he was twelve, a place where he became an avid outdoorsman. In 2002, he gave up a career as a mechanical engineer in New Mexico and moved to Aspen, Colorado, where among other things he continued his attempt to climb the fifty high points...