Forbes To The Limits: Pushing Yourself to the Edge In Adventure and in Business

Rating:
Summary: A terrific read and one heck of a ride!!!!!
Review: If you'd like to "get away" without leaving the comfort of your home, this is the book for you. The author has obviously enjoyed each interesting adventure and so deliciously shares with the reader. Mr. Clash is a master storyteller. The book was a pure joy to read.

Rating:
Summary: To The Limits: Pushing Yourself to the Edge In Adventure
Review: Jim Clash is a classic example of an author that has game. He writes about things he knows. In his book To The Limits, I found myself flipping through the pages with little or no breaks to learn what he experienced as well as to dive into the thoughts and words of some of the worlds greatest adventures; a page turner at its best. As a CPA and also the first person from the Western Hempisphere to climb and ski from 8,000 meters, and from from the death zone on Mt Everest, I can totally relate to where Jim is coming from. The gap between those world adventure leaders he writes about and us mere mortals is bridged in a way that held my attention and entertained me with converstions of fact that were beyond facinating. Adventure has a broad spectrum. It is interesting how Jim correlates that to business and depicts life as an adventure. Nice job. Mike Marolt

Rating:
Summary: Loads of fun and inspiring without an "inspirational" tone.
Review: Loved the writing, loved the book. The opening mountain climbing sequence is the best, I think, though I'm partial to the way Clash wrapped science and space travel into the ending to create a book that describes both physical and intellectual adventures. Interviews with pioneers helps To the Limits transcend the average memoir. Look out for a fascinating footnote about the author's meeting with Neil Armstrong. All in all, it's a great chronicle of a man's adventurous ambitions and the smooth style makes for a fast and engaging reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific read and one heck of a ride!!!!!
Review: Not by shaking a hand, but by reading a book, I met an exceptional person today, and his name is Jim Clash. If one were to attempt to sell the life of Jim Clash as a work of fiction it would never sell. Unfortunately, most people wouldn't believe it, because most people don't believe that life can be an adventure, Jim Clash does.

Fortunately, Jim Clash writes about his own life with the skill of a novelist. You are traveling 208 miles an hour vibrating under his helmet in a Lambourgini. You are bracing yourself against the rocky summit of Everest as the wind tries to pull you to your death.

I feel as if I've been on a hundred exotic journey's in the past few hours. Jim and I have traveled to the North Pole, the South Pole, space, the desert, the mountains, and the depths of the sea. And he really did all these things-an incredible human being who clearly understands the definition of `living'.

Jim Clash knows that businessmen who approach their own field like it is the adventure of a lifetime are those leaders and entrepreneurs that will attain the summit of achievement.

But the adventure doesn't stop there, for Clash explores the adventure of discovery, the extremes of the mind with Edward Teller and others as he pursues that most perilous of summits-the knowledge regarded by some as frightening in itself. But Clash understands that the most dangerous summits provide the broadest vistas. As Professor Teller says in the book, 'I have never had any doubts that knowledge is good. And I never had any tendency to be afraid of knowledge.' One can feel Dr. Teller's resigned depression at being attacked for discovering dangerous knowledge, and his still visible disbelief that he was attacked for telling the truth when no one else would. 'To the Limits' clearly demonstrates that one man not doing something neither stops the information from existing, nor does it stop someone else from finding or doing it anyway, whether it be a climbing a mountain, or building a smarter or better bomb. Mr. Clash successfully showed me the meaning of being alone at the top of a mountain, and being alone in one's mind with the truth. Two perilous adventures testing the essence of our character.

`If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we could literally astound ourselves.' - Thomas Edison Jim Clash lives by these words. In every aspect of his life from business to the extremes of the North and South Pole, Jim Clash has realized the adventure life can be if we would only realize it.

This is one of the rare books that has the power to inspire.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I Have Read in a Long Time... A+++++++
Review: Not by shaking a hand, but by reading a book, I met an exceptional person today, and his name is Jim Clash. If one were to attempt to sell the life of Jim Clash as a work of fiction it would never sell. Unfortunately, most people wouldn't believe it, because most people don't believe that life can be an adventure, Jim Clash does.

Fortunately, Jim Clash writes about his own life with the skill of a novelist. You are traveling 208 miles an hour vibrating under his helmet in a Lambourgini. You are bracing yourself against the rocky summit of Everest as the wind tries to pull you to your death.

I feel as if I've been on a hundred exotic journey's in the past few hours. Jim and I have traveled to the North Pole, the South Pole, space, the desert, the mountains, and the depths of the sea. And he really did all these things-an incredible human being who clearly understands the definition of 'living'.

Jim Clash knows that businessmen who approach their own field like it is the adventure of a lifetime are those leaders and entrepreneurs that will attain the summit of achievement.

But the adventure doesn't stop there, for Clash explores the adventure of discovery, the extremes of the mind with Edward Teller and others as he pursues that most perilous of summits-the knowledge regarded by some as frightening in itself. But Clash understands that the most dangerous summits provide the broadest vistas. As Professor Teller says in the book, 'I have never had any doubts that knowledge is good. And I never had any tendency to be afraid of knowledge.' One can feel Dr. Teller's resigned depression at being attacked for discovering dangerous knowledge, and his still visible disbelief that he was attacked for telling the truth when no one else would. 'To the Limits' clearly demonstrates that one man not doing something neither stops the information from existing, nor does it stop someone else from finding or doing it anyway, whether it be a climbing a mountain, or building a smarter or better bomb. Mr. Clash successfully showed me the meaning of being alone at the top of a mountain, and being alone in one's mind with the truth. Two perilous adventures testing the essence of our character.

'If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we could literally astound ourselves.' - Thomas Edison Jim Clash lives by these words. In every aspect of his life from business to the extremes of the North and South Pole, Jim Clash has realized the adventure life can be if we would only realize it.

This is one of the rare books that has the power to inspire.

Rating:
Summary: Extreme Adventure Please, Hold the Biz
Review: Whenever some responsibility drew me away from reading To the Limits, I was always encouraged to return to James M. Clash's adventures up high, down low, and at sea level. The writer not only relates experiences few others have had but also demonstrates the skill to communicate them effectively and with poetics. Two interludes - one concerning his mountaineering friend Scott and the other about the wildflower and the Trinitite at the bomb site - proved particularly telling of the writer's story telling prowess. In addition, he paints the picture for the reader in several anecdotes about climbing and race car driving in such a way that it leaves the body wanting to touch what the reader's imagination can now grasp.

But for all the good there is to say about the writing, I find myself uneasy about the book's prominently advertised intentions. Promoting the tie between adventure and business may enhance book sales but puncture some of the continuity of Clash's writing. On page three, Clash does a great job presenting: "Let's face it, evolution has extracted the primal excitement out of a workweek ... baby boomers who find themselves trapped ... are forced to buy excitement." Yet, in several sections Clash diverges, going many pages with little more than a passing stab at the relationship of business to adventure. While some chapters are innately tied to business, others, such as the first few, stray away from what is promised on the cover: a thread tying business and adventure. Clash may have overestimated the obviousness of the parallel between business success and adventuring success or occasionally tried to build the links into the writing as an afterthought. (This is the only issue holding it back from a 5-star rating.)

Carving out those parallels between the disciplines is difficult and in at least a few places he neglected the task.

Clash returned too often to the questions surrounding Scott's death in the first few chapters. I got the impression he was fascinated with death (aren't we all to an extent?). The Dalai Lama says that without a curiosity and respect for death, we can't have a true appreciation for life. However, in this book, he asked the question of too many interviewees and the issue became a reader distraction examining a particular event rather than an echo of the central theme of taking risk to achieve reward.

Regardless of whether the book returns often enough or in enough detail to the adventure/business theme or whether Clash overemphasizes an episode, the story telling is compelling and sophisticated. The flow is mostly logical (although heavy emphasis on mountaineering early on makes me anticipate a full book on climbing experiences) and carry the book through to its conclusion. All in all, this is a heart-pounding adventure journal - thoroughly researched and written with passion - that I would recommend with the caveat that the reader not expect a full-blown discussion of adventure's relation to business.

Rating:
Summary: Limitless Appeal
Review: You don't have to be a CEO to dive, soar or speed through Jim Clash's book. Forget the title, this is not a business book, it's a treasure of tales for the ultimate X-gamer, or for anyone who dreams of scaling a mountain, racing a car or soaring into space. Clash doesn't just write about people living on the edge, he is one of them! He shares his eye-popping adventures, from driving an Indy race car at 200 mph to flying to the edge of space, with an understated style that offers no exaggerated superlatives of his experiences or achievements. He writes "matter of fact -- with impact," taking you to the most remote and breathe-taking (literally) locales on and above the planet. He lets you see for yourself the magnificent vistas he's seen, and takes you inside the minds and emotional motors of the people driven to excel and exceed the limits of our world. If you dream of going where you've never dared, this is the book to light your inner fire.