Peter Metcalf explains how he overcame the liability insurance crisis threatening climbing manufacturers in the late 1980s before launching Black Diamond Equipment.
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Yvon Chouinard Was 'Ashamed' of His 1987 Chouinard Equipment Catalog
“And we gave him a copy, and he called myself and my marketing director, who really was my partner in the business. And we said, as he looked at the catalog, that he was really ashamed of it, that it represented everything that he stood against in what was goin…”
Insight
The Existential Threat of a Niche Product Becoming Too Successful
“As a business person, you have two fears in life as a niche player. You won't be successful with your investment, or you'll be too successful. If you're too successful, it becomes mainstream, and bigger guys can get into it and outprice you.”
Insight
Removing the Option to Retreat Unlocks 100% Focus on Forward Progress
“As a climber, when you're doing big new routes, what you're constantly thinking about with part of your brain is analyzing, how am I going to get down? Do I have the gear to get down? How long will it take? So you're using a certain amount of your energy to ma…”
Insight
High-Stakes Survival Requires Brutal Honesty About Fear and Weakness
“It also showed me the importance, all of us, of being brutally honest with one another. Because in a situation like this, we were out now almost 14 days. It was 13 and a half days. It was six days worth of rations. Just enough gear to keep us alive. And there …”
Assertion Supported
In the Early 1980s, Climbing Equipment Lacked Basic Safety Standards
“There were no climbing standards at this time. There was no quality assurance standards at this time, and there was no labeling standards at this time, but because of this rapid change in tort law this became just the dream of plaintiff's attorneys going after…”
Disclosure
Black Diamond's Founders Refused Any Investors Demanding 51% Control
“For the effort that we're going to put into this, I did not want myself and the employee group to lose control of this business. It wasn't worth doing. If that was going to be it was like, let's walk away from it. It would be a brilliant failure. We're only go…”