From SAS To Everest: The Decision That Shifted Everything

0:00Alex Chisnall:What stops founders from building something meaningful isn't the lack of ideas, it's the fear of getting started. I'm Alex Chisnall and this is Screw It Just Do It, the podcast for people who are ready to stop waiting, take action and make things happen.

0:14Jay Morton:I'm not going to lie, there was times where you kind of questioned whether you made the right or wrong decision. Throughout my whole life there was probably a load of Screw It Just Do It moments. Being in the Special Forces and being in the military, it's a high octane, fast paced life. I remember just stood there having a sandwich and a cup of tea and just thinking, like, there's so much more to do out there. There's so much more to see. There's so much more experience is an opportunity out there. And I got the opportunity to do Everest. That's the biggest one. I think naturally making the decision in your head, you want to change your path.

0:48Jay Morton:You instantly just see things in a different way. If you were to say, why did I want to join the military? I have no idea. It was just like...

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1:37Alex Chisnall:Now let's jump into the main conversation. First off, let's start with finishing the military and forging a new career for yourself. Were there any screw it, just do it moments there?

1:47Jay Morton:Yeah, probably loads. And I think thinking throughout my whole life, there was probably a load of screw it, just do it moments. You know, that being in the special forces and being in the military, it's a high octane, fast paced life. You spend a lot of your time away training or on operations. And when I joined, I went into a mountain troop and that's my insertion skill that I specialized in. and throughout my time in mountain troop i just found a love and affinity for being in the mountains um climbing was something that i'd never done before coming from a small well coming from preston there's not much not much climbing and not much to do in the outdoors so being exposed to climbing and skiing and the outdoors through the special forces um i kind of found found a love and found an affinity for it and I was lucky enough to go away and train in the Alps for two years to become a mountain guide and I do think that during my time out in the Alps and being exposed to you know the beauty of the mountains and the freedom and something that wasn't military and something that wasn't you know specific to military training which is all I'd pretty much done since I was 19 to that point um that was like a big eye-opener for me and probably the moment where I I said to myself you know there's more there's more out there in life than just being in the special forces and chasing a career in the special forces and I do think you know coming back from that there was definitely a screw it just dirt moment of just you know I you know i'm 30 years old at the time and i was like and i remember being you know it was me and a guy called joe and we we had this ski tour off the back of a place called the fellhorn and we used to do it um all the time and it was it was a bit of a secret spot we used to call it mini chamonix and we're we're sat on this you ski tour up it's about two and a half three hours to you get to the top of this mini Chamonix.

4:00Jay Morton:And I remember just being, you know, stood there having a sandwich and like a cup of tea and just thinking like, like there's so much more to do out there. There's so much more to see. There's so much more experiences and opportunity out there. And, you know, that was the switch pretty much in my head that I need to start putting myself in positions now that are going to lead to different opportunities or speak to different people or go to things that I wouldn't necessarily go to or go for and almost put my kind of net out there and see what's there.

4:33Alex Chisnall:And what were some of those actions that you then took to do that out of interest? What kind of examples?

4:42Jay Morton:So when I came back from that, I got the opportunity to do Everest. So again, being in the mountains, that kind of led to doing in a mountain like Everest and I guess that's the biggest one. That's a no-brainer when I got asked to do that. Originally, it was to climb K2. And that obviously then led to what I'm doing this year. But I think just naturally making the decision in your head that you want to change your path, you instantly just see things in a different way. whereas if I was in the special forces and I was so focused on you know my next posting um being a TL being a sergeant major you know where I was where I was going to go in my career what operations I was going to do now it's like the way I was thinking the opportunities that I was looking for was completely different to to that it was um you know the conversations that I was having with people were different um you know the media or whatever it was the podcast that i was listening to everything was geared around you know that moment on little chamonix where i was like right how can i have more more of these moments yeah i looked at i'm going to chamonix on friday i looked

6:01Alex Chisnall:at the weather last night and it was snowing look this morning it's still snowing yeah i've got some

6:05Jay Morton:friends skiing at the minute it's just it's dumb yeah i know it's like insane isn't it yeah um and

6:12Alex Chisnall:And to ask you as well, as I understand it, like from your book, from your bio, you'd always wanted to join the military as a kid growing up in Preston. Is that right?

6:21Jay Morton:Yeah, that's right. Originally, I wanted to join the Royal Marines. Okay. And again, it was, you know, if you were to say, why did I want to join the military? I have no idea. I feel like sometimes you just get drawn to do things. and at the time you know 19 18 19 years old i couldn't hand on heart say it was for these reasons it was just like that looks awesome i want to go and do it um and you know i could go back and say that as a child or you know growing up in school being indoors and being in classrooms just you know didn't make me feel good i'm prepared to be outside i'm you know quite lucky to be a kid that grew up when social media and mobile phones wasn't a thing so definitely you spent most of your time outside covered in mud um you know trying to smash windows or do stuff that every adolescent teenager tries to do um drunk a lot of cider and yeah you know if i could go back and do something different for school i definitely would but um yeah i wanted to join the royal marines and went into the careers office and some big sergeant majors sat across from me on the desk and asked me how many pull-ups i could do and i don't think i could do a pull-up at that stage so right said you need to do i think it was 15 or 12 to to join the royal marines so i walked straight out of there and walked into the army careers office and joined the paras how many pull-ups to get in the paras i don't even think they asked if i if i could do pull-ups it was more yeah yeah but i mean equally you know royal marines and the paras are both equally the best

7:59Alex Chisnall:you know units in the british army and um again i read you know that you had a relatively short attention span at school um always kind of getting yourself into trouble um how did it go from being like that to entering an environment that having not been in it but i'd imagine is is a pretty disciplined organization in which you're required to be pretty focused at times what's that contrast was like initially for you yeah i think you know going back to being a kid

8:32Jay Morton:and not having a good attention span and and getting into trouble quite a lot you know i probably didn't enjoy what i was doing probably didn't enjoy going to school um found outlet in playing rugby um and smashing windows and drinking cider which you know most people growing up when i did exactly the same so going into the military and knowing that you know you're part of a team and people rely on you and you rely on them um that's important i think also you know putting yourself through through stressful situations with other people is you know how you build massive mass amounts of resilience for any level of stress i think equally doing it with other people bonds you as a team and brings you closer to other people and you've you know i definitely forged some of the greatest friendships of my life within the military and the majority of those were were forged you know on operations doing you know dangerous tasks and missions

9:32Alex Chisnall:and how conversely did you did you manage to cope with say leaving the military and forging a different path in life that you've done was that an easy transition or it seems a lot of people that I've known when they come out to that there's an initial struggle were you similar or make you keep yourself busy like you're at the moment yeah I think yeah I never really found like I struggled much um and when I think when I kind of think back to

10:01Jay Morton:that I'd probably put it down to a few things probably knowing what I was going to go and do

10:06Alex Chisnall:um like having a plan and that was Everest at the time yeah well it was it was going and working

10:11Jay Morton:with through dark uh the clothing brand yeah so that was the initial kind of work that i was going to go out and do and it was to be an expedition director so um you know i was still going to be climbing i was still going to be going to the mountains i'm still going to be doing everest still going to be doing expeditions um and you know when i say a plan it's as loose as it comes it's a plan in my head and not a written down plan but right i think being able to challenge myself when I got out in a space that I wanted to challenge myself in and not say go and sit in an office in London. And, you know, that would probably depress me and I'd struggle with that.

10:47Jay Morton:Yeah. And then when I left, I was still surrounded by ex-special forces guys. So you still have that kind of, I won't call it brotherhood, but there's still that kind of language that you use and whether it's spoken or unspoken, there's a, you know, and you meet someone who's ex-special forces, you can sit there and speak for, you know, for hours. So yeah, there was that. And I'm not going to lie, there was times where you kind of questioned whether you made the right or wrong decision. But I think, you know, every day gets better, every week gets better. And, you know, you soon realize that you're not J.

11:26Jay Morton:Morton ex-special or J. Morton SAS soldier or even J. Morton SAS soldier. You're just who you are in that moment.

11:33Alex Chisnall:So that's it for today's bite-sized episode of Screw It Just Do It. Make sure you follow or subscribe for more game-changing conversations. And remember, the only thing standing between you and your business breakthrough is the decision to screw it and just do it.