Blind Climbing – Realising visions Motivational speeches with a difference by Andy Holzer
A recent study by the Gallup Institute has shown that companies can no longer count on their employees’ commitment. On the contrary, fewer and fewer employees seem to feel truly committed to their employer. The absence of a positive staff attitude can lead to a rapid decline in competiveness and even the loss of large sums of money.
So what can we do? Motivation is now a key factor in the growth of every company. But there are already enough conventional motivational seminars, courses and workshops. There are already enough motivational trainers and coaches. In order to develop real perspectives, the appropriate tool and the appropriate mediator is required – one who can authentically prove that unimagined and untapped abilities lie dormant within us all. I regard myself as one such mediator on account of Andy Holzer eventful and unusual life path.
Andy Holzer – born in 1966 in Lienz in East Tyrol without sight, life as a person defined by fate was essentially what awaited him.
But he had dreams, even as a child. He ignored his handicap and lead a happy and fulfilled life together with his wife Sabine. He even fulfilled his dream of mountain climbing – after working as a massage therapist for 26 years, he became a professional climber in January 2010.
Climbing routes up to the lower 8th grade of difficulty, some 90 skiing tours every season, six of the “Seven Summits” (the highest mountains on each continent: Kilimanjaro – Africa, Elbrus – Europe, Aconcagua – South America, Mt. Mc. Kinley – North America, Carstensz Pyramid – Oceania, Mt. Vinson –Antarctica) and two attempts on eight-thousanders are in his tour log. Even the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, is in “sight”.
In November 2007, he was the recipient of the Life Award for sportspeople with handicaps.
Andy Holzer’s first book “BALANCEAKT – Blind auf die Gipfel der Welt” (BALANCING ACT – How a Blind Man Climbs the World’s Highest Mountains) was published in September 2010. It contains 230 pages of his life story, written by himself. For some years now,he has been using multivision presentations and lectures to share his experiences in daily life and particularly in the mountains with a wider audience. Andy soon realised that he had the ability to make a difference to people.
Andy Holzer is not a trained motivational coach. What he has is an authentic life story that inspires and gives people the impetus they need to take a fresh look at problems and ingrained habits in their personal and professional lives. His mountain climbing serves as a medium to convey what is possible in life when you have self-belief. A blind person who climbs vertically basically lies in the realm of impossibility. What makes it possible is largely his dreams and his belief in himself and his abilities.
People, i.e. employees who have no self-confidence lose self-belief, which in turn has a detrimental effect on their lives and work.
Andy shows the audience that challenges are there to be embraced.
Each and every one of us can choose whether to fall over over life’s stumbling blocks or use them to build a staircase to the top.
His client base includes prestigious corporations such as Procter & Gamble in Austria, Switzerland and Germany, Siemens, Castrol, SOCIETE FRANCAISE DE BIOSTHETIQUe, Gore, Unilever, Michelin, Munich Re, Henkel, Nestle, Andritz and Krups Germany…