ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 14—Change is constant, fear is OK and you don’t make it by yourself. That was the message from explorer Alison Levine during a very emotional Inspiration Service at the NADA convention. Dealers were enraptured with her story of beating the odds, and could relate to how Levine was able to confront tough times head-on.

Levine had two major heart surgeries before age 30, and she has Raynoud’s syndrome, where the body cuts off circulation to fingers and toes when they’re exposed to cold. Despite that—maybe because of it—she’s climbed peaks on every continent. She even calls her consulting company Daredevil Strategies.

Yet the prospect of an Everest expedition was daunting, even for her. But then came 9/11, and she thought again about fear: “Don’t let it keep you from what you want to do,” Levine said. So she decided to take the challenge, and here’s what she learned:

• Break the big goal into manageable pieces. “I asked myself, what would have to happen to get us to base camp, and so on.” As each small piece was accomplished, the bigger goal took form.
• Rely on relationships. A contact at Ford Motor Co. took her proposal to a top executive, who approved its sponsorship as part of the Expedition model’s roll-out. Kismet? Well, she’d approached GM, too, and their SUV roll-out was the Avalanche.
• Be ready for backtracking. To acclimate the body to 20,000-foot-plus altitudes, the Everest ascent is actually a series of ups and downs from Base Camp to several staging camps. “It’s psychologically frustrating—you want to climb up, but you spend a lot of time going downward,” said Levine. And in life, achieving a goal is seldom a straight-line trek.
• In the face of change, keep your bearings. “On Everest, storms are always appearing and reappearing.” Your situation will be different in a matter of hours, or days, or months. Whatever you do, don’t panic.
• Sometimes, you need to walk away from the deal. A dangerous storm forced the Everest team to abandon its climb about 2,000 feet from the summit. “Turning around, cutting your losses and walking away might seem harder than just going for it, but if the conditions aren’t right, you have no choice.”
• Keep a game-on attitude. “You will always have more mountains to climb.”

Click here for all NADA-TV Convention Videos