Aron Ralston Endured 127 Hours To Understand This

It’s 2024. I’m in a supermarket doing my “messages” (as they say over here in NI). I’m wearing a frown, as the flat spot on one of this trolley’s wheels is really beginning to bug me.

My phone rings. It’s one of handful of clients that I provide priority strategic counsel to. And I really like all the businesses I work really closely with. So I take the call. 

They want to talk to me about a big contract that we literally just finalised and signed three weeks ago. A contract for a new relationship that both sides are really excited about. A contract that really seemed like a perfect match when it was signed.

They quickly fill me in. The contract needs to be changed as it wasn’t working “on the ground” for the business they’d partnered with.

And right there, in the middle of the fruit and vegetables, I immediately start grinning like a loon.

Not because that’s going to mean more work that I can charge them for. That’s not how my strategic retainers work.  (They’re based off priority access to expertise whenever its needed, not amounts of time.)

No, I’m grinning like a loon because I’m proud of my client. I’m proud of their foresight and openness.

They clearly hadn’t just chucked this contract in a drawer and tried to forget about it. They weren’t seeing this as “done and dusted” and set in stone.

They clearly weren’t just trying to take advantage of the change “on the ground” that was making things harder than expected for the business they’d partnered with.

Instead, they understood a critical thing about making a contract a long-term success.

(Mind you, they have been well advised about that by someone, for the last few years….)

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Time is a wonderfully elastic thing, as we all know.

Personally, I’ve no idea where 2025 went, yet the calendar relentlessly tells me its already mid-February 2026. Whereas the final 1 minute and 43 seconds that my Chicago Bears had to hang on after over-turning an 18 point deficit in this year’s NFL Wild Card round against their arch rival Green Bay Packers seemed to go on forever and ever.

But I can’t imagine that any period of time went as slowly as the 127 hours that Aron Ralston had to endure back in 2003.

You’ll likely know of Aron’s story. Being turned into an amazing film by Danny Boyle will do that for a tale. But just in case you don’t, here’s the quick version.

Aron headed out into the remote Blue John Canyon in Utah. There was no phone signal, and he hadn’t told anyone where he was going. After all, he was a highly experienced climber and extreme sports enthusiast. 

But when he takes on a particularly treacherous canyon climb, a huge 800-pound boulder shifts and traps his right arm against the canyon wall.  And that boulder won’t budge, no matter how much he tries.

Leaving him trapped, with limited food and water. And, I imagine, with time passingly agonisingly slowly (literally so, in his case).

He does, however, have a pocketknife – and some tough choices about what to do.

It takes him five days – 127 hours – to make his choice, all while getting ever more dehydrated. And his choice has permanent consequences.

Aron's story is generally seen as a testament to human resilience and the will to survive. But, when I think of it, I also see the importance of adapting.

As Aron's story demonstrates in extreme terms, our assumptions and hopes for any endeavour will be wrong in some way, shape or form. Nothing that happened to him in that event was planned or expected. He certainly wasn’t assuming them or hoping for them. In fact he was actively rooting against them. But the event still happened anyway. 

Our hopes and assumptions might go wrong in a wee way. Like Aron, they might be wrong in a big, big way. They might even go wrong in your favour. But, either way, we do need to recognise that nothing is guaranteed, no matter how much we horizon scan and try to gaze into the future & prepare in advance. And that includes for contracts and agreements.

So if we want our contracts and agreements to be a long-term success, a key question we need to keep in mind is what we do when our assumptions and hopes do go wrong.

If they go wrong against us, we could just resign ourselves to it. Stick our head in the sand, wait for the inevitable to happen, and hope that things might go OK in the meantime. I certainly seen that approach taken: it’s the easiest action to default to, after all. But don’t do that.

If they go wrong in our favour, we could try to take advantage of it and screw the other business to the floor. Hold them to what they agreed, no matter what that requires of them or what it does to them. I’ve certainly seen that approach taken, too: it feels like we’re just making the most of our position, which is what business is all about, isn’t it? Don’t do that either.

Instead, do this.

First, recognise that contracts and agreements are not an event. Instead, they’re a living, breathing thing. They’re a process. They are dynamic.

That’s because ultimately they’re about setting out the parameters of a relationship. Long term success comes from long term relationships. So your contract needs to protect and nurture your long-term relationships. Whether its been signed in blood or still under discussions.

Then, when the hopes and assumptions underlying a contract changes, immediately discuss the consequences of the “new news” (or the wrong assumptions) with your business partner.

Do that whether the change is bad for you or good for you. Remember, if the change is good for you, it will almost certainly be bad for your business partner.  And you only succeed in the long run if they succeed.

Then readily and willingly adapt your contract to make sure you’re both responding to the changed hope or assumption as appropriately & fairly as possible. That way you’ll both come out of the changed circumstances in as strong a position as possible, and with a working relationship that remains best positioned to take advantage of this new norm. 

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So, once your contract has been signed, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you’re finished. You’ll be in a great place, certainly. You’ll be feeling decidedly chipper. But don’t be lured into a false sense of security by your shiny new contract.  Because you’re not done.

In fact, with a contract, you’re never done. Because life – and a contract – never quite works out exactly as planned.  

Aron’s changed circumstances forced him to cut his arm off. You won’t have to adapt to that extent. But when things change, you need to adapt. Quickly.

So always be ready to go change whatever is necessary.

If you’ve got any queries or comments on this, just sent them through.

Andrew