Coming up next on Passion Strike.

I was rescued in 17 minutes. My friends who did amazing job to patch me up and call the heli on time. I think those heli were going to another, I think, things, but I think I was more seriously injured. So I think it was diverted. This is why I think I was picked up so quickly. Anyone who's listening to those Pedro Call signs, I don't know who they were, but I appreciate it for helping me out and keeping me safe and bringing me to best and saving my life.

Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles. On the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become passion struck. Hello, friends, and welcome back to episode 419 of Passion struck, the number one alternative health podcast. A heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you who return to the show every week, eager to listen, learn, and discover new ways to live better, be better, and make a meaningful impact in the world. I am so excited to announce that my new book, Passion Struck, is now available and you can find it at Amazon or on the Passion Struck website. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here, or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or a family member, and we so appreciate it when you do that.

We have episode starter packs, which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes that we organize in a convenient playlist to give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show. Either go to spotify or passion struck. Com/starterpacks to get started. In case she If you missed it earlier this week, I interviewed Jamie Kern-Lema, who's an American entrepreneur, creator of a billion dollar success story, philanthropist, culture shifter, and highly sought after keynote speaker. Jamie is the New York Times best selling author of Believe It: How to Go from Under estimated to Unstoppable. And in our interview, we discuss her latest book, Worthy: How to Believe You are Enough and Transform your Life. To say thank you for your ratings and reviews. If you love today's episode or Jamie's, we would appreciate you giving it a five-star review and sharing it with your friends and families. I know We and our guests love to see comments from our listeners. Today, we're embarking on an extraordinary journey of resilience, determination, and human spirit. My guest, Harry Buddha Maggar, a man who has turned adversity into triumph in a way that challenges our perceptions of possibility.

From the remote farming fields of Nepal, the battlefields of Afghanistan, and then to the soaring heights of Mount Everest, Harry's life is a testament to overcoming the odds. In 2010, his life took a dramatic turn when he lost both his legs above the knee to an IED. Yet what could have been the end of a journey was only a transformational beginning. Today, Harry stands not just as the world's first double above the knee amputee to conquer Everest, but as a beacon of hope and a symbol of what can be achieved when we refuse to be defined by our circumstances. In this conversation, we'll uncover the layers of Harry's life. We'll explore his transition from a young boy in Nepal, fascinated by the Himalayas, to a respected Gurkish soldier. We'll dive into the harrowing day of the explosion in the subsequent battle through the deaths of despair to the pinnacle of one of humanity's greatest physical challenges. Through Harry's eyes, we'll see how embracing our vulnerabilities and the very elements that seem to limit us can lead to transcending boundaries and realizing our ideal self. So join us on this journey of courage, transformation, and the indomitable will to surpass the imaginable.

Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am absolutely thrilled and honored to have Harry Budamagar on Passion Struck. Welcome, Harry.

Hello, John. Thank you for having me.

I'm talking to you today in England, but I understand you originally grew up in Nepal, and I thought that might be a good starting point to understand what your childhood was like and how did it shape your aspirations?

Yes, I was born and raised in Nepal up to age of 19. My childhood was completely It's completely different. I'm not sure your listeners, but it's completely different than how my children are growing in the UK at the moment. Simply, I was born in Cowset. I went to Bedford to school, about working about 45 minutes each way. I learned on wooden plank with a Chakri Stone. We didn't have any pen and paper. I was married at age of 11. I was forced to married. I fell a few times school, but I was the first one to pass high school from my village. Yeah, that's how. And life in Nepal, many people still in those remote part of Nepal, we follow our My dad's dream, then I would dream. So I followed my dad's dream. He always wanted to join the army, and he couldn't. At that time, he was just one son, and my granddad didn't allow him to join. He always wanted us. We were three brothers. I'm the oldest one. Also, we need to see to believe it as well. A dream doesn't come something in your head, and we follow that. Some of my senior school mates who join the Garkas, so I just followed them.

I tried, and at the age of 19, I joined the Buddhist Army and came up to the UK. After that, it's a different life than living in Nepal.

Yes, but I want to go back to it because I think I heard you say that you walked to school barefoot. When you think of Nepal, you don't think of beaches or level land, you think about mountains. I imagine it's very cold and snowy.

Yeah, it was like, so I was born at 2,700 meters. In the winter, about a couple of months, especially northern part of the mountains and hills, it was snow. Where I grew up was slightly down, slightly warmer. It was about, I think, about 2,000 meters that I think I grew up. From there, was I have to cross three rivers to get to the school. My village was slightly up and went to go down and go along the river and pass the rivers. We didn't have any, say, commercial bridge. So the breaches were made of wooden plants. You know that you go somewhere in the forest, you take one tree down, and on one side, you just chop it to make it flat so it can be able to walk. And we don't also make it smooth because if it is smooth, then it slips. So you can make it roughly flat so that it doesn't slip. And we crossed that one.

And then to have an arranged marriage when you were only 11 years old. I can't imagine at that young age, what was going through your mind. Was it normal to get married that young in the village that you grew up in, or was this something that was unusual?

It was in some ways. It's in remote villages. It Even now, they get married young. We have also culture that you and me are friends. If I got a daughter and if you got a son, we'll let them married together. So this is the things that happen. I don't think that our parents had a bad intention on us, but I think they thought that was the best thing for us. It didn't happen that way. But at that time, so simply, I think many places around the world that we don't have a choice. I'd say maybe Children in Gaza, children in Ukraine, and many places around the world where the conflicts are, we are simply in the middle and we don't have much choice. We go to school, we may not able to return at home, back home. People may be working in their farms, and they're never able to get back. That's how it is. My life, I think, was similar. My dad gave me a choice that you leave your school or get married. At that time, I realized that only way coming out of the poverty, coming out of those conflicts, coming out of those conditions that we were in, and also getting opportunity is only way is education.

I had not one chance if I wanted to go to school. Okay. I said, No, I don't want to get married, but simply, you don't have choice. I didn't have a choice.

I'm third-generation military. My grandfather was the US Army, Airborne Division. My father was in Marine Corps, went Force Recon, and I'm a Navy veteran. But listeners of the show might not be familiar with Gurkas, who've been serving with the Royal British Army now for a very long time, including Special Forces. Can you tell us a little bit more about the Gurkas and what made them so famous?

Initially, you know that the British were in India, so they colonized India, and they went up to the mountain. Nepal is just north of India. They went up in the mountains, and we fought with the British together. Later, they thought that it's maybe not worth of fighting with us. Also, how clever they were and they ruled the world. They made an agreement that give us some of the land that they took it, and Instead of, we'll join with them and fight with them around the world. We serving in the Gurkha since 1850. It's over 209 years, I think this year.

Yes, I understand that the Gurkhas have been involved with every single conflict that Great Britain was in all around the world. It's my understanding that you spent 15 years with the Gurkhas. Can you share some of the highlights and the challenges that you faced while serving with the Gurkhas and maybe some of the locations you were deployed in?

I joined in 1999, at the age of 19, and came to the UK. They're like a British, normal British armies. Their basic training is two months, and Gurkas' basic training is nine months. So after completing nine months, I went to regimen called First Battalion, the Royal Garcha Rif. In short, we call it one RGR. And in the morning, we came to the regimen at 10:00, and At 4:00 in the afternoon, we flew to Kenya. So that was my first experience with my regimen. I served in Africa. I saw five continents around the world, mainly for training, exercise, and some of them were mainly peacekeeping force like Bosnia, Kosovo. Finally, 2010, I was injured in Afghanistan when I was serving.

Harry, it sounds like you and I were in some of the same spots. I was in Serbia, Croatia, Iraq myself, but I never did make it to Afghanistan.

By the way, I was in Iraq. I got injured. So I was from Afghanistan. I was flown to Balad in Iraq, and I stayed there all night. So I can't say I haven't been.

Hey, Harry, can you lead us through some of the events leading up to and including the explosion that happened and how it impacted your life in a profound way?

We just had been to Afghanistan. After a few weeks, we went to A place called PV2, so Patrol base 2 in Helmand province. Once we went, our job was to... On that day, we had a food patrol. Our job was to go and familiarize with the area. Another one was to take two engineers to survey all damaged oil so that later they can go and repair so the local people can have a water. That was our mission. It was our mission to give the security to them We're on the way and we passed a couple of compounds and some irrigation ditches and we're walking side of the poppy field. We were in single file. We were 20 in the squad. I was 10. We were all in single file, nine people passed. When I went and just went bang, and my life pretty much sense blink up high.

When my father was serving in Cambodia, he was actually a breacher. He said when they went on their different patrols, he was always the first person in line. I always ask him, Why did you end up doing that? Did you ever have fear while you were out there? He told me, almost nonchalantely, that when you're in that position, you've got a job to do, and the rest of the team is relying on you. You can't really think about what might happen to or other aspects. You just have to go out there and perform your duty. But for you, it seemed like everything was just a routine day. And then all of a sudden, this just happened.

Yeah, honestly, we trained very long time before we go there and We are pretty much prepared. I think anyone who has been to the service, they know what happens before we went. We go to the war, we get ready, train for the scenario, go there. We train very long before we went. The Our aim was to go there, do a good job, keeping safe everyone, and come back home. Life doesn't go as early as a plan. Sometimes it takes completely opposite turn than we expected. Yeah, we're just to do our job. I never thought that I would... You normally expect first guy to hit those counterinsurgency, and this operation enemy is not just only the front. They are in the side, they are at the back, and they are everywhere. You don't know your enemy. The hardest thing is you don't know your enemy. They look just normal civilians, and actually, they are there. Sometimes they are there to harm you. But simply, we need to do what we need to do. If I wasn't there, then someone would have been dead. If I wasn't injured, and I think I'm lucky to survive and came back, but we couldn't return many of our friends back home.

Much of the operations in Afghanistan are in some pretty remote locations. However, I understand that you weren't in one of those. You were closer to your base camp. Can you give some context for the listeners on where this happened and other things like How far away you were from that base? Because I'm thinking of the logistics to get you out of there in order to save your life.

Yes. When I was injured, it was about three, four o'clock in the afternoon. It wasn't that far away from the patrol base, but it's maybe within the two kilometers. Because the explosion went, you can hear it to the best. People at the best, they heard it. It wasn't that far away. When I got When I was injured, I was just the only one who was hurt, and we didn't have to fight. At that time, the guys cleared a helipad, and I was rescued by your guys. They were called Pedro Calzans. They were rescued. Two helis came, and one came to the scene and went up and just gave a cover, and another one came down, and they picked me up. I was completely conscious till I get onto the heli, and your guys gave me a mask and start cutting my combat dress. And I was passed away and I woke up next morning in the Kambh Basin, British space in Afghanistan. I was rescued in 17 minutes. And my friends who did amazing job to patch me up and call the heli on time. I think those heli were going to some another, I think, things, but I think I was more seriously injured.

I think it was diverted. This is why I think I was picked up so quickly. Anyone who's listening to those Pedro Call signs, I don't know who they were, but I appreciate it for helping me out and keeping me and bringing me to best and saving my life. Anyone of you know that it was 17th April, 2010, in nearby PV2 area in Nares, district. And about three, four o'clock, I think in the afternoon, anyone that calls in that got involved, please keep in touch. And I would love to say personally, thank you to you.

I am hopeful that possibly someone who hears this will know one those helicopter pilots, and we'll be able to make an introduction for you. I remember I had my own traumatic brain injury, and I remember as I was coming out of the hospital, I had to come to terms with the extent of the injuries that I had. What was that like for you to realize the full impact of what was happening to your body and how severely it had been damaged?

I was completely conscious. The first thing I noticed was it was ringing my right ear and I had a radio on the left, and I looked down and my right leg wasn't there straight away. My left leg was there. It was dangling on the bone and his skin. I also injured my right arm. If you see that. So couldn't able to move my right arm. The first thing was as we train, is there any enemies that are firing? Are we safe? That was the thing. Second thing was, am I going to survive? After about five minutes, the guy said, Haley inbound in 10 minutes. I thought that I was going to survive. Also, the situation was quite not that harsh. No one is shooting at us. The guys came and started patching me up. The hardest at that time, once Haley came, then I thought that I was going to survive. Another thing I thought was to my boys because I was second in command in my multiple, and I was a most senior We had a very young platoon commander. I was just thinking that we just got into the new area and what would happen to the Chicks without their mom.

That is the thing that he was thinking. Even when I would jump into my helicopter, my platoon commander was there and I was telling, Saab, look after other boys. That was how I was shouting him out. Saab is a sir in Nepal language. So, sir, please look after other boys. Because this is how. In a battlefield, no one has come to help us out. One of the people who help us is our friends and our colleagues, and those are the people who can save us. So we need to look after each other. If we look after subordinates and they look after us. Also, same way, if our commanders look after us, then we look after them. This is how it is. It's a buddy system. It's a teamwork. We're not fighting there on our own. It's not like one band hero things in the battlefield. It's a whole teamwork.

Harry, did you ever have feelings of shame or a failure post-injury? And if so, how did that impact you?

Yes, that is the thing that I realized that when I woke up in Cambassan. From my chest down, it was covered by a white blanket. I remember that I didn't have a right leg, but I had left leg. Is it still there? When I was just It was down like this, it looks like there's not any. It is covered. They look the same. I didn't have a courage to open the blanket and have a look at. When I woke up, my commanding officer and Gorga Meza, Gorga Meza, high as a rank in the regimen in the Gorgas. They were standing next to me, Isader, and I really felt ashamed lying in the front of them. My job was to go there, do best I can and keep safe to the guys, but also do the job, make proud to our squad, our regimens, and come back home safe, which is I couldn't able to do that. I felt I couldn't able to help Yeah, I was assumed lying in the front of them. Honestly, I thought that I let down my team, my regimen, and whole. My commanding officer said, Okay, we will look after them.

But I didn't really believe that. I was still worrying. I came back to UK in still about two months, and I was still worrying that what's going on in the ground. My mind was all the time in the ground in Afghanistan. My military legion officer used to tell me that, Don't worry about yourself. They will be fine. Just worry about yourself, how to recover and how to move forward. But this is how we are. We You always think of those, our friends and colleagues, and how they are doing. I felt truly let down my team at that time.

A lot of people face different types of adversity, whether that's big T trauma or small T trauma. Obviously, you've had to face something that very few people ever have to go through. It's impacted you physically, and it's impacted you mentally as well. You lost both your legs, along with many other complications and What was the recovery process like for you? And how did you give yourself the inner fortitude to make you want to recover? Because so many people might have given up at that point, given the state that you found yourself in. What kept you going and what What were some of the initial steps that you took?

I think my biggest problem was my perception, the way I grew up in Nepal, the way I saw how disabled people were treated, back in Nepal, and how they perceived. So I perceived myself that way as well. So that was the biggest thing to overcome. I thought that I couldn't do anything I couldn't able to walk. I thought that I have to sit on a wheelchair the rest of my life. I'm pretty much useless, and I'm going to live as a burden of the Earth. And maybe I have done something wrong in my previous life, so maybe I'm having this. That was really and very simple things that I couldn't able to do. Say, go to toilet myself, just making tea myself, going on a wheelchair. You can't go everywhere. You can't go and play around with your children and play football with my children. Even on chair, I couldn't get onto wheelchair from the floor as well. I had to rely It was everything with someone else. That was really hard. But slowly, a couple of times, I stayed about a month in hospital. Then after that, once I discharged, I was sent to rehabilitation center.

At rehabilitation center, we only allowed to stay four weeks there. Then we were sent to home for another four weeks and go back. I did that process nearly three and a half years. When you go to the rehabilitation center, you meet similar people like yourself. You still have a good time, you try to recover, you work harder. But when you come back home, you have nothing to do, simply. You don't have a job, you don't have not much to look for. Mostly, I was just drinking alcohol to just control my pain and emotions. I was just I frustrated myself, sometimes with my family, sometimes just doing pretty much nothing. That point, I found very difficult. I was drinking so much, and when I didn't drink, my hands were shaking, my mind started getting foggy. Actually, in the UK, the ceilings are quite low. I was imagining that a ceiling is in Nepal and you could have a fan. There's still many people who would take on their lives hanging themselves. But I also found that it's very difficult to do that when you are on wheelchair. Also, I realized that on the UK, the train bridges are protected.

They have got a bar, a wall and bar on the side to protect from people from jumping. I was thinking all of it, and I couldn't drive at that time. I was just thinking to take, if I could drive, take a car and just go on your own and just finish off yourself. That was really tough. Later, some ways, I could look my family, especially my son was two and a half years old when I got injured. Looking at his face, if I die, it's in my story. But my family will suffer from that because of me. I didn't want it. Okay, one I decided that, I'm going to live my life. I have to live for my family. Then it was a pretty much magical moment that what could we be able to do? Then after that, I went to skydiving. I had two feelings at the time. One was I I've never done the parachute, so I wanted to experience that. Second one was I was bit suicidal mode. If something goes wrong, then half my body is gone. If another half goes, that's in the bad story. But when we landed safely on the ground, I realized that You can do things even you don't have legs.

I had little confidence. Then my aim was to what can I do physically after losing both legs. I tried all the sports and adventure and I could be able to do everything. It's just a different way of doing the things. Then later after that, I could be able to climb a mountain.

Well, we're going to get to climbing that mountain here in a second. But before we do, I had another question for you. I have several amputee friends and colleagues who have residual pain following their injury. Have you ever experienced that? And if so, how did you deal with it?

Yeah, because you don't have legs, but still your mind says that you have still legs. So that's a very weird thing. And I think I still remember that on my I was in the hospital bed, I thought I had a leg and get up and I nearly fell down on the bed. I fell down a couple of times at home on the couch because my mind still says I have legs. But another thing, I never heard about that phantom pain, But after losing leg, phantom pain was really bad. You have so much pain. It's like you got a pinion needles on your feet, but when you find it, you can't find it. What is that? You can't find You feel that itching in your ankle and on your toes, and you don't have a toes. It's a very weird feeling. But the pain is also sometimes. Still, I do have sometimes if I do very hard exercise, Still, I do have. It just comes for a while, shooting pain. It's like that and just you have a pin and needles on your feet. It's very weird pain, but slowly, it just went away. As I said, still I I still have sometimes.

But I'm not that bad as I get up on a bed feeling that I have legs. I dreamed many times after losing my leg, I was just running around chasing the Taliban. It's still some of my dreams. It's still I'm running around. Normally, it's a bit weird, but when you wake up, it's a bit weird. But that's how life is.

One thing I did want to talk to you about is your consumption of alcohol. I think many people who have to deal with their inner demons end up becoming, and I think so many of us, when we're trying to deal with our inner demons, end up becoming addicted to one thing or another. It could be alcohol, it could be drugs, it could be work, it could be sex. How did you relieve yourself of that need that you had to drink to overcome the demons that you were facing?

I think it's a coping mechanism, isn't it? So we cope it different ways. And I think it's very It's easy when you are feeling bad, it is very easy to take a bottle of whiskey and pour in a glass and drink it. That's one way you can cope it, but it's short period of time when that helps. Also taking same as a drug or even taking a life yourself. But I think as a hard way, we do is it's also It's just sustainable. It's useful, much more useful. Say, just going out and doing something, waking up early on time or staying late in the evening, doing something is hard. Like doing the exercise, going to the gym, going to the swim, or doing some outdoor activities is hard. It's in the cold, it's in the rain, sometimes it's too hot, whatever it is. But that is, I think, the best way to do it. My aim after the sky diving was, what can I do physically after losing both legs? Because I had some, I want to test myself that what can I do physically because I didn't know at the time how powerful is the mind.

My aim was to try to do the other things and compensated the way I was drinking and I could be able to focus. When we challenge ourselves, then we start finding the opportunities, we start seeing the hope, we start seeing the things that are good for us. Simply, that's how I cover it. In some ways, where I am now is because I've used those sports and adventure as a therapy. I didn't take it as a therapy at that time, but I feel it was a therapy. Sports and adventure has massive power in it. I'm not sure how advanced are trainings like US Arm Forces. But in UK, let's say if you go for overseas exercise training for six weeks, one week is called RNR. Rnr is not really recent recovery, but more about you go and do some adventure stops in civilian clots, say, kayaking, or hiking, or mountain biking, or skydiving, or horse riding, or kayaking, or something to do it. But I think without that, I think I wouldn't be here. I think those sports and adventure give us a confidence. I think if I had a power, I would give a people a confidence.

I think if we have confidence, we can able to do anything else. Even, let's say, you like someone and you want to go and talk, you need confidence. You got some idea, business plan, and you want to go and share with someone, you need a confidence for that. Or you They want to go and do some adventures, you need the confidence for that. Anything we do in life is a confidence. Confident doesn't come with a magic wand,, here you go, and rule the world, or go to climb the mountain. It's not like that. It comes from very little things like just jumping on a wheelchair from the floor. It's sense of achievement. I achieved something. If you feel good, you go to the kitchen yourself and make a tea yourself. You You feel good. Go to the toilet yourself and you feel good. Then you can drive yourself. It's better. Then later, you start working on a prosthetic legs. Building confidence takes time and it comes with that challenge. When you challenge We challenge ourselves. We create opportunity for our child, but also clear opportunity for others. Challenge gives us experience and experience gives us confidence.

Simply, confidence is, I think, everything in the life. Do it hard away sometimes. That last for a long period of time. If we just do very short away, we take drugs, we might feel well for a while, but in a long term, it doesn't really help.

I'm so glad that you pointed that out because one of the things I talk about on the show all the time, is that we have choices that we get to make every single day. When you think about it, we have 60,000 to 90,000 different decisions that we make in any single day. Every single day is an opportunity to start making choices that challenge the way that you're living your life. And I try to educate people that this power of micro choices that we get to make in our lives can help you transform your life and take it into a positive direction because you didn't get into the situation that you're in currently in one fail swoop. And so you're not going to break out of it by doing one huge movement. It's going to take a series of microsteps to get you on the path to recovery. And I think what you just said about building confidence, because the more challenges that you start putting in front of yourself, when you start accomplishing them, you're going to reward yourself even more for doing them. And it's going to lead you further down that path. And it's going to expand in you this desire to want to achieve more, to be more, to become more, which becomes this overwhelming confidence that just grows over time.

I think what you just said is a fantastic example of that.

Also, I think when we think about choice is we are privileged to living free-walled, where we can choose the things. We can choose Children can choose what subject they want to study. We can choose what job we want to do. We can choose how we want to live our life. We have so many choices. If we choose the right choices, then our life becomes positive. In Nepal, we say that if you are good and you see everything is good, everything turns into good. I think that's really important. I think we all have negative feelings. That negative feelings is our mind. If we put, let's say, wall around our mind, we have filtration of that. If we are positive, then all positive things observes in our mind. So that wall lets in to observe that positive. If we are negative, then the positive things doesn't penetrate in our mind, and the negative things penetrates in our mind. We see everything in the wall is negative, it's bad. I think it's being positive, and that positiveness is, again, confidence and sense of achievement and sense of living with our values and with our self. I think for me, hardest thing was to accept that I don't have legs and I have to live the rest of my life without legs.

That was a hard thing. And once you accept it, then it becomes easier.

I'm sure there might be some listeners today who are struggling to their path, or perhaps they feel like they're a spectator in their own life. And when all this happened to you, I imagine that you were probably looking at your life a completely different way than you do today. You were probably that spectator looking at yourself, and now you've undergone this transformational change to rebuild your life from scratch. What would you tell someone else who might be listening today if they were in this exact same position? They're trying to find their purpose in life or what steps they can take to rebuild it. How do you find that problem that only you were called to solve? How do you get yourself back on track of crafting the life that you want?

I think I have got one principle that I use. Whatever happens, it happens for the reason. If you are positive, even someone throw you at mud, you become a flower. You start blooming. I never thought that I would be here. I would be doing this thing. I never thought about that. But one thing I had was I had something positive in my mind. I think I have achieved more than what I imagined to achieve when I was young. I never achieved this thing. I never achieved even joining the British Army because it's very tough. Over 12,000 applicants, I got into 230. Just never thought that. But when we try something, it just happens. I tried to become British Army, and I became. I tried to climb Everest, and I climbed. If you don't try, you don't know your limits. You don't know what we can able to achieve. You can also see that I had a very good career in the army. After losing my legs, I lost both of my legs. I lost my career. I lost my job because I couldn't walk anymore in the army. And still, I'm fine. And whatever happens, we will be fine as as long as we are positive and have a right mindset.

Kari, thank you for that. You talked about the importance of actions and how they led you to where you are today. What inspired you to go from doing the action sports that you were doing to doing the mountaineering that you're doing today? I have to imagine that preparing for those initial climbs without having any legs and having to use prosthetic legs made that extremely challenging.

Yeah, but I never thought that I would even be working after my injury. Who thought that I would be climbing Mount Everest? But I think climbing is simply, as I said, I grew up in Nepal. In Nepal, from very small side, we are educated Mount Everest is tallest mountain in the world, and it's in Nepal. Mount Everest is pride, symbol, and identity of the Nepal's people. If we say in many places in America, if says, Do you know where is Nepal? Which they won't know it, but if they say, Do you know the Everest? I think they know that. It means to something to me from very little age. But also, I think one thing is really important that it's not about It's not about what we do, it's about why we do it. It's our reason why. Anything that we do, we have our own reason. It might not mean nothing to you, but it means to me. I think that is the thing. I I was always fascinated climbing mountain from my childhood. This is why my reason's name is Concurring Dreams, and it's my childhood dream. I grew up looking the mountain every day.

After losing my legs when I was skiing in Europe and in Colorado, looking at the mountain, I was thinking of Mount Everest. And later I just went to test myself, and I tried, and finally, It took nearly six years to get there, but we finally achieved our dream. And there was many challenges along the way. Like I said, there's no prosthetic legs were are designed to climb the ice and snow. We actually designed that. The friends in America who helped me, so we're able to do that. This is why I have very close connection. I served with your guys and I've been helped to climb Mount Everest. It's very close to my heart. There was banned. They banned double amputies. Nepal government banned. I was supposed to climb 2018. In 2017, Nepal government brought the rules banning double amputies and visually impaired. We had to go to Geneva, we had to go to Supreme Court in Nepal, and over the turn, the rule, it took a while. I had to raise lots of money because I'm three times slower than normal people. I need more help and support. So simply, everything I need is three times more, maybe more.

And just raising fund was very hard. So first thing was nobody believed me that I could be able to climb the mountain. I had some money when I was injured, and I used that to climb few mountains. And now, later, my family and friends start supporting me. Maybe he might be able to climb it, and they start supporting me. Later, some charities came to support me. Then later, the other individuals, my friends and the families and the communities and some corporates who believed me, and we were able to raise all the money. But the first one I approached, I think, on 100, 99 corporates and said no because there was a reason behind it. They said it was an amazing story, a photo inspiration, and all those things. When it comes to taking the money out from their pocket, say, Sorry, we ran out the marketing budget, or they make it all excuse. But behind that, there was a reason. One thing, they didn't believe that I could able to climb it. Second thing, if something goes wrong on the mountain, they don't want to associate It's great to meet. Yeah, there are lots of, but I think one thing is if we are true to ourselves and we have a right intention at that time, then someone in a hundred, 99 won't believe you, but one people always with you and will support.

I had a few. Once one person starts supporting, other people will follow.

Keri, that's great advice. I understand that when you first started this mountaineering expedition, you had to use your own money to prove that you could actually do it, to climb peaks like Mirror Peak and Mount Blanc. That allowed you to have the opportunity to raise money to try to climb Mount Everest, which I think is a very important part of your story because I've to successful entrepreneurs who have built unicorn companies. The vast majority that I've talked to went through some period of disbelief and some of the same challenges that you faced as you were trying to attain your goal. A person I often talk about is Jim McKelvie, who founded the company Square with his friend Jack Dorsey. And along this journey, they faced one challenge after another insurmountable challenge because the whole banking industry was against them. They didn't want them to create this new financial system. And so the banking The industry kept fighting them, and they had to fight their way through it. There were many times that they almost wanted to give up because they were running out of money, they were running out of the stamina to keep up the fight, but they ended up persevering.

And it's interesting because when I talk to Jim in the interviews that I've done with him, he tells me that one of the biggest things that he sees for entrepreneurs who fail is that they find this problem that only they can solve, that they have this burning desire to go after, but they end up running into adversity. They give up on their instead of doing what you did and making the calls and keeping after it until you finally achieved what you set out to do.

Yeah, many times I wanted to give up. Sometimes I was just thinking what excuse I could make it. And give up. I thought about it many times, but when some people start helping you, giving their time, money, and efforts, then you can't let down those people. At least you do your best to make make them proud. You couldn't be able to give them much, but at least I could do my best to make them proud. On a mountain, also, I wanted to give up many times, but things that drove me is a responsibility. It's the people who believed me, that I don't want to let them down.

There had to be a lot of mental and physical preparation for preparing to climb Everest. How did you self prepare for that and get yourself up to the task the mental challenges that you were going to have to overcome in climbing the mountain? Because whether you're able-bodied or not, I'm sure everyone who climbs Everest faces ferventous mental hurdles on their way up, where they want to give up because it's windy and it's cold. It's grueling, you're in pain, you don't want to keep going.

I think this is where your dreams and passion works. If you have a dream, if you have a passion, then can make you wake up early in the morning, make you stay late in the evening, also to make you work harder. Many of the training and principles that when I was serving helped me. A couple of things that I was thinking There is in our British Army's doctrine, there is the word called momentum. It's a principle of war. That is not about going fast or slow. It's just keep it going. I use that principle when I went to the mountains. I will get there if I don't stop for a long period of time and I don't give up. I will get there in some way. I need to prepare I got that. On the other principle I use is adaptation. His whole life is all about adaptation. We can see the history of the human revolutions and things like that. We always adopt. We take very easily. If it's cold, we put a jacket on. If it's a rain, we put a raincoat on. If we go to play the sports, we put a sports shoes on.

We do it all the time, but we don't realize it. But this is really powerful tools and principles that we can use for life. When I was thinking about climbing Mount Everest, in the old days, we couldn't run fast enough to explore around the world. So we start the things that can take us faster. Something like for the land, for the sea, for the air. Now we can go to the another planet. We made that possible. We human made that possible. We adopted according to our needs. Climbing Mount Everest with no legs should be possible. This was my principle that actually I used it. Also in the business world or anything in the world that we adopt according to the time and situation and our ability to make things happen, simply. Actually, for one example is when Corona popped in, I was supposed to be climbing Everest, and I didn't climb at that time. Instead of I was in quarantine and doing the things. That is where we were adapting at that time. We always adapt, but if we use this tool right away, it's very powerful. To There are two principles that are super important for me to get to the summit of Mount Everest is adaptation.

I adapted my legs according to the time and situations and get up to the mountain. That how it is. And we are very good in adapting, and some we are not. But I think if we could adapt, whatever way we can, we'll make anything possible in the world. And whole human revolution came from challenge. So let's say if Wright-Broders, they didn't dream of flying, we wouldn't be flying. If Sir Edmund Hilarian, Tenching Norgay, they didn't dream of climbing Mount Everest, Maybe we'll be still waiting someone to climb for us. We made many impossible things possible by just challenging ourself.

I love that. And I have my own book that just came out. And in it, I have a chapter called The Action Creator. And in it, I focus the chapter on the story of my long term mentor, astronaut Wendy Lawrence. And her core message is you have to permit yourself to dream your dream. And when you do permit yourself to dream your dream, you gain this consistent momentum that keeps you going forward. It keeps these actions propelling you to where you want to go. So, Harry, I love what you just said in the adaptability. So I want to step back for a second because I want to imagine you now on the apex of Everest. I can't even imagine what was going through mind at that point. I'm guessing that moment was such a powerful catalyst for you being in your home country of Nepal. How do you hope that your achievements when other people who have disabilities see them, give them the inner courage and the perception to view that anything is possible?

I give them some hope to the people who possibly read what's my story. One thing is the government that who banned us from climbing mountains. Tourism Minister was waiting at the airport to welcome and congratulate me. And the same day, I was invited at Prime Minister's office to congratulate. Same day, My president, he was ill, so he sent his press officer and his daughter to congratulate me in person. And I was invited by many ministries, like House of Speakers, to so many major political parties who invited in their office to congratulate me. I believe that I said about why we do it. It's not about what we do it, it's about why we do it. I think climbing a mountain, I don't think so I enjoy climbing a mountain. It's enjoyable after you climb, but every step is a struggle for me. But why I do it is I think it's important. I went Everest to making awareness of disability because the way I perceived myself, because I wasted my time, one and a half, two years of my time, I just wasted my time. If I believed myself, I could pick up much quicker and use that time to make it much more meaningful and worthwhile.

My aim was to making awareness of disability. Why it's important? Because people like myself, I don't know when I was, is make sure you believe something that you can able to do. Something. I think that's important. I think people with disabilities, that's one awareness that we need to make. Another awareness I wanted to make was to, it's not just our problem, it's a problem of our families, our friends, our community, and authorities that who look after us. If you see the disabled population, it's about 1.3 billion disabled people live in this world. That's about 15% of the world population. We can hide them. If you want to develop the countries, develop the world, and we need to make it inclusive, they have to support us some ways. It is making... It's like the government who are going to ban us the things that we do. These are the things that we need to make awareness of the other people. Many people who are out there, able-bodied. I was completely able-bodied until the age of 31. Suddenly, my life changed in that way, and many people's lives will change in the future. For them, make sure instead of feeling sorry for themselves, believing something that they can be able to do and go and achieve something that they love to achieve and achieve something that they have their own reason why.

My reason why is to making awareness of disability. I will keep this is not overnight change. It will take ages, ages, generations. It will take to change. And the rest of my life, I will be making awareness of disability, whether through the sports and adventure, whether through the social work, whether through the business, whether through the charities. I will do that.

Kari, thank you so much for sharing that. I think that is a great way to end this interview. After achieving so many things that you never thought were going to be remotely possible that you have now accomplished, what are your future goals and dreams and what do you look forward to?

I get asked this question quite a lot. As I said to you earlier, what's my future aim? Simply is to making awareness of disability and inspiring other people to climb their own mountain, whatever that is, or getting a job, or getting a better grade or starting a business or getting married or going through some problems that they have. That's my aim. To do that, I think I'm 44 now, and I think up to age of 50, I think I can some sports and adventure. Now, I'm in process to complete my seven summits, so I have four summits to complete. If your audience, they don't know what are the seven summits, they are highest mountain in each continent. That's what I'm trying to do for the next few years. If I get an opportunity, I would like to take some more people with disability, maybe from different complex and different side, and travel from one pole to another pole, making awareness of disability, promoting climate change, because I've been in mountain, and when you look at how fast the ice is melting, it's very scary. Whatever we have right now is because of our previous generation.

So even we can extend Earth's life for a while, it would be great for our future generations. And also that we don't need to fight. If we don't need to. Yeah, we are soldiers. We fight for everything. I will fight even I don't have legs. But we can solve our differences in peaceful way. We don't have to solve our differences in a violent way. I think we have different faith. We have got different interests. We have different values. We have different culture. We are humans, and we need to make this world slightly better and safer place in the future.

Beautifully said. And Harry, it was such an honor to interview you. You're such an inspiration to so many people worldwide. It was so fantastic that I could have you on PassionStruck.

And thank you so much for having me.

What an amazing interview that was with Harry Budamagar. Man, he is amazing. And I wanted to thank Harry for giving us the honor of interviewing him. Links to Harry will be in the show notes at passion struck. Com. Videos are on YouTube at our main channel at John R. Miles and our Clips channel passion struck clips. Advertiser deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at passion struck. Com/deals. You can find me on all the social platforms at John R. Miles, and you can sign up for our personal development newsletter, Live Intentionally at passion struck. Com. You're about to hear a preview of the passion struck podcast with Charles Duhigg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, New Yorker staff writer, and the New York Times best-selling author of The Power of Habit. Charles brings his signature blend of in-depth research and captivating storytelling to us, our latest groundbreaking book, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection. All of us have that person in our head. Everyone who's listening knows exactly who they'd call. That person for you is a super communicator, and odds are that you're a super communicator back to them. But there are some people who are more consistently good at this.

They're that person for everyone. They can connect with anyone. And oftentimes, it's only because they're thinking a little bit more deeply about how communication works. They've paid a little bit more attention to it. And one of the things that they know to do is they know to listen closely. The fee for this show is that you share it with family or friends when you find something useful or interesting. If you know someone who could use the advice that Harry gave in today's show, then definitely share this episode with those that you love and care about. The greatest gift that you can give us is to share this show. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. Until next time, go out there and become passion struck.