[GEOFF MEARNS]
Hello, I'm Geoff Mearns And I have the good fortune to serve as the president of Ball State University. My guest today is Len Forkas, an author, an entrepreneur, and an accomplished endurance athlete.
Len earned his Ball State undergraduate degree in landscape architecture in 1982. He then earned his MBA from American University. In 2001, Len founded the wireless infrastructure company Milestone Towers to serve as a bridge between wireless carriers and public land owners. After his nine year old son Matt was diagnosed with leukemia, Len founded the nonprofit Hopecam. To date, the nonprofit has helped more than 6,000 children with cancer stay connected to their classrooms in all 50 states via webcam technology.
Len's mission to raise money for Hopecam has inspired him to climb mountains, literally. In May 2025, he summited Mount Everest, becoming the fifth oldest person in the world to conquer the tallest peak of every continent—an elusive list known as the Seven Summits. Today, I'm going to ask Len about his extreme fundraising techniques, his success as a telecommunications entrepreneur, and how our university empowered him to pursue a fulfilling career and lead a meaningful life.
And since Len is here with me in the studio for this episode, we're also going to talk about what brought him back to campus this spring. So Len, welcome back to Ball State. And thank you for joining me.
[LEN FORKAS]
Thank you so much, Geoff. It's a pleasure to be here.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So before we talk about your upbringing, let's talk about why you're on campus this week. We're recording the episode on April 30th. Two days from now, you'll deliver the commencement address at the May commencement ceremony for the Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning. So, are you ready to go?
[LEN FORKAS]
Absolutely. I was super excited when Dave Ferguson invited me to be the commencement speaker for this year's class. And, what an honor. And, it's just a pleasure to be back on campus. I'm very excited about it.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, and it's a sunny day. But unfortunately, it might be a little bit cold. So fortunately, you'll be inside Emens Auditorium for your ceremony. [LEN: That's right.] Yeah. So, you know, it's, it can be a daunting task to deliver a commencement speech. So, first of all, thank you for coming to do this. And since this episode won't air until after you've spoken, why don't you tell the folks who are listening, what is the central message that you want to share with the CAP graduates and their families and their friends?
[LEN FORKAS]
Absolutely. I really distilled it— took me a long time—but I've distilled it down to three words. It's obstacles, belief, and purpose. And those are the three themes that have guided me through my life and my career and those are the key premises that I'd like to share.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. Well, I've had a chance to read the text. And it is a powerful message. It's, it's both inspiring and emotional. And so anybody who's listening, by the time you get a chance to listen to this, you might have an opportunity to go on our website and actually see a recording of Len’s speech. I I'd encourage you to do it.
So, I'm going to ask you some questions about the many accomplishments that you've had in your life and in your career since you graduated from Ball State. But why don't you start with your childhood? As we were walking over today, we compared some of our, of growing up. You grew up in Cleveland. Tell me about growing up in Cleveland. Tell me about your family.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, it was really a pleasure to learn, Geoff, that we graduated from high school in the same year, and we effectively were on teams that were rivals between Lakewood High School and Shaker Heights High School.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
That's right. I’ll interrupt for just a second. Lakewood High School is a near west side suburb—
[LEN FORKAS]
Near west side suburb of Cleveland.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Shaker Heights is a near east side. We were in the Lake Erie League at the time, so we were rivals.
[LEN FORKAS]
Yes. We've got a lot in common. So I think you could relate a lot to my upbringing. I was one of four kids. Neither of my parents finished high school, yet alone college. My mom did get her GED, and my dad was awarded his high school diploma after fighting in the Second World War. But I grew up in, you know, in a family that believed in hard work. We were spiritual and we believe that it's important to be able to make it on your own steam.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. What was—what did your father do for work?
[LEN FORKAS]
My father was an independent sales representative and was his own boss for most of his life. And put all four kids, all four of his kids through college and, you know, just my hero.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And did your mother work outside the house, or was she just taking care of you and your siblings?
[LEN FORKAS]
She did, she worked in the elderly community in Lakewood, the Office on Aging and set a great example for my two sisters, that, at a time when not a lot of women were in the workforce in the late 70s. And was just another inspiration, a great example of how to live a purposeful life, you know.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So when you graduated from high school, you enrolled here at Ball State. Not too many people at that time in the Cleveland area knew much about Ball State. What attracted you to our campus?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, I did research. I wanted to be an architect, and I did research on different universities, and I read a lot of material about the caliber of the professors at Ball State. And so that's what attracted me to apply. But when I applied, I didn't get in, I wasn't accepted. There were 800 applicants for 80 spots. So I didn't have what it took to make it into the program. So I talked to my folks, and I decided to go for the fall semester and take a shot at the spring class. You have to get a 3.5 GPA, and I had to become the student that I wasn't.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So you were not admitted directly into the architecture program. As you said, you were given a kind of a conditional opportunity to enroll at Ball State, but you had to earn a 3.5 GPA in that first semester, which was a pretty steep hill to climb.
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah, absolutely. And, I had tremendous luck and support from folks that helped me. And it was very gratifying to be able to prove myself.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So I read the text of your speech and so on Saturday, you're going to tell about a fellow student who had an influence that enabled you to stay here at Ball State. Why don't you share that story with the folks who are listening?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, this is a classic example of how the universe just works. My dad and I were on campus, touring. I was there for registration for the fall semester, and I randomly met this student, an older student in CAP, the architecture school, and he asked me what I was doing, and I told him that I wanted to be an architect, and I didn't wasn't able to get in.
And he said, well, have you picked your classes yet? And I said, no. He said, okay, meet me here in two hours right here in the cafeteria, in the cafeteria downstairs, and I want to talk to you. So my dad and I went back and we met with him and he said, what are you good at? What were you great at in high school? And I said, well, you know, I was pretty good at speech. Okay. Take speech 101. So he literally walked through all of my strengths and avoided my weaknesses and helped me pick classes that would give me the opportunity to be able to shine. I still had to work, but this random person who owed me nothing took the time to help me launch. And it was because of him that I was able to be able to have the success and get the grade point average and apply, and I'll never know his name.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, it's a great story. I think it's also representative of the culture on our campus, including the culture of our students. I often say, and I think you represent it, our students don't come to Ball State with a sense of entitlement. They come with a sense of purpose. And this other student fulfilled his purpose by helping you stay here at Ball State. Were there any faculty members during your them during your time as a student in CAP who also influenced the direction of your career?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, actually, during that visit I met with a gentleman named John Russell, who was the chairman of the landscape architecture department, and he sat down with me, again, random, come into my office, let me talk to you about our program. And he recommended some books that I read. And that was what changed the trajectory of me wanting to become a landscape architect.
So it was John Russell. And he became a great friend during the time I was a student. And everyone, everyone loved John Russell. He was such an iconic, humble, and warm person. The other person was a professor named Omar Faruque, who was from Bangladesh, and he taught our second year class. And Omar inspired me to be a better leader. There was one time we had a project. We all worked together, and we submitted the project to Omar, and he pulled me aside and he said, Len, is this the best work your team can do?
And I thought, Omar, give me a week. And I went back to our classmates and we worked and we focused and we turned in a better assignment because Omar saw that our team could do more. And he picked me as a leader to communicate that. And I was honored that he did that. And, you know, he'll always have a very warm spot in my heart.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
How would you describe that experience in terms of shaping your own philosophy around leading other people?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, it's really about inspiring belief in the person and seeing something in them that they can't see in themselves. And Omar did that. John did that. And many of the people that I met at Ball State, but also, look, I mean, the architecture school is a pressure cooker. It is a very stimulating, very challenging environment. But you come away with some of the most amazing skills in terms of tenacity, communication, being able to visualize. And I think it's by far the, the fundamentals of what I learned at Ball State’s architecture school has served me my entire life.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So you graduated from Ball State in 1982, and then you earned your MBA in 1987. What prompted you after you graduated from American to found your own company? Tell us a little bit about that part of your journey.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, the first, what I'd like to explain quickly is that [GEOFF: Please] when I was an architect, when I was practicing as landscape architect, I was working on multiple projects, many of which were with real estate developers, and it was the influence of many of the developers that really wanted me, what I wanted to learn more business. And that's what inspired me to get the MBA, was working with these businesspeople who were instructing me on which projects they were building, why...and I had a general curiosity as to the fundamentals of why I was working on this project. I enjoyed the design part of it, but I was more curious as to why that property, where did it come from? How much did he pay for it? Why is he doing this particular type of apartment building or office building and so forth? So I was able to untangle that by obtaining the Master of Business Administration, and that allowed me to be able to enter the real estate development profession as an apartment builder.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. And so where did that, so that led you to purchasing, acquiring real estate?
[LEN FORKAS]
Yep. I learned how to build from the ground up. I learned, I also worked in a bank during the recession and the savings and loan issues all blew up in the early 90s. So I worked for a bank at that time and ended up doing workouts on with developers that I knew, actually, and that was, what allowed me to be able to have the foundation to start my own company.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And so, tell us about Milestone Towers. Tell us about it, why you founded it, what that company does.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, it started off as Milestone Developments. I was buying land and redeveloping it for different uses. And I came upon a guy that was in the tower business. He was also a commercial real estate executive. And he explained to me that the building and owning cell towers is like owning real estate. There... it's vertical real estate. It's an asset that's leased. There are not many companies that will lease it because there's not many—AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon. But if you build a tower in the right place and you can solve the problem as to how the community will support it, you have something that's very valuable and very irreplaceable. So I looked at the tower business as an extension of the skills that I learned as a real estate developer and as an architect. And so I chose to build towers and partnerships with schools and parks and building them on the football fields and on the baseball fields, where there are lots of tall poles, large parcels of land well buffered from the neighbors, in places that there was really poor coverage. This is back when there were no “G”s.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yes, right. We weren't 4G or 5G. No one had even invented that yet.
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah, this is before—only a third of us had phones, if you can imagine that.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Right.
[LEN FORKAS]
And that was the fundamentals of the business. So that was the foundation for getting started. I thought that the skills and knowledge I learned on how to execute on the built environment in a good way and solve a problem in a thoughtful way for the community and the environment, and then also help schools in municipalities earn revenue and better safety and connectivity.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So as your company is growing, your business is thriving. You were having success as an entrepreneur. And then your life changed on a personal level, when your son, Matt, was a young boy, he was diagnosed with cancer. Tell us about that moment, how you handled it, as a person, as a father.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, I mean, you're a father of many kids, and, you know, you take a bullet for your children. And it felt so helpless to see my son, going through treatment, and not being able to do anything about it from the standpoint of alleviating his fears. As a dad, I wanted to help him. Now, since I had a partnership with the local school system, I thought about the idea of putting a web camera in his classroom, and it hadn't been done before. This is 2001. There was no Zoom or FaceTime, but I was able to since I had a relationship with the school system, I was able to—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
He was young at this time?
[LEN FORKAS]
He was nine. In the third grade, and he's diagnosed in January. So he's not going back to school. These kids are—they have to immunosuppress the children so that the chemotherapy will work.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So they're in isolation.
[LEN FORKAS]
They're totally isolated because they don't have the immune system. But they need the immunosuppressant to be able to have the chemotherapy work. So at the toughest time in my son's life, when he needed to be with his friends the most, he's stuck at home going through treatment. And so I called the tech officer and we said, can we put a webcam in his classroom? So he can see and talk to his friends. And it took a while, but, sure enough, it was magical when those two cameras clicked on and Matt could see his friends. It was so amazing that they told him, “Matt, this empty chair. That's your seat. No one's sitting there. We want you back.”
And during the course of his treatment, as his face ballooned up from steroids, as his hair fell out, those 24 kids in his third grade class saw it in real time. And we didn't realize this, but we were demystifying cancer for those children. So when he went back to school, he had six months of really tough treatment, but he was able to go back in September. That was the “aha” moment. When he walked in the door, every one of those kids knew what he went through because they saw it in real time. And that's when I realized, wow, we just discovered something that's really unique. But no one—everyone was focused on his education, so he would have a homebound teacher, the doctor were making sure that he got the right medication at the right time. But no one was thinking about his mental health, and he was depressed. And I wanted to lift him out of that.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
I was just gonna say, he was depressed at a time when he needed emotional strength.
[LEN FORKAS]
And we know about oxytocin and how important it is for our bodies to heal. And he needed that. I didn't realize it until later, but it's a key fundamental of your mental health, as we all know. I mean, I can't imagine what you've gone through, with Covid on campus and so forth, the isolation and so forth. But we were really lucky and we were able to get that done.
And that was when I decided that I got to find a way to help more kids have the same feeling.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So before we get to that, tell us about that—how it affected you emotionally. That terrible moment when you get the diagnosis and then that almost epiphany when you saw his emotional state start to change, probably before he even was fully recovered physically. How did that feel, both of those moments?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, first of all, children get cancer, but families get cancer—and everyone in the family’s affected. His sister, my wife, myself. So everyone is in the same boat, in terms of the fear and the uncertainty and the lack of control. So by doing this, it gave me some modicum of belief that I could help him and help his outcome by doing something that was tangible.
So that's number one—was that piece. Number two was, I needed to do something to cope with the stress of his illness. Now, when Matt was born, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon, and I swear to God I'd never do that again. But sure enough, I started running more. And it helped me. And I ended up signing up for a 50 mile, ultramarathon with some friends in Reston, Virginia, where I live. And that's what kicked off the fundraising. And I raised $5,000, and we bought five computers and cameras. And that's how we started Hopecam was that very first run.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So let's talk about then how you scaled up Hopecam. Tell us a little bit about the growth of that nonprofit organization. How did you take your realization and maybe some of those initial resources and translate the experience you had to benefit other families and their kids?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, I think we knew that 15,000 children a year are diagnosed with cancer. And so we knew the task of the support was massive. And, I wanted to prove the case. And so we started by helping just children in the Washington, DC area. And I would use the fundraisers—I did that race seven times, and raised, you know, $10,000, $20,000. Then I started doing triathlons. I ended up doing Iron Mans, I did five Iron Mans, and I was able to raise $30,000, $40,000. Now we can hire part-time help. And then I got into ultra cycling and then larger events. So, you know, you know what this means, right? My friends? They would pay me to suffer.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah, right.
[LEN FORKAS]
But it worked. And then I was able to build a board. But the concept was we had to tell the stories of how these children's lives were impacted, and then we had to be able to share it with a donor base that felt connected to that outcome. And the events that I did early were kind of the catalyst to bring them together, to be able to help us grow. And that was the foundation.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Had you been an athlete in high school, college before you, you know, started running distance races, marathons, triathlons?
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah, I was a mediocre athlete. I played high school football as an offensive lineman. And, and I like to run and lift weights and ride my bike, but nothing really organized. I did an Olympic triathlon when Matt was born, but nothing really, you know, we call an endurance level.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Right. And so it was seeing this opportunity to translate your passion for raising money for Hopecam that got you more deeply invested in endurance sports.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, I think what really was very soothing to me as he was going through treatment was the ability to continue to push myself physically. And so that's where the curiosity came for me was how much farther can I go? How can I test myself? What can I do to be able to expand on that? So it all started with the foundation of Matt's illness, but it grew into a lot of other events.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So, before we move on, I'm going to I want to ask you some questions because I think the folks who are listening will be as impressed as I am with some of the accomplishments you've had. What did Hopecam scale up to?
[LEN FORKAS]
So, and I'm going to jump ahead a little bit, but I ended up doing a race called the Sebring 400, and you have to ride 400 miles in 24 hours. And I finished it within the deadline. And then that qualified me for a race called Race Across America. And I did that race in 2012. And with the resources, it's 3000 miles in 12 days, right?
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And by the way, for those who are listening—not 3000 miles in 12 days in a car, it's 3000 miles in 12 days on a bicycle.
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah, I raced 270 miles a day, sleeping three hours a night with a team of ten people in three vehicles that, uh, and I was part of a race—there were 47 athletes from 20 countries I was racing against. And it ended up I won my division. I finished in 11 days and four hours.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Is there a designated route?
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah. Every cyclist has to follow the exact same route from San Diego to Annapolis, Maryland, and the exact same path. And I was successful at completing it. I won my division. I came in 10th overall, and, we raised $350,000. [GEOFF: Wow.] And with that money, we were able to go to Saint Jude's Hospital and onboard them because we were helping mostly maybe 50 kids a year, 100 kids a year in the Washington, DC area. And it was that race and those resources that gave us the ability to go to Saint Jude and partner with them and then take Hopecam nationwide.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And what year was that?
[LEN FORKAS]
2012.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Okay. So that would have been about ten years, 12 years after you started Hopecam. [LEN: Yeah.] Okay, describe for us, some of the other experience you've had, in what I can only describe as extreme sports, not just endurance sports. These are extreme athletic events.
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah. So, I obviously, I went back—by the way, I wrote a book about the bike race in 2012. It's called What Spins the Wheel. And I did a lot of speaking. A lot of my sponsors wanted me to give talks over pizza, and eventually I became a leadership speaker part time while I'm still running my business, I'm running the charity. I raised several million dollars in speaker honorariums, talking about Hopecam and about the business lessons and the life lessons on leadership and teamwork. I went back and did the race again in 2017, raised $1 million. [GEOFF: Wow.] And then in 2018—by the way, when I was writing my book, I met a guy who had written a book called High Altitude Leadership. His name is Chris Warner. And he calls me up out of the blue in 2018. And he said, Len, he said, I'm going to go climb Mount Vinson in Antarctica with two other friends. And I'd like you to come along with me.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So you're going to the South Pole to climb a mountain?
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah. It's the tallest mountain in Antarctica. And so, you know, my answer to everything is yes. And I know that Hugh Jackman talked a lot about that. [GEOFF: Right.] The answer is “Yes, what was the question?”
[GEOFF MEARNS]
I mean, and that's right. And that's the advice I always give to a student. I'm not sure I would give that to a student who's being asked to climb a mountain in Antarctica, but I'll let you go on.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, so I called him back the next day and I said, okay, wait a minute, Chris. I know I said yes, but what am I agreeing to? What is why do you want me? I mean, I don't know anything about climbing on a glacier or using crampons or, you know, ice axes. And he said, Ahhh, don’t worry about that. Those are skills. We can teach you that. You've got a good attitude. You'd be a great guy to have on our team. And you're an endurance athlete, you're just carry more weight. And so I signed up for it, and we succeeded. We summited on December 16th. And, uh—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
How in terms of altitude and in terms of time, how long does it take to reach the summit and then retreat back down?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, first you have to fly to Punta Arenas, Chile, which is the southernmost city in the world. Then you fly in a Russian jet called an Ilyushin for four hours and land on a blue ice runway. And then from there at that camp, then they fly you on a twin engine plane to the side of the mountain, there’s a runway smaller than a football field. And then from there, it takes roughly five days to summit and come back and, -40 degrees, winds blowing, very treacherous. Some days you can't get out of the tent it’s so cold. But we succeeded. We summited on the 15th, and we got back to the camp in the 16th, and then the weather closed in and we were stuck there for 12 days. [GEOFF: Wow] on the side of the mountain.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
With enough food and water and...?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, we had one meal left when the planes finally came. Now we were there with other people. There were, you know, lots of other people that were climbing. And so we weren't going to starve, but we had no control over when we were leaving. And it was one of the most frustrating points of my life because I missed Christmas. I had to call, I got a satellite phone I borrowed, and I called my family. I had to explain to them that because of my selfishness of doing this in December, I put that at risk of being missing Christmas and I did. I felt horrible, but at that moment I realized that there was no amount of inspiration that I could give those pilots to fly in bad weather, and I had no control of when I was leaving.
But the one thing I could control was what I was going to do with my time. And I decided there were 30 other people there from different countries. I decided that I was going to meet every one of them. So I had to pivot, and I had to reframe the environment that I was in. And I think we all had to do that during the during the pandemic. You have to reframe and look at things, look at your world differently and focus on the things that you can control. And that was such a great lesson, and I was able to write a book about that called Cold Hard Truth, about what happens when those experiences, you know, befall you based on the place that you've ended up. But I did get home on the 30th of December. I was able to celebrate New Year's, and my family fortunately forgave me.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Well, and also, they I'm sure they were delighted to have you home safely. So what is perhaps the most challenging moment you've experienced as an endurance athlete? I understand it may have occurred the first time you attempted to summit Mount Everest.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, I would say that it was being rescued in a helicopter at camp two on Mount Everest. Chris Warner, my friend, recommended a very successful guide to help me, and I was there for four weeks training with him. And then we went for the summit. And when I arrived at camp two—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And what is camp two?
[LEN FORKAS]
Camp two is 21,000 ft above sea level. So you trek seven days, eight days to, the base camp, which is 17,000ft above sea level. And then from there, Mount Everest is 29,000ft. From there, you go through what's called the Khumbu Icefall, which is a very treacherous area, to camp one and then to camp two, which is 21,000ft above sea level.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And is it literally the last camp before you summit?
[LEN FORKAS]
No, camp three is 23,000. Camp four, which is the South Col, which is the highest camp is 26,000ft. So I was, you know, working my way up the mountain and after a very long day, I woke up, I couldn't get out of my sleeping bag. And when I finally got out, I could only walk, like, 20ft without stopping. And I had developed what's called a pulmonary edema, high altitude pulmonary edema.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
When you say without stopping, meaning I couldn't breathe.
[LEN FORKAS]
I couldn't breathe.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Okay.
[LEN FORKAS]
I literally couldn't. I didn't have the energy. I had to stop and catch my breath. I was winded walking ten steps.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And it wasn't just the altitude. You could tell something else was wrong.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well the altitude, what it does is when you go up too fast, the pressure of the altitude pushes water into your lungs. So my lungs were slowly being replaced with air, being replaced was fluid. And so at that moment, I had 36 hours to descend. The only way you can cure it is descending. There's no medicine.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And no cure when you're up at 20 some odd thousand-
[LEN FORKAS]
No. They can give you oxygen, but it won't stop it. And so I had 36 hours, before I would drown. And fortunately, it was snowing all day, and the choppers don't fly in the snow, and they don't they don't fly at night. And fortunately, at 5:00, the clouds parted just enough for a very brave helicopter pilot to weave through the clouds and take me down to safety. And he saved my life. And it was by far, the closest I've ever come to not coming home. But, I also realized, how did I find myself in that place? How did I find myself blowing up like that so miserably? And it was—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
What do you mean, finding yourself? Did you miss something in your training?
[LEN FORKAS]
Yes, absolutely. Normal people don't—if you train properly, that doesn't happen to you. And so I had to deconstruct every mistake, everything that I did in my training and look at how I trained and what I did right, what I did wrong and learn from that. And so that was my biggest failure. And my biggest obstacle was a life threatening helicopter evacuation. And it taught me a very valuable lesson.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
How long did it take for you both physically to recover and to go through that self-evaluation, that reflection process?
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, it's a very time consuming and expensive endeavor to attempt to climb Mount Everest. And I was overconfident. And so I was very disappointed in myself for not having, after I got back, I talked to a lot of folks that have had similar situations or had successfully climbed. And I realized that I took the wrong approach on training, and I didn't do enough strength training.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Meaning you almost took it for granted?
[LEN FORKAS]
I thought I was strong enough and I wasn't. I mean, I wasn't doing the things that I needed to do. I was running marathons. At the same time, I was attempting finish all 50 states. And so I was running a marathon like, every three weeks. So I thought the base training from running marathons was enough to be able to have the cardiovascular. But I didn't have the strength training. I didn't have the training with a 50 pound pack. I didn't do a lot of the things, and my strength training was the wrong type of strength training. So I had to look at everything that I did wrong, hire a coach, and figure out how to go back.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So by that time, how many of the so-called Seven Summits, the seven tallest mountains in the world, had you climbed before you were able to successfully summit Mount Everest?
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah. I mean, I took it very, very seriously before I attempted to climb on Everest. I climbed Mount Elbrus in Russia. I climbed Denali, which is in Alaska, which is very challenging. 21 days, no support. I climbed Mount Aconcagua, which is the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas, at 23,000ft in South America. Near Mendoza, Argentina.
And I had climbed Kilimanjaro with my son was he was in college, so I had that. So before I even thought about going to Everest, I wanted to make sure that I had tested myself, developed the skills, developed techniques, and so forth. But it wasn't enough.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So the unsuccessful attempt to summit Mount Everest was 2023. So now let's fast forward to 2025, just last year, when you attempted it again. Tell us about that experience, your preparation.
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah. So a year after I did not succeed, in June of 2024, I hired a coach. And every day he gave me a different workout. I climbed three different mountains, on =three different continents. I focused on my technique, I practiced, I carried packs every week, and I had to give up cycling and just climb every weekend.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Because that was time that was spent that was not going, not helping—
[LEN FORKAS]
Not helping me. And I gave up running because running wasn't going to help me. So I had to surrender the things I loved to be able to focus on gaining the necessary skills, strength, and ability. And then, to top it off, I slept in a hypoxic tent. So it's effectively, it's like a big laundry basket that fits over your pillow, connects to a machine, and it simulates altitude by extracting oxygen from the space inside that area. And Elizabeth, my wife, we’ve been married 42 years, she would just laugh at me, but I spent—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Did she sleep in a different room to get away?
[LEN FORKAS]
You know, she just slept next to me and just, you know—
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Shook her head....
[LEN FORKAS]
Shook her head. Yeah, but between February 1st and April 14th, I slept eight hours every single night, slowly dialing up the altitude up to 20,000ft. So I would build the red blood cells that I would need to be able to adapt to acclimatizing to a higher altitude. I left no stone unturned before I left for the expedition in 2025, and that was one of the things I did that was a little bit over the top.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So as you were preparing to take another attempt to summit Mount Everest, you also added a goal to raise money for children's cancer research. Tell us about that additional motivation beyond just your own personal satisfaction in in in the endeavor.
[LEN FORKAS]
Absolutely. Well, I set another goal. And again, my focus has been supporting Hopecam. And so the resources would go to Hopecam. And so I was successful at convincing quite a few of the companies that understood our mission and our purpose who'd brought me on as a speaker, people in my industry. And we raised, before I left, we had raised $800,000 before I left.
And then the other element is to, I honored 25 different children during the course of the time I left for Kathmandu to the time we summited. And as we were practicing and training in the different places, I told their stories. And these children inspired me, because even though I'm in a very cold place and a high altitude and it's hard, these children are going through radiation.
They're going through surgeries back to back, chemotherapy. And so I wanted them to know that someone was thinking about them, and I would shoot videos and send them pictures. I bought them all t shirts and patches and so forth and brought them back. But to me, a big part of explaining the mission of Hopecam is to tell the story of the impact and know that we honor our sponsors, and we match our sponsors with our children to communicate how powerful it is to be able to match them up. But that was my mission was to tell the stories of these children and to honor them.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
So is it also, as you think about what you had to endure both in your training and actually in the in climbing the mountain to reflect on the experiences that those children are having, to realize that as difficult as the challenge you're facing, yours is one by choice, theirs is one by unfortunate circumstances and is more consequential than whether or not you make it to the top of another mountain. Is that part of what you're thinking of how you're approaching it?
[LEN FORKAS]
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, these children are fighting for their own survival.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
And they’re kids.
[LEN FORKAS]
And they’re kids. And if that doesn't motivate you, what else will? I mean, if I'm having a hard day, not one day of what I'm doing compares with what they're going through.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. So how's Matt doing today?
[LEN FORKAS]
He's awesome. He's 33 years old, and he works with me on my team. He lives in Reston, Virginia. I see him every day. And, thank you for asking. He's doing great.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. Good. And your wife is still putting up with you, even if you're sleeping in an oxygen deprivation—
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, I have a daughter as well, Vienna, she's 28 and lives in New York City. And, we see her a lot. And for the last year after I summited last May, I've done nothing except be present with my family, my work. She likes fresh squeezed orange juice. I make that every day for her now. And, you know, in life, you know, there's a relationship piggy bank. I made a lot of withdrawals out of the piggy bank over the last several years, and this was time for me to make deposits.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Yeah. I once heard somebody say, you know, about a person's career when it's all consuming. And then there's a time to, as you say, to give back. And, this person once said it’s time to spend time with the people who've been waiting for you.
[LEN FORKAS]
Absolutely. And look, this community loves you. This community—the students, I watch them, they say hello to you on the sidewalks. They know who you are. You reach out to them, you're present with them. So what a great leadership lesson that you share with the way that you lead, and the inclusiveness and you treat everyone the same and it really reflects it's part of the culture and you've helped create that.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Thank you. Well, I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to be in this special university community. And so that's a nice transition, really, to my last question, which is one that I ask all of my guests. One of the things that I believe strongly makes Ball State a special and distinctive place is our commitment to the enduring values that are represented by Beneficence.
As we walked over, by the quad, while they're setting up all the chairs in the platform for Saturday morning, we passed by Beneficence. And it's a tangible reminder about what makes Ball State special. It means, as you know, the act of doing good, of serving other people through your actions or through your philanthropy. So Len, as the last question, tell us what beneficence means to you in your life.
[LEN FORKAS]
Well, it comes from my mom. My mom taught me from a very early age, you don't work all your life and make money and then give it away. Everyone has an opportunity to give back every day. And just like that student that helped me without any expectation. I think that's what beneficence means, is to give without any expectation. Give because it’s the right thing to do and to help others, because it’s the right thing to do. And I think that's the culture here. That's the culture of beneficence—is to do positive things for others without expecting anything else in return. And the universe will repay you.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Well, thank you. Thank you for spending some precious time with me today. And I look forward to joining you for your commencement celebration on Saturday afternoon and getting to hear the message that you're going to deliver to our students and their families. Thank you very much.
[LEN FORKAS]
Absolutely, Geoff, thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you today.
[GEOFF MEARNS]
Thank you.