Stranger than Fiction: Malibu's Brian and Shamra

Sometimes, if you look closely enough, you can find something a little extraordinary. At first glance it seems like just a successful family in Malibu, but on further and deeper review, an easy to stereotype success story is much more than it appears.

I am constantly looking for inspiration; people or circumstances that compel me to go to a higher place, to reach for a higher rung or to try and make a bigger footprint. I am always trying to find someone to use as a ladder.

I have known Shamra and Brian Strange very casually for the last couple of years. They are actually more like acquaintances. I have had more dealings with Shamra and over those short exposures I have come to realize that she is not particularly ordinary, nor, by a longshot, is her husband, Brian. Shamra comes from a modest childhood where she was one of 11 kids. She is very unassuming and pleasantly “real”. She has backbone.

Shamra and Brian married a few years back and they have been living a very enviable life. Brian is a very successful attorney and the opportunities to live in rarefied air are always within grasp. It is easy for many to “lose touch” in this milieu. It is easy to live a very narrow life. That is certainly the path of least resistance when one has achieved this level of success.

Shamra sweeps it all under the rug. One gets the feeling that she could easily live any life that she was confronted with; a one bedroom apartment in Canoga Park or where she is now on Pt. Dume. She could have only one pair of shoes in her closet or 500 and and she would very likely be the same person. She makes a choice to see that her kids don’t lose sight of what life is like for those who have been left “holding the sand”. She regularly takes her daughter to the homeless shelters where she can make a human connection with those whose dreams are not more glamorous than food and shelter.

I recently heard, very casually and quite by accident that Brian climbed the “Seven Summits” just a few short years ago. For those of you who don’t know what that means let me give you a “crash” course.

Climbing the Seven Summits is when you venture out to ascend the tallest peaks in all (7) continents, that includes Asia, which includes Mt. Everest. This is a very rare and risky accomplishment that requires tremendous perseverance and determination. I had read books about a few others who had climbed (or tried to climb) the Seven Summits. I had followed mountaineering for years and was intrigued by what would make a person put their normal life routines on hold in order to go after such a daunting and dangerous mission. We can understand a professional mountaineer taking on this challenge but a very busy and established attorney who has a young family?

At last count, approximately 350 people worldwide had climbed all seven summits, the prize, of course, being the tallest peak on the planet, Mt. Everest, a route strewn with dead and frozen bodies and still more shattered dreams. Approximately 250 people have died trying to climb Everest,; that is about 1 in every 15 climbers who make an attempt. Two of those who cheated death are Malibu residents Brian Strange and his son Johnny. The chances that both Malibu residents would survive an ascent of Everest are approximately 1 in 8. What kind of a man stares those odds in the face with his own son? I guess the kind of man who has been living the life of his dreams for quite awhile now. The kind of man who “doubled down” by exposing his own young son (17) to the challenges of Everest. At the time his son, Johnny, climbed Everest he was the youngest person every to reach the summit. Brian created the environment where Johnny could step out onto a huge stage at a very young age and test the limits of his heart. What a legacy to leave your son! I really applaud that boldness.

I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from Helen Keller:

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all.”

Brian and Shamra are involved with many charity activities in malibu including the Boys and Girls Club and AMPS, the effort to make Malibu an independent school district. They give back to their community. That is how communities grow and improve.

I think it says a great deal about a person when they try and understate their accomplishments and prosperity. It is no small distinction. The net effect of living like this is that you are more accessible to all different kinds people, you don’t create the “distance” that overt opulence and success can create. You are not disconnected from those who haven’t found a similar level of success and opportunity. I wasn’t surprised to hear that Brian rarely mentions his remarkable accomplishments to others…

He doesn’t feel compelled to. He doesn’t feel like he needs to create a gap of separation when around other people. Brian obviously didn’t climb these summits to get patted on the back. I have asked Brian for an interview in an attempt to write a larger article in a larger publication about what makes Brian who is.

Until then…..

p.s. one of the charms of their story is that I had to do some archeology to get most of these factoids about Brian and Shamra. They are reluctant participants in this exercise in adulation.