Several writers, speakers, and a lot of internet users have picked up some version of this line, usually in a tongue‑in‑cheek, anti‑hustle context.​

Named authors

• Oliver Markus Malloy (humor writer)

  • Version: “Food for thought: Every dead body on Mount Everest was once a highly motivated person. Stay lazy my friends. It may save your life one day.”​

  • Appears in his quote collections and is widely reposted as a standalone meme.​

• Lani Lynn Vale (novelist)

  • Version: “Every corpse on Mount Everest was once an extremely motivated individual. That’s why I love my couch. A couch has never killed anybody.” from The Hail You Say.​

  • Her wording is the source for many image quotes and reposts that keep the “extremely motivated individual” phrasing.​​

OD / management voices

• Leandro Herrero (organizational change consultant)

  • Uses the exact wording “Every Corpse on Everest was once an extremely motivated person” as the title hook of a leadership and change blog post about motivation and behavior.​

  • He uses it to question simplistic “motivation” narratives in corporate change work.​

• Dave Snowden / The Cynefin Co

  • In a post on “Sacred Cows of OD,” he quotes the line on a transition slide: “Every Corpse on Everest was once an Extremely motivated person,” explicitly noting he picked it up from Facebook.​

  • He uses it as a setup to critique conventional change‑management wisdom.​

• Business / HR social media

  • Various LinkedIn posts (for example, by Nika Golob) use “Every corpse on Mount Everest was once an extremely motivated individual” as a light, anti‑stress message about not over‑pushing yourself.​

  • Similar phrasing appears in corporate‑style posters and wall art marketed as “demotivational” or “teamwork” quote pieces.​

Internet meme ecosystem

• Reddit (Showerthoughts, Jokes, AskReddit, etc.)

  • Variants like “Remember that every dead body on Mt. Everest was once a highly motivated person. Stay lazy, my friends” have been heavily upvoted and remixed in joke threads.​

  • People also quote shortened forms such as “Every dead body on mount Everest was once a highly motivated person” as their go‑to anti‑hustle reminder.​

• Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok‑style reels

  • Short video and image posts repeat: “Every dead body on Mount Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe calm down a little bit,” often around New Year’s resolutions.​

  • Image macros use either the Malloy “dead body” phrasing or the Vale “corpse… extremely motivated individual” wording, frequently with mountain photos.​

• Merchandise / posters

  • Multiple online shops sell posters reading “Every Corpse on Everest Was Once An Extremely Motivated Person,” classed as funny or demotivational office art.​

Attribution pattern

• The two clearest attributed literary versions are by Oliver Markus Malloy and Lani Lynn Vale. and now, maybe I will make the list with my image below.

• The exact sentence you’re using (“every corpse on Everest was once an extremely motivated person”) is best understood as a memetic paraphrase that has been repeatedly recycled, merchandised, and adapted across social media and demotivational products without a single, provable original source.​

So, there you go. I get this in my head when I mesh the above ideas into my Square Wheels themes about how things really work in most organizations: