What a mountaineer taught me

You always have energy left to take one more step

A friend of mine is a passionate mountaineer. He is one of only ten Belgians to climb the highest mountain on all seven continents, the so-called Seven Summits. Recently we were pondering life and I asked him: ‘Bjorn, how do you do that, climb to the summit of Mount Everest?’. His answer was brilliant.

He said: ‘It’s quite simple, really. You fly out there, you keep putting one foot in front of the other and after a while you reach the summit’.

Companies can learn a lot from this simple lesson. Many company leaders ask themselves how they can adapt to modern consumers. The answer is as simple as the one Bjorn gave me: you adjust simply by doing it, by taking that first step. And if every subsequent day you take that next small step in the right direction then one day your company will have adjusted to the new reality. If you never take that first step, you’ll never reach the summit. The best case scenario for climbing Mount Everest is two months; in the worst case scenario it takes much longer.

One thing’s for sure, though: if you keep taking that next step you will eventually reach the top. One step at a time.

In this type of climb it is extremely important to keep moving. Stand still for too long at the wrong time and you die. This also goes for the corporate world, as Kodak has so vividly illustrated. Stop evolving for too long and it’s end of story, regardless of the history of your brand, its past successes and profit margins and regardless of the number of innovations or patents you have to your name.

At some point the conversation turned to the other mountaineers who climbed the Seven Summits with Bjorn. Some of them lost several toes due to the extreme weather conditions. A salient detail but also something to reflect on if you’re a manager. If it’s possible to conquer Everest with just eight toes then perhaps we should be able to adapt our companies to modern consumers.

In my opinion, those organizations that are waiting for the perfect set of circumstances to implement much-needed changes will miss the boat.

The context in which change occurs is never ideal and accepting this fact will make your task that much easier.

What a mountaineer taught me? That’s easy. If you want to make it then you have to take that first step and just keep going. Do not stop and do not get impatient. It may take a while before you become successful but as long as you keep moving that day will eventually come. If along the way you also learn to accept that no one is dealt the perfect hand you will also learn to keep your frustration in check.

And the key of his message is fantastic:

“You never have enough energy left to reach the top, but you always have enough energy left to take one more step.”

I wish you all a pleasant journey!