We did it!
Conquering mountains and overcoming obstacles with great people…
The week before last I summited Mount Whitney with three of my backpacking buddies. It was way more challenging than I expected, but it felt amazing to make it to the top (and back down). We had a plan that, like all plans, was met with many unknown obstacles that almost prevented us from accomplishing our goal of summiting the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States. My favorite debacle was a gang of chipmunks managing to get into our bear bag and eat two days of our food! There were a number of events like this, including physical exhaustion and ~50% of our normal air capacity at altitude, but we rallied to overcome them all and conquer the mountain, together.
When I got back to work, this all got me thinking about how all businesses, startups and established, face challenges that either slow them down or are near existential. But, with a supportive team (my buddies in this case), willpower, and a little luck (still had some snacks in our day packs to get us down the mountain — DAMN YOU CHIPMUNKS!!!), you can overcome and accomplish great things—even some that you could never imagine.
Here’s to conquering mountains with awesome people that have your back!
