Smooth, relaxed sailing can be pleasant for a while, but one thing I’ve learned for certain in my career is that entrepreneurs grow by challenging themselves.
It was back in August, 2016 when I realized I needed to take a break from my business. What I really wanted was to finally spend some time mountain climbing in the Himalaya region. I grew up around mountains in the Austrian Alps and I’d done some climbing before, including Chimborazo, a 6,310 meter high peak in the Andes, but the Himalayas felt like a completely different animal. I wanted the challenge, but I also felt more than a little intimidated; 7,000-8,000 meter climbs are in an different league (or even sport) compared to what I’d done before.
While I was looking for expedition companies, I found a fellow Austrian entrepreneur who invited me to join his expedition to Everest (north side). Being the entrepreneur I am, I hesitated long enough to analyze all the facts (statistics, reports, data) like I was conducting business, but I couldn’t find a good reason to miss out on such an amazing experience.
Lesson 1: Even if a goal feels really difficult to achieve, you don’t necessarily need to wait or prepare for very long
I know that many people who climb Everest see it as a lifelong dream, and prepare themselves to conquer the world’s highest mountain years in advance. This wasn’t the case for me; I didn’t even know that I wanted to attempt Everest until 9 months before. I had a solid level of physical fitness to begin with, but I started preparations just 6 months before reaching the summit on May 21, 2017.
Don’t get me wrong, I had all the respect in the world for the challenge that Everest presents even the most skilled and experienced climbers in the world. There’s no getting around the fact that Everest is the mother of all dangerous climbs in the world, but our minds have a way of making a challenge even bigger than it really is and underestimating our ability to overcome it.
Lesson 2: Your body can take you part of the distance, but a strong mind is the key to reaching the peak
Everest was all about the mind. Yes, you need to be physically fit, but that’s easily improved through exercise; it’s the mind that makes you summit or not. Granted, the weather can turn bad on Everest, and there’s not much you can do about that, except try again another day or season, but even with clear skies, you won’t get far without a strong mind.
The same is true of business. You have to have good operations, processes and structures, but to achieve extraordinary things, you have to have vision and the ability to think and work “on the business” not just “in the business.”
Everest taught me that a strong mind can achieve remarkable things. I had the privilege to climb with Andy Holzer (now a good friend of mine), a blind man who summited Everest on the same day I did. Having spent two months with him in the same tents, I am certain that his mind and attitude are stronger than those of anyone I’ve ever met … and that this strength is a major reason Andy was able to summit the peak despite being blind.
Acknowledgement of the power of a strong mind is one of the reasons I’m a member of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO). I just recently participated in a great EO event in Lisbon where, alongside my fellow entrepreneurs, I trained my mind and enjoyed a great speaker on parallel thinking when making business decisions. Sure, I climbed Everest, but the mind can always get stronger and it needs to be trained like any other muscle.
Lesson 3: Do what you love
I love heavy metal music. So, I did what I like and headbanged while shredding it on the air guitar on the summit of Mt. Everest:
Martin Boehm is a member and current president of the EO Munich chapter. He is also founder and CEO of pro.net.expert GmbH and founder and former CEO of Everesto / Perfect Delivery GmbH, recently acquired by Menu Technologies AG. Martin summited Mt. Everest in 2017. You can read the blog he kept of the entire expedition here.