At one point or another, just about everyone is faced with a mountain he or she must climb. In most cases, it is a metaphorical mountain rather than an actual one. Entrepreneurs and professionals often have a huge obstacle they must surmount. Sometimes the challenge is to achieve something that hasn’t been done before. Sometimes the impediment is a family problem. And sometimes the hurdle is a personal health challenge. While some of those mountains are unavoidable, other peaks we scale by choice. The fact that it is a metaphorical challenge, brought by chance or choice, makes it no less arduous, depleting or risky. In that regard, it is a lot like actual mountain climbing. Real mountain climbing is not a sport for the faint of heart. It is exhausting, dangerous, and expensive. Yet so many people choose to climb mountains — despite the risks — much the way people choose to start businesses, deal with major obstacles or find solutions to serious problems. Why?
Why choose to climb a mountain, metaphorical or actual? What is, for example, the use of climbing Mount Everest? In 1923, a reporter asked British climber George Mallory this very question, and he replied, “It is no use. There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.” Later, Mallory added (before he died in an attempt to summit Everest in 1924) that “If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go.” There are many parallels and life lessons we can glean about how to tackle the biggest problems in business and life from real mountain climbers. Here are 10 tips from the pros. Continue reading