Seven Summit Strategies for Reaching the Top
Ascending the highest mountain outside the Himalayas and building a software company share many of the same strategies for success according to one venture capitalist, serial entrepreneur and outdoor adventurist.
By Gordon Ritter, Emergence Capital Partners
Mar. 17, 2010
On January 24, 2010 at 3:45pm, our team stood atop the 22,840-foot summit of Aconcagua, the highest peak outside the Himalayas. It was an amazing, unbelievable feeling. It had taken two years of planning and training, eleven days of climbing, the expertise of our guides and the fortune of good weather to get us to the top together. We were all thrilled!
When I returned home and described the ups and downs of our journey to my colleagues, I realized my experience as a software CEO had actually helped prepare me for the expedition. The skills and best practices needed to summit a major peak are very similar to those needed to build a successful software company.
Based on my experience climbing Aconcagua, I recommend entrepreneurial business leaders consider these "Seven Summit Strategies" for reaching the "top."
1. Drive to "Do" Different
I didn't really set out to be a mountaineer. I simply wanted to do something different - something few other people set out to do as they approach their 45th year. Two years ago when my roommates from college and I began to talk about climbing a major mountain peak, I realized that it could be a life-changing experience.
Sure, some of my friends referred to Aconcagua as my personal manifestation of a mid-life crisis. But I was very motivated to try something new. I wanted to do the un-obvious. Avoid the easy path.
So on January 13, 2010, our team of climbers and three guides set out from the village of Los Penitentes, Argentina to reach the summit of Aconcagua. The Andean peak is the highest outside of the Himalayas and the second-highest of the Seven Summits after Everest.
The commitment to take on Aconcagua is just another example of my love for a challenge. When I began a web services platform-as-a-service company in 2000, Software as Service Inc., the vision of today's rapidly expanding SaaS and cloud models was anything but clear. But I knew the software industry was changing and the benefits of the technology were compelling. We took a risk and were rewarded as the market took off.
This drive to "do different" is one of the differentiating characteristics of entrepreneurs. Where many people excel in the established, highly competitive paths of legal, medical or business school, others don't. I was one of those "others." Very often, entrepreneurial individuals want to change the game and play by their own rules. A degree of comfort with risk-taking and taking on unique challenges plays a big part in that personality - and the potential for future success.
2. Live to Climb Another Day
We did not use porters to carry heavy loads on Aconcagua. On several days during our climb, we carried a 60-pound pack up over 3,000 vertical feet, dropped its contents, descended to the lower camp to sleep, and then ascended the 3,000 feet again the next day with another 60-pound pack. Along with our need to move our supplies up the mountain, this is a valuable process of acclimatization when climbing a high mountain peak. It can also be somewhat demoralizing. The effect is that we basically climbed the top-10,000-feet of the mountain twice!
But these grueling climbs were not the hardest part of the expedition. The climbing, pressure-breathing, altitude challenges, snow storms, howling wind, sub-zero nights - all of these were factors I had anticipated. The biggest challenge was the mental games my mind would play on me - especially at night, when harsh conditions meant sleeping was often impossible. "How am I going to climb tomorrow if I'm not sleeping now?!" Lying like a mummy in my sleeping bag, I could not even read a book because gloveless hands would freeze in minutes and I could not turn the pages with gloves on. I found myself at times gasping for breath from the stress of what might happen.
"Don't panic," I continually told myself, using a simple but profound mantra from one of my business mentors. "Just make it until dawn. It really won't be that bad." Sure enough, on most nights, I ended up getting enough rest to recuperate and rally in the morning.
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When I returned home and described the ups and downs of our journey to my colleagues, I realized my experience as a software CEO had actually helped prepare me for the expedition. The skills and best practices needed to summit a major peak are very similar to those needed to build a successful software company.
Based on my experience climbing Aconcagua, I recommend entrepreneurial business leaders consider these "Seven Summit Strategies" for reaching the "top."
1. Drive to "Do" Different
I didn't really set out to be a mountaineer. I simply wanted to do something different - something few other people set out to do as they approach their 45th year. Two years ago when my roommates from college and I began to talk about climbing a major mountain peak, I realized that it could be a life-changing experience.
Sure, some of my friends referred to Aconcagua as my personal manifestation of a mid-life crisis. But I was very motivated to try something new. I wanted to do the un-obvious. Avoid the easy path.
So on January 13, 2010, our team of climbers and three guides set out from the village of Los Penitentes, Argentina to reach the summit of Aconcagua. The Andean peak is the highest outside of the Himalayas and the second-highest of the Seven Summits after Everest.
The commitment to take on Aconcagua is just another example of my love for a challenge. When I began a web services platform-as-a-service company in 2000, Software as Service Inc., the vision of today's rapidly expanding SaaS and cloud models was anything but clear. But I knew the software industry was changing and the benefits of the technology were compelling. We took a risk and were rewarded as the market took off.
This drive to "do different" is one of the differentiating characteristics of entrepreneurs. Where many people excel in the established, highly competitive paths of legal, medical or business school, others don't. I was one of those "others." Very often, entrepreneurial individuals want to change the game and play by their own rules. A degree of comfort with risk-taking and taking on unique challenges plays a big part in that personality - and the potential for future success.
2. Live to Climb Another Day
We did not use porters to carry heavy loads on Aconcagua. On several days during our climb, we carried a 60-pound pack up over 3,000 vertical feet, dropped its contents, descended to the lower camp to sleep, and then ascended the 3,000 feet again the next day with another 60-pound pack. Along with our need to move our supplies up the mountain, this is a valuable process of acclimatization when climbing a high mountain peak. It can also be somewhat demoralizing. The effect is that we basically climbed the top-10,000-feet of the mountain twice!
But these grueling climbs were not the hardest part of the expedition. The climbing, pressure-breathing, altitude challenges, snow storms, howling wind, sub-zero nights - all of these were factors I had anticipated. The biggest challenge was the mental games my mind would play on me - especially at night, when harsh conditions meant sleeping was often impossible. "How am I going to climb tomorrow if I'm not sleeping now?!" Lying like a mummy in my sleeping bag, I could not even read a book because gloveless hands would freeze in minutes and I could not turn the pages with gloves on. I found myself at times gasping for breath from the stress of what might happen.
"Don't panic," I continually told myself, using a simple but profound mantra from one of my business mentors. "Just make it until dawn. It really won't be that bad." Sure enough, on most nights, I ended up getting enough rest to recuperate and rally in the morning.
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