Surviving the Mountain

Waking up after more than two weeks being restricted to work from home, reminded me of the Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC) expedition that I went through. That trip lasted longer than the scheduled two weeks due to certain aviation crisis at the time.

When I first heard of the EBC trip, I raised my eyebrow as it resonated with my bucket list.

Why? Because it would be an adventure of a lifetime for someone like me due to the fact that it could be dangerous, physically challenging especially if I was not fit and costly too.

Having completed the trip in 2015, my perception of life in general has been enriched with many nights of self-reflection during the tenure of freezing nights at the Himalayan mountain range. Just like venturing into a business. It is not an easy venture albeit not impossible, otherwise there would be no entrepreneurs in our society.

Here’s why I could say. In such trip, you would need (a) planning, (b) budget, (c) the people involved, and (d) the journey we have to take to complete the adventure.

The business equivalent of that would be:

(a) Planning = Business Plan: context, structure, and to include contingency plan as challenges may happen even before the commencement of the business. (Just as in my voyage to Mt. Everest Base Camp via Kathmandu, Nepal was delayed for a few days due to a skidded plane on the airport runway.)

(b) Budget = Finance: cost of operations, materials, marketing and allocation of fund for unexpected expenses - like accident, flash-flood or other eventuality. Here is where the scenario planning tool would be handy. Most of us could resonate with the current Covid-19 crisis.

(c) People: who we work or team-up with, does either make our life easy or difficult. I find it crucial to have the supportive vendors/service providers for efficiency of operations and the motivated team members to ensure excellence delivery of your products or services. (The advice, guidance and encouragements during the mountaineering expedition contributed greatly to my achievement in reaching the finishing point. Without them, I would not be able to do it.)

(d) The Journey = Production: in business, without actual production of products or services would not yield any revenue, let alone profit. The drive to have excellence culture or environment does encourages the team to produce great results. Also, the implementation of any project depends on the effectiveness of the management team and their leadership. If they are incompetent or have attitude issue, the success rate would drop to the lowest point. (One of the interesting ways to motivate myself to get fit prior to the expedition was, if I did not ‘suffer’ through the preparation exercise regime, I would ‘suffer more’ at the trail.)

My realisation was that the expedition, in comparing to my various businesses, the resemblance is oddly close. There were ups and downs. Business partners that are awesome and some are like ‘Klingon’, a genetic predisposition to hostility and deceptive nature, more well known to Star Trek fans.

I recently saw a café opened a few weeks before the announcement of the movement control order (MCO) in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, and it has not been operating since although it was just being setup.

Before I go to bed tonight, I wish all the entrepreneurs well. Stay safe and vigilant because surviving your business is like surviving the mountain.

The author resides in the city of Kuala Lumpur and can’t wait to go back to the mountains. Feel free to write to him at [email protected]

#adventure #mountaineering #entrepreneurship #neuroscience #EQ #learninganddevelopment #mediation #crisis #survival #staysafe #covid19