What do hiking and fishing have in common with business - well, as it turns out, quite a lot!

Last week, I took a challenging hike deep into the Eastern Sierra. The trail was rugged, with four passes to conquer and no cell phone coverage for help. It was a truly inspirational and spiritual experience, marking significant personal growth as I disconnected from the world in a way I hadn't since childhood. As part of the trip, our leader, Chris, suggested an extra day of relaxation at Rae Lakes. This is where the seed, planted by my friend Neil Taylor two years ago, sprouted- why not catch trout in these amazing lakes of the Eastern Sierra?

So, I set myself a new goal - catching and eating trout for the hiking party. It was a challenge, as I had never caught a trout before nor knew how to gut and cook it. But I was determined to learn. I started by researching what I needed, imagining all possible scenarios, and making a gear list. Did I get everything right? Not quite, but the learning process was engaging and rewarding. I missed a few critical items, but I knew we had an expert fisherman on the crew who could teach me and potentially provide gear I may have missed. One of the crew taught me the difference between a dry fly and a wet fly; I only had wet flies, but the trout here preferred dry flies (they float like insects hovering above, not below, the water). We also needed a bobber, which they lent me to keep the line afloat. I had gotten a heavy line, 8lb, but 2lb is lighter and more invisible to trout, as they are super clever and can spot lines. We got that sorted out with a 2lb leader line, caught seven trout for dinner, gutted them, and prepared for dinner.

How do we transport the trout back from the lake? I never thought about that, as we needed to gut the trout far away to avoid attracting bears. Ok, problem solved. The crew had brought snacks and food in zip-lock bags, and we used those to transport them back on the 2km hike to camp.

Ok, we are ready now to cook; I read a couple of super simple recipes: fry them in a pan (my wife told me to get a bigger titanium pan - thanks, Karen), olive, salt, and pepper, all of which I brought, and I cooked the trout. Then came the question, how do we eat the trout? I had not thought about that; the next problem the crew solved was getting some foil packaging out that we had used from breakfast for freeze-dried food.

Here is the learning: teamwork is essential, but you do not need to think of every scenario and agree on everything 100%. Planning can only take you so far, and hustling, innovation, and teamwork are required to cross the finish line. It is the same in business. We need solid plans, but they must be adaptable, evolve, and confident to create problems that need to be solved with a team and get different perspectives to get ideas across the line.

People will help you accomplish that, set things up for others to be successful, and you will be successful.

Two useful sayings I always think about!

• As Rick Ross says: "Every day, I am Hustlin! "
• As Grant Cardone says: "Successful individuals love to seek out problems because they know that almost every problem is universal in some way or another. Some industries actually create problems so that they can "solve" them by selling their products to you."