“It’s not so much the MOUNTAIN we conquer,
but ourselves” – Edmund Percival Hilary
(New Zealand Mountaineer. 1919 to 2008)
“It’s not so much the MARKET we conquer,
but ourselves” – Dr. Glenn Livingston
(Market Researcher and Psychologist, 1964-???)
Bear with me on this one, I promise it has very important implications for marketers!
OK, so the quote above has been on my mind lately because I’m about to become one of approximately 10,000 people to have climbed all forty eight 4,000+ foot mountains in New Hampshire…
Which requires much more discipline, fortitude, and patience than you might imagine.
First you’ve got to research the mountains and make a plan of attack…
Then you’ve got to figure out where the trail heads are (which is no easy feat in New Hampshire since it seems that the city planners were either drunk when naming the roads, or else they purposefully had an evil plan to keep out the tourists) …
Read up on the trails themselves to ensure you bring enough water, food, the right clothing, equipment, safety checks, and more.
Then you’ve got to find the TIME to get out and do it (many of these are spread out more than 3 hours from my home, for example, and can take as much as 14 hours to summit and return to the car once you reach the trail-head)
And once you know where the hike is, what you need to bring with you to do it, and approximately when you’d like to go, you’ve got to hope the weather cooperates. Because these mountains will eat a man alive above treeline in the wrong kind of storm (unless your’e extraordinarily and professionally prepared… a level I’ve not yet reached and don’t really strive towards)
Oh, and then there’s the wife, sister, mother, father, nieces, and nephews… inextricable family commitments seem to have a tremendous proclivity to pop up just when all the other elements have aligned correctly.
Finally, when everything seems to work out just right to get you up to the trailhead, you have to be sure you slept well enough and ate well enough the day before…
And you can’t stop too many times along the drive or else you run out of daylight for the long hike when you get there. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ALMOST summited a mountain, only to realize I was just an hour or two short of the necessary time to do so. Other times, I just dang petered out. Or twisted an ankle. Or ran into someone who needed assistance. (There are a LOT of 80+ year old people up here climbing these things!)
But…
If you’ve ever climbed one of these gracious monsters…
If everything’s ever worked out “just right” to get you to the trailhead on time, prepared, and ready to rumble on a glorious day…
If you’ve ever “turned on your engine” and just started moving forward, one step at a time up a path that you KNOW leads to an amazing place…
And you’ve sat “on top of the world” after struggling step by step to the summit, feeling like you OWNED it for just a few precious moments…
If you’ve experienced the MAGIC that only a mountain climber knows…
Well, then, my friend, you will have come a long way towards gaining the fortitude, persistence, patience, and general frustration tolerance to hold the larger goal in mind…
And you WILL get where you want to go in the end, no matter how long it takes.
And the best part is, you will KNOW it while it’s happening.
Not wish for it, dream about it, or send out affirmations to manifest in the universe…
You’ll KNOW.
Because it’s not so much the mountain we conquer, but ourselves, and you’ll feel yourself changing with every step!
It’s NO coincidence that I’ve met many successful CEOs wandering around these mountain summits, because many of the qualities of character one must develop to run a company can be found on these trails. (As a matter of fact, on my corporate website, my bio says “everything you need to learn about life you can learn from a mountain!”)
Now…
Suppose your goal is to be the dominant presence in your market…
To own a stable and secure piece of it (you don’t have to be #1 to make a very fat paycheck or accomplish important corporate missions)…
Or even just to make your first dollar of profit online!
This has EVERYTHING in common with conquering the mountain…
- It seems deceptively simple from the distance…
- Your friends, family, and loved ones just barely understand your obsession (and might outright oppose it)…
- You need to do exhaustive research to find the right path…
- You need to come prepared with the right resources…
- You need to coordinate your time…
- You need to count on a certain amount of luck with regards to factors outside your control (market forces, economic conditions, etc… just like the weather must cooperate for a hiker)…
- You need a LONG TERM time horizon in which you can constantly hold your goal in mind
- You must develop immense frustration tolerance…
- You may need to find the right partners (hiking buddies) to help you with certain challenges…
- You will take real risks of injury (loss of capital, morale, energy, etc) along the way…
- Odds are you will NOT have a smooth and easy story to tell (take some time to read biographies of ultra successful entrepreneurs…I can’t find even ONE who says it was easy)
- You may have to return to the same “mountain” (project, business goal, etc) with multiple attempts, possibly over the course of many years before you can reach the summit…
- You probably will need to do some rainy day hikes (where you’re determined to make progress no matter how difficult or muddy the project path)…
- You WILL feel uncomfortable, yet need to press on forward…
- And some summits will have rather disappointing views (you will build some business successes you find you’re not so happy with after all)…
And most of all I can GUARANTEE you this…
It will be AN ADVENTURE.
Which is the stuff of life, isn’t it?
I wouldn’t have it any other way!
(And when you complete your quest you’ll be itching for the next one, I can guarantee that too)
Onwards and UPWARDS,
Dr. Glenn 🙂
PS – I’m raising the price on the Live Webinars Club THIS WEEK. Take the $4.95 trial and lock in your low monthly rate while it’s still available. How much would it be worth to double–or even triple–your profits?
PPS – I’m thinking about doing a one day seminar either later this summer or early this fall on the psychological aspects of success online. I know it seems like everyone and their dog has done some kind of “online mindset” seminar, but dammit I’m the one who’s actually a psychologist so it should be ME, don’t you think? If I DO this, I’m going to try and coordinate it so that I have only one mountain left to finish, and (conditions permitting) anyone who wants to do it with me can come along the next day. Good idea or bad idea?