Part 1
This one's for the chapbook!
Thursday, 9th February 2017
I was driving down from Abu Dhabi to Dubai after having met one of my potential business partners. It was a good meeting that had ended my week on a high note. As I was driving at 139 kmph on the highway, I was listening to an audiobook, 'Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh.' In this book, Tony, the CEO of Zappos.com, spoke about how he created LinkExchange and why he sold it to Microsoft, what are the secret of happiness and a lot of other things including, in brief, his experience hiking Kilimanjaro!
Below is Tony’s answer regarding the obstacles he’s faced that had struck a chord with me.
“You went through some difficulties and obstacles. Which was the hardest one? How did you overcome it?
In my book, I write about how hiking up Mt. Kilimanjaro (the tallest mountain in Africa) was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, from a physical, emotional, and mental level.”
Having read about that part of his book, I instantly knew that I needed something like this. I wanted to experience the pain and stress and face the physical, emotional and mental challenge that Tony had referred to. I believed this is what I needed to overcome the tedious routine at my workplace.
I wasn't happy with my job anymore. Having cracked a couple of million dollar partnerships, it was getting too easy to sign up more partners. I needed something more and the company I was working for didn't understand this. They kept driving me towards the same targets repeatedly. I expected rewards, a promotion, growth or at least some appreciation for my contributions in the three years that I spent building a new business vertical from scratch and turning that into a multimillion dollar opportunity.
One of my issues is that I cannot do the same thing for more than 2 to 3 years. In that time, anyone could be proficient in their respective domain and there is not much new to learn or do. I find the lack of stimulating challenges dispiriting. You go to these new meetings and there are no longer any curveballs. I am usually pumped and feel energized facing difficult situations and rejections. Cracking those tough ones is really special to me.
The finishing touch to my lacklustre work life happened to be my new reporting manager. He was manipulative and never missed a chance to 'educate' me about things he knew nothing about. We were rarely on the same wavelength and working with him was a thoroughly unpleasant experience. This threw the final wrench in my professional aspirations at work.
So here I was listening to Tony and his adventure.
I had never climbed a mountain before nor had I considered doing so, but on that very night, I knew that I had to do this. I needed a challenge difficult enough to make me tremble and resuscitate me. I wanted to feel that thrill and the excitement. Most of all, I needed some time alone to think what the hell was I going to do with my life and this job.
So I went ahead and booked my climb for 10th March 2017. I would climb solo without any climbing or hiking experience with less than 25 days to prepare myself for this extreme challenge. Yeah, you guessed it right; I like to do things now, not tomorrow or the day after.
As soon as I had announced my decision to climb in less than a month, people started advising me against it. One of my close friends with reasonable hiking experience told me this was one of the best and the stupidest decisions I’ve ever made and begged me to postpone by at least 2 months.
I thought to myself what could possibly go wrong? Does Kilimanjaro kill?
Goodluck with your climb! Best of luck.
Thanks! I climbed on March, 2017.