The Latest Mountain
The sunlight was beginning to light the room of my downtown Salt Lake City apartment about 26 years ago, inspiring me to step out onto the balcony and look East towards the mountains. The sun would rise above them soon and in that moment, I too wanted to rise. I’d been up all night reading and pondering ideas in Robert Bly’s book, Iron John, which awakened a fire in me… a call to the wild, a call to challenge.
I looked at those mountains, I decided I would strap on my take tennis shoes and take off running and not stop until I had reached one of those snowy peaks–no matter what. It was a worthy challenge.
I still have the X that I carved into my wrist with a dull rock after reaching a peak and digging through the snow to find a sharp enough rock to draw blood, and perhaps still too this day there is a branch on a mountaintop tree overlooking the Salt Lake Valley which waves the flag of my blood-stained sock marking my achievement.
The latest mountain I’ve climbed is the challenge of starting a multi-million dollar internet business in 12 short months. I remember about 15 months ago, contemplating climbing this mountain and going deep into debt to do so. It would risk my freedom, as I’d been traveling the world for 8 or 9 years debt-free and stress-free. But I knew this was a worthy mountain as I would need to remember and re-integrate my hard-won skills, mindset and discipline for super productivity which I’d given up so many years ago when beginning my nomadic journey. I knew it would be a redemption of sorts–and it has been.
I’ve not tied another sock soaked in my blood to some mountain-top tree to honor this latest mountain climb, but maybe I should.
I’m on the first week of re-integrating the Wealth Warrior System into my life, and intend to share my journey…