The Climb is the Reward

Back-country skiing prepared me to come to terms with the shut-down of an epic technology adventure

When I talk to friends about my back country ski trips they often marvel that we spend almost all our time climbing up hill. Skins under our skis. Thousands of feet of vertical ascent in a day.

After a long day of going up hill with skis on, the descents are fun, rewarding and exhilarating. Yet when I return to everyday life after one of my ski adventures, I’ve come to realize that it is the slow, methodical and at times technically challenging climbs that stay with me. The views along the way. The labored conversation with my fellow skiers. The camaraderie born from shared struggle. The anticipation of what’s ahead. The constant adjustment to our path as we discover the landscape ahead and avoid unforeseen obstacles. By working as a team to overcome physical challenges, encouraging each other and living a shared experience we create something that has meaning transcending the act itself.

In late 2014 I had to shut down a big technology project I had co-founded three years earlier. I am not at liberty to describe what we had built, other than that it was really cool: enabling a new form of expression, a connected smart device, a cloud service, apps… In fact, it was one of the coolest thing I had ever worked on at the time — one of the best professional climbs I had been on.

Three years is a long climb and we had just gotten sight of the final “mountain top”. We knew where we wanted to go. We were almost ready to launch off the other side of the peak and experience the thrill of charging down the proverbial slopes. And it looked like it was shaping up to be a big powder day.

Then the weather changed, suddenly bringing us to a full stop. Or in corporate speak: due to mis-alignment with an ever-evolving corporate strategy, a new CEO and his crew arriving, capital requirements that gave the new executives palpitations and other factors that I can’t write about, it all came to an abrupt end. Sigh. No powder day. No glorious views from the summit nor sunny descent.

I was pissed off. What a waste. How could they not see the beautiful landscape that lay right beyond the next ridge? How could they ask us to take a bus down to the bottom, pack up and go home after such an amazing journey of discovery, collaboration and creativity.

We had assembled a great team. Gone. We had invested a lot of money. Gone. We had created something that could re-define and reinvigorate the company. Gone. What a waste. Or was it?

In Silicon Valley we like to talk about how we celebrate failure. If you want to encourage high risk, high reward ventures, you need to accept that failure is a likely outcome. Most successful entrepreneurs, much like successful explorers and mountain guides, have epic stories about their failures. How their failures taught them to be successful. How their failures taught them to be better leaders, entrepreneurs and guides.

Once I was down from the proverbial mountain, I mostly slept for a month. I was exhausted and I needed to lick my wounds and contemplate why we had failed in our quest. It was only after my month of sleep that I could begin to reflect on the climb. And what a climb it had been. Ours was a mountain that had never been scaled before. In fact, most people didn’t even know it existed. We had spent almost a full year preparing and laying out a solid strategy and plan. We had coordinated the climb with the “local authorities, aka our business unit, ensuing we had their support for our adventure. We had also gone to the CEO and the board of directors for support and funding. We had charted a course and made significant adjustments to our plans mid-stride as major obstacles occurred. We had set off with a small team, and gradually expanded as we encountered new challenges and needed new capabilities. We had managed complex logistics across three continents. We had even prepared our announcement for when we reached the top and were getting ready to show the world what an amazing feat we had performed.

Gradually I came to realize that while we did not make it to the summit, the opportunity to both lead and participate in this expedition had been an amazing privilege. The things we saw. The challenges we overcame. The trust we built. The confidence we were afforded. The creativity unleashed. It was more than anyone could ask for. Steve Jobs’ famous quote — “the journey is the reward”- rang true more than ever before.

We had attempted to climb a very big mountain. We had gotten glimpses of the future on the other side. We had learned how to do something that very few people know how to do. And while we did not get to shout from the top. While we do not get to publish our stories of conquest and glory. While we will not be entering the Silicon Valley Hall of Fame based on this climb, I can now with confidence say that each and every one of us came down from that proverbial mountain stronger, wiser and having learned lessons that we would not have had the same chance to reflect on and internalize if we had reached the top and set of down the powdery slopes on the other side.

Leadership is a priviledge that comes with great responsibility. What was perhaps most difficult was knowing that people had joined this climb because of my and my co-founder’s leadership. When I now see the team members setting off on new adventures, large and small it gives me great comfort that the monumental climb we were on has prepared us well for our next expeditions — hopefully reaching the summit this time. And if not, then enjoying the new climbs. Every step of the way.

[After shutting down the secret project described above I took a year off. It was during that year (2015) that I wrote this post. I recently found it in my archives and decided it may be a worth while read for others.]

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