Everyone who follows my blog knows I love to make analogies to sports, and also my firm belief that we can control our own destiny through our perception and mastering our own mind.

This is, as I always say, applicable in business.

Nothing was as obvious as when I recently watched the new Movie “Everest”. It describes the events of a 1996 “ill-fated” expedition to the famous mountain in Nepal. Some of the most experienced climbers were to embark on the once-a-year window that “mother nature” tenuously allows. Much of the movie discusses the not only physical demands that awaits climbers, but the even more important psychological challenges that one must master when climbing to altitudes where the human body is described as literally “dying”.

In one scene, the climbers are reflecting and asking “Why?”

Why risk your life to climb to the top of the mountain? Why leave your pregnant wife, possibly missing the birth of your first child? Why go climb yet another peak when your wife threatens to divorce you if you try one more attempt? Why take your life savings for a one-month trek, to a relentless environment, where temperatures that can take body parts through frost bite? Why scamper across “make-shift” bridges made of ladders straddling over endless and bottomless crevices? Why go to where there is no oxygen?!

The answer is something that I think many entrepreneurs, start-up business owners, and risk takers can relate to. They all agreed…because …ITS THERE!

Like the climber who is faced with horrendous conditions of wind and sub-zero blowing snow, the entrepreneur has to commit to trek forward. Cash management (or the lack of it), employees, legal issues, supply, demand, and the list goes on. Today’s business owner faces it all. Like the climber, why? Why not change sports, to something less taxing? It would be so easy to turn back. Just do it. No one would blame you. You can try again some other time or take up tennis or golf! The entrepreneur could take a regular job instead and go work for a paycheck.

“I work 80 hours a week for myself so I don’t have to work 40 hours for someone else!”

No, this is not a choice for the entrepreneur. He knows the challenges that he will face. He also knows that there will be endless obstacles that he didn’t anticipate. There is no turning back. Problems in business? As my Father always said…”It wouldn’t be business if there weren’t problems!” It’s a given.

At the top, the climber is able to stand at the peak, triumphantly looking into the horizon and absorbing his accomplishment. Likewise, the successful entrepreneur also can sit back and relish in what he has accomplished.

Like climbing, it’s not for everyone…but realize much of the challenge must be first conquered in your head.