Growing your business and what I learnt from the climbing wall

Adrian is currently away on a holiday adventure so we thought you’d enjoy a dip into the archives to re-visit some posts that you may not have seen. Enjoy.

Originally posted on January 11th, 2010

In my spare time I’m a rock climber. Now, I’m no elite climber but I do love the sport and try and try to get better as much as I can. A large part of that comes from going to the climbing wall with friends to train on a regular basis and then getting outdoors to take on new routes.

Yesterday, I was at the climbing wall training with a few friends and we were having a laugh and I said:

You know, this climbing year is going to be all about failing a lot as its only through failing that I know that I am pushing myself  and getting better.

Then one of my friends (he’s a Bruce Lee fanatic) said:

But don’t forget to learn the lessons.

to which I replied:

Yes, Sensai.

Now I think there are two or three distinct lessons for climbing and growing a business:

1. Make mistakes: If you’re not pushing yourself, trying new things and, maybe, making a few mistakes along the way then you’re not trying hard enough.
2. Use protection: Manage the risks that you take to protect yourself. At the climbing wall, we train on harder routes using a ‘top rope’ which allows us to limit how far we might fall to a couple of feet as we are secured to a rope above us. Check this out for a better explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_roping
3. Learn the lessons: This is a must because if not then may be destined to miss the opportunity to get better or just go mad. Einstein said it best: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Onwards and upwards!

Thanks to Aleksi Aaltonen for the image.

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