Why do people climb mountains?
Seems like a simple if not silly question – but have you ever thought how you would address this in a 200 word essay where your reader is judging you on entrepreneurial problem solving with creative and out-of-the-box thinking?
This was the first hurdle placed before applicants nationwide in the 2010 Australian Business Icon competition – one of three questions. Those who impressed the judges with their thinking will be invited to an interview from which the final contestant pool will be chosen to compete in this year’s competition.
So, how did Australia’s brightest and best tackle this misleadingly simple test? Generally, brilliantly! Following are a few samples the judges have noted as being at the top end of the scale. Note that the judges are interested only in the quality of thinking, not grammatical perfection. English as a 2nd language is no barrier to success in this competition.
“Humans are creatures who take pride in achieving greatness. History has shown that climbing a mountain represents a sacred rite of passage for boys who are entering their manhood. It represents an important stage in life as the boys have to prove their worthiness by conquering nature before they could embrace adulthood. An old legend further describes a partially blind man who scaled the peak of a mountain only to descend the mountain with perfect vision. This led to a believe that something supernatural, some higher supreme being rests high above sea level. The rest is history when many religion and culture mark the peak of a mountain as a holy place and many make pilgrimages to the top of the mountain to be one step closer to the supreme being. The truth is that even in the modern century, where old superstitions are shunned as rubbish, the keen interest to prove oneself has never weakened. The desire to conquer the unthinkable burns deep down amongst the strong. I believe that this is the primary motivating factor behind the increasing number of climbers who continuously challenge themself by scaling the Mt Everest of any other mountains around the world.”
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“Childhood dreamer: the person who said in Prep he wanted to climb Mt Everest and hung his head in disappointment because an adult and a bunch of munchkins laughed and told him that was a silly grown up dream. Next time we find him on the peak of Mt Everest saying “I told you so!”
The hardcore adventurer is the person with an unsatisfied lust for excitement. Nothing stands in the way of this individual, even fear itself trembles in his presence. To this man a mountain is just another challenge from his dreams to satisfy his hunger for “excitement.”
The bored professional is the person after many years of soul destroying work finds that he is unsatisfied with his life and wants to do some thing different and fulfilling instead of working through the dull piles of paperwork that vaguely resembles mountains when he day dreams of climbing them.
People may come from different groups though they share one thing an inspiring mountaineer once told me, they all are “dreaming the dream, doing the dream, living the dream.” Meaning they never let any dream no matter how big, be considered impossible by others.”
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“Climbing anything changes the way you see everything else. Its not about making things looks smaller, its about seeing the whole idea. When we stand at the foot of our idea we can’t see the top, we can’t see where it ends. You only see the beginning.
And as we climb and we see the top of each rise in the mountain we think ‘this is it, this is as far as this idea goes’ but its only the latest milestone in life.
we always think “this is what I’ve worked for”, but its just a part of what we’re working towards.
The human race was meant to keep moving forward, to keep looking up and wonder what the view is like from somewhere else. All our innovation, all the quality worth measuring is in our strive to find a new perspective. And there will always be mountains to climb, because for us the universe does not end at the top of mount Everest.”
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