5 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Need the Outdoors

“The kind of leadership you learn in the outdoors is one in which you observe your teammates carefully, provide support for those who need it, ask for support from those who can give it, and ultimately ensure the safety of the entire team.”

LEARNING TO GET ON WITH IT

When I first started Life Happens Outdoors I had a completely different idea of where this was supposed to go. My initial ideas got shot down as did my subsequent ideas. Actually, I’ve been shot down more times than I can count and every time it happened I was faced with a choice. I could either get up and course correct or I could stay down and throw in the towel. In the outdoors throwing in the towel is never an option. Sometimes you’ll get a bad day in the hills and when you’re midway between two shelters, throwing your hands up and complaining just doesn’t cut it. You learn to get through whatever is thrown at you and once you’re safe and sheltered you can then look back and evaluate how it could have been done differently to plan the future with the maturity of that experience under your belt.

STEPPING OUT OF YOUR OWN BOX

Diving into something as immersive as a startup means that your life is going to be completely taken over by it. Because of the amount of time spent with colleagues, investors and partners life starts to resemble an echo chamber of your own thoughts. Objectivity gets obscured. One of my profound realizations with Life Happens Outdoors happened on Kilimanjaro. It’s because when you get away from the excel sheets, the telephone calls and the daily grind of managing a project, you can see things from outside the box and that’s where great decisions happen.

“Can you last long enough to see your idea become a reality? The same can be said about reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro or completing the 170 KM Tour du Mont Blanc.”

LEARNING TO LEAD A TEAM

I don’t mean walking at the front of the group. The kind of leadership you learn in the outdoors is one in which you observe your teammates carefully, provide support for those who need it, ask for support from those who can give it, and ultimately ensure the safety of the entire team. In a corporate context this would be called leveraging skill sets. I can think of no other experience that gives us a crash course in real and practical leadership. Ultimately you want your product to succeed in the same way that you want your team to succeed because everyone stands to benefit when the skill set of a team is maximized to the benefit of everyone.

BUILDING MENTAL STAMINA

Surviving for the long haul in the cut throat world of entrepreneurship is mostly about mental stamina. Can you last long enough to see your idea become a reality? The same can be said about reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro or completing the 170 KM Tour du Mont Blanc. It’s mostly a mind over matter game. Trekking on these trails builds mental resilience that becomes an enabling tool in our arsenal of entrepreneurial skills.

FINDING BALANCE

The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who regularly switch off and find the balance between the stress of the job and the much-needed space to relax, unwind and reset. Physical activity is one of the best ways to do that but being in nature has an added benefit of distance, fresh air, no interruptions and good company.

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