The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

December 16Climb on Your Own

We should endeavor practically in our lives to correct all the defects which our imagination detects. The heavens are as deep as our aspirations are high. So high as a tree aspires to grow, so high it will find an atmosphere suited to it.

Henry David Thoreau—Familiar Letters (1865)

In the state of Colorado, there are at least 54 peaks that top 14,000 feet above sea level. There are those who aspire to “bag” as many fourteeners as they can in their lifetime. Nothing wrong with that healthy pursuit, particularly if you like to hike and climb with lots of other people with the same aspirations (maybe carrying the same map).

At the same time, there are 637 peaks over 13,000 feet, some just a few feet shy of the coveted fourteener status. On any given weekday during the summer or winter, there's a very good chance you could climb one of those peaks without seeing another person outside of your party. (Some are also far more technical than their more famed range mates.)

The choice to ascent one or the other is less of a choice of difficulty and more of aspiration. Some who choose to “bag” thirteeners don't aspire for less; they aspire for something that speaks to them alone perhaps.

It's easy to think that what we hope to accomplish in our work and in our lives must be chosen from the standard members of the bucket list set, when only our heart knows our true path.

It's not enough to know that you don't have the same dreams as everyone else; you've ...