Musings at Altitude

As we were driving back down I-25 toward home yesterday evening, the storm clouds were off to the East full of lightning and the mountains were off to the West.  I-25 is a North to South road at that point and you could fairly clearly see the demarcation between the storm and the clear skies to the South.  When we reached home, I sat out on the front porch and watched the lightning to the East as the darkness of night overtook us.  When I looked staight up though, I saw hundreds, no thousands of stars, and as I looked around the corner of the house to the West, I could see the outline of the mountains in the nightime horizon.

As I sat listening to the silence (the lightning was too far away to hear any rumble of the thunder), I began thinking about how that exact scenario mirrors business and life.  We’re heading down a path and may be in clear skies with some pretty good success at any given time, but off to the left of our path are the ominous storm clouds that always seem to be just off in the distance ready to create havoc over our lives or our business operations and off to the right is the treacherous terrain of the mountains which are the great barriers to progress that must be overcome in order to reach that next plateau of success.  With some great planning, some great market intelligence, and some great luck, that North-South drive under the stars of success in business may continue for quite some time, allowing us to put off the storm or to avoid the climb into the mountains for an extended period of business or personal peace.  But inevitably, the storm clouds will roll in or our path will force us to turn into those clouds.  We may veer right to avoid the storm though, and we may end up climbing into the mountains hoping we have the horsepower and the fuel to make it to the top and then over to the other side, but even that creates enormous new challenges that must be dealt with in order to get to the peak.

In my personal life, I’ve had extended periods of stars with times of big storms and other times of climbing huge mountains.  In business, because I thrive on high growth and start up environments, the periods of peace under the stars are comparatively short, and I always seem to be driving on the edge of the storm or in the foothills of the mountains…sometimes I’m in the midst of a business hurricane and other times near vertical trying to climb that mountain.

In both life and in business for me, I’ve sensed or seen the storm and through indecision or disbelief that the storm would move over my path, I’ve failed to prepare properly and thus suffered the consequences of the storm.  I’ve never turned willingly into the metaphorical storm, but I sure have seen the results of my lack of preparation or my slowness to decide. 

In both life and in business I have willingly turned into the mountains and charged upward, pumping more fuel and power into my life or into the business to maintain pace and to continue to climb.  In many cases we crested the mountain and gained pace on the other side, but every now and then, we couldn’t make it to the top and had to abandon the car or head back down to level ground.

As I sat on my porch, a song I learned in church kept coming to mind.  It’s called “Through It All”, and I kept singing it quietly and humming it to myself:

“I thank God for the mountains,

I thank God for the valleys,

I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.

For if I never had a problem,

I wouldn’t know that He could solve them,

I wouldn’t know what faith in God could do.”

It’s hard to appreciate the storms or the mountains when you’re facing both or either, but when those storms have abated or the mountains have been crested, I always find reasons to smile as I continue my path on the other side.

And one more thing…the storms are not nearly as ominous and the mountains are not nearly as treacherous if your partners and peers in that journey are folks that you love and respect and they provide support and encouragement through it all…that’s something very special.