On the parallels between Alpinism & Entrepreneurship

For quite some time now, I have engaged with the entrepreneurial community. I talk to fellow entrepreneurs, attend relevant courses, and so on. The longer I am exposed to this community, the clearer I see the parallels between Alpinism and Entrepreneurship.

For starters, I am a (hobby) alpinist with almost 20 years of experience in climbing.

Alpinism and entrepreneurship, at first glance, might seem worlds apart. What do mountains have to do with starting businesses? Well…alpinists and entrepreneurs share a common spirit of adventure, resilience, and determination that drives them to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. To be successful in either of the disciplines, one must bring a certain set of skills and traits to the table. These include, among others, passion, enthusiasm, creativity, innovativeness, self-discipline, a certain risk appetite, preparation and foresight, persistence and resilience, determination, competitiveness, and a willingness to grow and adapt.

These skills are traits of character, deeply embedded in personality, that evolve over time. I argue, that the best school of character is life. However, one needs to develop the ability to THINK about life to harness the full potential of the lessons to be learned. James Allen expressed this in his seminal work “As a Man Thinketh” in 1903 in the following way:

“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts” [1]

However, let’s save this discussion on how to develop thinking for later and accept the fact that the ability to think is decisive for the development of your character.

Recently, I had a very engaging discussion with a friend, who is not only a really strong alpinist but also a sales expert, about the importance of various business units within an organization. Essentially, his point was that “sales is not all — but without it, all is naught”. I agree, but I also see that you could exchange “Sales” with pretty much any of an organization’s key activities (strategy, marketing, product dev, quality, etc.). Things are interrelated. However, my friend is definitely right in arguing, that without any form of income stream, your business won’t survive long.

Now, more often than not, as a startup, you do not have anything to sell yet but your idea. Thus, your ability to execute your idea depends on your ability to “sell” it as a compelling story. Your idea might be groundbreaking, an innovative product, or a disruptive service that could potentially revolutionize the market. However, and I can’t emphasize this enough, without the ability to sell your story effectively to begin with, your business will struggle to achieve the success it deserves. The old adage, “Sales is not all — but without it, all is naught,” perfectly encapsulates the importance of sales in the entrepreneurial journey.

In this vein, I would like to deep dive into the parallels between pitching your startup and alpine climbing:

Pitching || Climbing: An Example

The Entrepreneur

A startup pitch is an essential tool for every entrepreneur seeking to raise funds, attract investors, or simply share their vision with the world. A well-crafted pitch can make all the difference in securing the resources and support needed to launch and grow a successful business.

Before you start crafting your pitch, it’s crucial that you develop a fundamental understanding of your audience. Who are they? Are you pitching to potential investors, customers, or partners? What backgrounds do they have? How big is the crowd? What are their needs and worries? Why would they be interested in your pitch? Are there any specific people you would like to target? What does your timeslot look like? Are you the 25th pitch that evening? You do your homework on your audience, you research who they are and where they are coming from. You empathize with them, walk in their shoes, to imagine what their desires and needs are and what kind of questions they might ask. And — most importantly — get clear about what do YOU want to achieve with your pitch? Secure funding, target a specific person, and get feedback on your idea. What is it? Do yourself a favor and be precise here.

Knowing your audience and goals will help you tailor your message and choose the right tone and content for your pitch. For instance, investors and partners want to see that there is a real demand for your product or service. Therefore, you should include evidence of market validation, such as customer testimonials, case studies, or sales figures, in your pitch. If your startup is still in the early stages, consider sharing results from market research or surveys that demonstrate potential customer interest.

If you have a good understanding, you start crafting your pitch deck. Pitching is not just about presenting facts and figures; it’s about telling a compelling story that resonates with your audience. What do you stand for? What is your impact, and why should people remember you? Outlining the problem your startup aims to solve first and explaining how your product or service addresses this issue is tendentially a good place to start. Make sure to highlight the unique value proposition of your solution and demonstrate why it stands out from the competition. You might want to consider using story-telling techniques in developing your story.

A solid business model and financial projections are key components of any startup pitch. Clearly explain how your company plans to generate revenue and outline your pricing strategy. Provide realistic financial projections for the next few years, including expected revenue, expenses, and growth rates. Make sure that all numbers in your story are backed up with evidence, or by a coherent story on how they came about. This is especially true when communicating a substantial TAM.

Startups, especially in the early stages, live primarily on the story they sell (since they do not have any market-proof credits under their belt). So why should people trust you and believe that you can achieve the vision you are painting? It’s simple — because of YOU. You are the most valuable asset of your company. You charge forward, stay up late, and grind while everyone else is going skiing. You know the market, its caveats, and its pains, and you need to convey that. If your startup is about creating toilets for low-gravity environments in space and you have worked at a leading space capsule engineering company for 10 years, then you have to bake this into your story. This extends to everyone on your team — Introduce your team, highlight their relevant skills and expertise, and clearly underpin why you are the only one capable of pulling this project off.

Once you have developed your story and gathered all the facts supporting it, you start molding all this information into a coherent, well-designed presentation (that’s what your audience expects more often than not). Use visuals, such as images, graphs, and charts, to support your points and make your pitch, if you see fit, given your audience and purpose. Keep your slides clean and simple, avoiding clutter and excessive text. Be prepared to answer questions regarding your story, especially your assumptions about the market and your business model. Preparing some backup slides to address these questions is always a good idea.

All this is for nothing if you cannot deliver a winning pitch. So you rehears…..a lot….and refine your message and delivery as you go. Personally, I like a sort of rubber-duck approach to this. That is, explaining a problem to another person (or rubber duck) is an excellent exercise to deepen your understanding of the problem at hand and thus sharpen your communication so you can precisely deliver your message to the point. You rehearsed so much that you can’t see the material anymore. That’s what you want, meaning you are ready.

Another, very important point you have to consider in your preparations is the level of energy (or the lack, for that matter) of your audience. You will often pitch at some sort of event. You are pitch number 25 your audience sees on a single day. It’s late in the afternoon, and everyone is tired and hungry, looking forward to this event’s end to finally get to the fun part — the all-you-can-eat, help-yourself buffet. Not exactly good conditions to deliver your pitch. So what are you going to do? Fight or flight? Obviously…fight. So you get out there and poke the audience until you have their full attention. Be creative here. Ask some questions, intrigue them, and get their full attention. Only if all eyes are on you, you start delivering.

You might want to have a spotter in the audience — someone who observes the person you are targeting. To be clear, by “observing,” I don’t mean in a creepy way. Have your spotter observe how your target reacts to your pitch. Was she excited or bored? About what parts in particular? This should give you a hint about how you would engage in subsequent follow-up conversations, and also provide a very nice feedback loop.

Finally, the day before the event arrives.

All your efforts have been streamlined toward these couple of minutes. You tell yourself that you put in all the work and did everything you could to be prepared. This is calming, but you have a rough night anyway. Then the day arrives. You brace yourself for the event. You dress up, pack your bag, put on your shoes, and leave the house. During the journey, you go through everything once more. Then you arrive at the event location and settle in. You feel tense while everyone else seems to be cool. It turns out that you are in fact the 25th pitch, and people are already slouching in their chairs. Bad news. Your stomach tightens. The hour arrives. You are nervous as hell. Fight or flight… You look for escape options, but your drive to pursue something greater sets out the path before you. You want to be here, right at this moment, in this very place. You thrive on this. One minute until you are up. You breathe deeply, trying to calm yourself, but with mediocre success. You step out on the stage…inhale…..exhale….and you execute. All the pieces, all the hours of preparation and research, everything is coming together…it simply clicks.

The Alpinist

Similarly, in preparing for a hard climbing routes, you have to do your homework. Where is the route, how long, and how difficult is it? What’s the exposure (north, east, south, or west)? At which altitude does the route start? What has the weather been like the last couple of days? Did it rain or even snow? What’s the weather forecast? What is the protection like? And how about rock quality?

All these questions aim at developing a plan and strategy for your approach to the adventure. Climbing is a team sport, so you need to know your partner’s strengths and weaknesses. Maybe your strength is the ability to go fast in easier but poorly protected terrain with bad rock quality, while your partner is more of the boulder type who can pull off ridiculously hard moves but requires a decent amount of protection to do so. You have to plan around these circumstances. For example, if the first four pitches of the route are easier but with poor protection, followed by two crux pitches with really hard moves, then it makes sense that you lead the first four pitches while your partner leads the other two, in order to maximize your chances of success (i.e., you top out the route).

There is also a trade-off between safety and speed and weight that you must factor in. If you bring additional gear, such as ropes, mobile protection, clothing, food or water, your safety margin on that mountain increases. At the same time, you have to carry all that stuff on your back, which adds to already high physical demand, leading to quicker exhaustion. The additional weight also slows you down, which increases the time you spend on the actual route and thus your exposure to potentially dangerous terrain (think ice-/rock-fall).

For instance, bringing more water to the route prevents you from dehydrating and gives you a little safety margin if you have to spend the night somewhere in a bivi. But you must carry the extra weight while climbing. This slows you down and you spend more time in potentially dangerous terrain while getting exhausted quicker. Instead, you might want to bring a little gas stove and a bowl to melt some snow, if you expect to find any snow or ice on your route. Among alpinists, there is a saying: Light is fast, and fast is safe. You must understand the trade-offs between bringing a little extra gear (=increase in safety margin) and weight (=more weight = decrease in safety margin).

This is not to say that you need to develop a high appetite for risk, by reducing weight and speeding. Quite the opposite is true. You need to manage risk. There is a stark difference between being aware of risks, preparing for them, and cautiously making the decision to take your chances and being oblivious to any risk at all. You can prepare for risks, even unknown ones. In climbing, this includes knowing your exit options if something does go wrong (e.g., abseiling, escaping through another route, etc.) and the point of no return. That is, your only chance to get out is by moving forward (or upward). In fact, there are a plethora of risks you must factor in, such as the chances of rock/ice fall at certain times of the day (and thus sun exposure) and altitude. Or the cloud the night before climbing, which affects the radiation and is therefore decisive for the bearing capacity of the snowpack. You see, things get quite complex real quick.

So you managed all this, you got your plan and climbing strategy, you know the conditions are favorable, and the weather is predicted to be stable. You and your buddy decided that the window of opportunity is there, so you throw all your gear into the car and drive to that mountain. You plan to get an early start, due to the long approach to the actual climb. Now, you have to decide on the trade-off between weight and speed. Should you bring that extra set of cams or pegs? Tough decisions? Your back bag is already heavy with all that climbing gear, bivi, supplies, and clothes. You decide to leave the larger cams behind with the reasoning that if a large cam fits the crag, then you have big holds (jugs), meaning climbing is easy. You also prepare breakfast and load the Moka pot for the next morning, so you don’t lose time.

The night before, you barely sleep.

You feel tense about what’s coming, the dangers, the hardships, the risk, and all the uncontrollable variables. Fight or flight…you think things over….anyway you want to be here, you chose to be here. Nobody is forcing you. You are here because you thrive on this. You know your stuff, your mental and physical abilities. You are confident. Your plan is set and well thought through. What can possibly go wrong….? After 275 turns in your sleeping bag, finally the alarm goes off at 02:00 am, and this torturous night ends. Immediately, you switch to execution mode — all the worries and concerns are gone. You get up, get dressed, put your boots on, and start preparing breakfast. Both you and your partner know this drill, you have done it many times. You force down some breakfast…and you go. You get the approach over with as quickly as possible — no pausing — while exchanging only the most important information with your partner: left, right, around, this is a dead end, etc. You reach the start of the climb and gear up. Tie in the rope, partner check, fist-bump and…you literally fly through the route…everything clicks.

Pitching || Climbing: Some Thoughts

Along your path, be it as an alpinist or as an entrepreneur, you will tremble, fall and fail many times. Failure is an inevitable part of life. But it is you who decide how to approach failure. Ask yourself, do your failures lead you to doubt your decisions, pull you down, make you depressed, diminish your self-worth, or block you from moving forward? Or do you see your failures as a learning opportunity to grow, to excel, to build up your resilience, and to develop new ways of thinking that eventually get you where you want to be? Personally, I CHOSE the latter.

I do acknowledge that it is sometimes hard to see certain situations in life as an opportunity to grow. However, my experience is that once you get enough distance from any — potentially very bad — situation, you can reflect on it and thus learn from it. Sometimes this is a lengthy process, but knowing that there is a positive path is always very calming to me.

“All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.” [1]

Failure, or the anticipation of it can trigger a cascade of adverse emotional responses that serve as a catalyst for stress — the body’s natural response to challenging or threatening situations. As stress levels rise, your ability to cope with challenges and setbacks can be compromised. This can lead to further failures, reinforcing the belief that you are incapable of overcoming obstacles and achieving success. Consequently, your stress levels continue to escalate, creating a self-perpetuating cycle of failure and stress.

This is an elementary part of life, so you need to develop strategies to deal with it. Stress can be bad — distress — e.g., the type of stress resulting from prolonged exposure to challenging situations without adequate recovery time or resources that leads to decreased performance and an increased risk of health issues. But stress can also be motivating and energizing, pushing you to perform at your best — eustress. Good stressors lead to personal growth and improved performance, pushing your boundaries outward.

Yet, the actual experience of stress is subjective and strongly influenced by your experience. I talked to many entrepreneurs about this, and usually what they say is that their subjective perception of stress has changed during the course of their entrepreneurial journey. What gave the newcomer sleepless nights does not bother the hardened, mature entrepreneur at all.

A similar process is at play in the realm of alpinism, which, for me, has been the greatest teacher when it comes to dealing with stress and high-stakes, high-pressure situations. Exposure to certain types of stress is what makes you a better alpinist (and entrepreneur). You constantly push your limits, you try longer and harder routes, and you leave your comfort zone for prolonged periods of time. Yes, sometimes you have to bail because the route was too hard or conditions turned sour. Accept your failure, go back to the drawing board, and return stronger. This is the natural evolution of a climber, eventually leading to peak performance. In other words, you have to have a lot of type 2 fun to excel. I believe what holds true for type 2 fun and alpinism also holds true for entrepreneurship (or any other high-stakes, life-altering endeavor).

“…Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose, the strength of character gains will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point.” [1]

Things come down to your ability to be outside your comfort zone, or, in other words, your ability to suffer. Your ability to suffer holds a unique relevance in the context of both alpinism and entrepreneurship. It is an essential aspect of the mental fortitude required to brave the harsh and unforgiving conditions of mountains and competitive markets alike.

I hope that it is clear by now that alpinism, as a pursuit, is not merely a physical challenge but an endeavor that demands confrontation with your deepest fears, insecurities, and limitations. It is a test of your resilience in the face of adversity (altitude, the cold, unpredictable weather, physical exhaustion, etc.), and as such, the ability to suffer becomes a crucial component of success. Enduring these hardships and reflecting upon them, you develop a deep understanding of your own psyche and a profound respect for the humbling power of nature. Sharing these experiences with your fellow climbers fosters a sense of camaraderie. It is through collective suffering and the mutual support offered in the face of adversity that strong bonds are forged between climbers. To embrace suffering as an integral part of the alpine experience is to acknowledge the reality of the challenge and the necessity of personal growth.

Similarly, Entrepreneurship is a journey fraught with uncertainty, setbacks, and failure, and as such, the relevance of the ability to suffer cannot be overstated. It is your fuel that keeps you going in the face of rejection, financial strain, and self-doubt, allowing you to navigate tumultuous waters. It is thus closely tied to your passion and your entrepreneurial vision. By embracing your struggles rather than objecting to them, you get the opportunity to learn from your failures and develop a heightened sense of resilience and adaptability. It is this inner strength that enables you to persevere through the darkest moments and emerge stronger on the other side.

The ability to suffer serves as a reminder that failure is not the end but rather a stepping stone towards eventual success. It is your catalyst to push beyond perceived limits. It is a continuous process of learning, adapting, and moving forward, even when the odds seem insurmountable. This unwavering dedication is what sets (eventual) success apart from immediate failure or from those who give up when faced with challenges while others thrive on them.

One from the Early Days

Let me put all this together and finish with a final climbing anecdote from my early days:

During my climbing career, I recall countless occasions when I experienced something called the sewing machine. That is the uncontrolled shaking of a limb or your body. Usually, this happens when your mental state is deteriorating due to fear or anxiety.

There was one time I got the sewing machine so bad that my entire body froze up. Several years ago, when I started my career as an alpinist, I did a rock-climbing route in the Sarca Valley. The route had it all, steep walls, corners, overhangs, and even a pendulum-traverse. It was pretty hard for the level of protection it offered, which can be described as classic, meaning most of the pitons were old pieces of metal junk. Thinking about it now, I must say that the route was beyond my abilities back then.

I remember leading the fourth pitch: going straight up first and then across to the right in an overhanging corner. The rock was really sharp. Halfway up in the middle of the overhang, the rope got stuck on one of these sharp rock features. I was freaking out. I could not move forward or backward. The last piece of good protection was way below me. My mental abilities collapsed, and I started shaking really badly. This obviously led me to squeeze out every single last drop of juice from each crimp I could get a hold of, which did not add positively to my physical state. I was scared of a big fall. I questioned the quality of the last piece of gear I put in, which did not help either.

After a lifetime of hanging in that overhang and yelling back and forth with my climbing partner, we decided that I should try to set up an anchor…. somewhere, so my partner could climb up to the point where the rope got stuck. He would free the rope and set up an anchor himself, so I could continue to finish this hell pitch. Two things are important to note in this strategy: a.) The distance between my climbing partner’s anchor and the point where the rope got stuck had to be climbed without the safety of the rope (since the rope was stuck). So a fall would have had severe consequences for my partner; b.) There was still a considerable amount of good gear in the route, so if my anchor would fail and my partner would fall while climbing up the stuck rope, the chances that we both fell off the wall and die were slim (however, we would be most likely severely injured).

That was as good a plan as we could come up with. My mental state deteriorated even further, and my whole body started shaking. I was desperately looking for some features to place some gear….anything…no matter how good or bad, would have been a huge relief. But the rock was unforgivingly solid, forcing me to continue. I cannot remember exactly how far I continued to climb (probably only a few centimeters), but I found a very tiny crag in the roof above me, just several millimeters in width. Somehow I managed to squeeze in the two smallest nuts on my rack and set up an anchor. So I was hanging there on two pieces of gear rated for approx. 200kg of force each, my feet dangling freely several hundred meters above the ground, and my partner started to dismantle his anchor to free the rope. When I saw the little nut moving in the crag, the only thing I could think of was that this nut would never hold any shock load. That was the moment when I completely froze up. I doubted everything and swore to myself that if I made it out of this alive, I would retire from my climbing career.

It took my partner a lifetime to cover the distance between his anchor and the stuck rope. But he managed, and I could take in the rope and belay him for my more-than-doggy anchor. After a while, he yelled back to me in his funny French accent: “Mathias, I have an anchor”. It was a huge relief to know that he was safe. But I also realized that I now had to continue to finish the pitch. I was in absolutely no condition to do any sort of movement. But what are the options? Flight? Not possible. So the only way out of this was to move forward, fighting.

I somehow managed to finish the pitch and several pitches afterward too, until we topped out. It was really late when we got back to our car. We cooked dinner and discussed what happened, what could have happened, and what we learned from that experience. My previous thoughts of retirement were gone, and we headed out literally the next morning on another adventure.

Conclusion

Alpinism is not only a physical and mental pursuit but also a school of character. The lessons to be learned from climbing mountains mirror the trials of entrepreneurship. Those who embark on the journey of alpinism will not only discover a deep, humbling relationship with nature, but will also equip themselves with essential skills and character traits that can propel them toward success in the world of entrepreneurship.

I would like to hear your feedback. Drop me a message in the comment section below, or via LinkedIn.

Stay tuned,

this is Matthias

Credit where credit’s due

A huge shout-out to Daniel Cronin — The Pitch Professor — who inspired me to write this article

OpenAI and GBT 4.0 for providing funny ideas

Thanks to all my climbing partners with whom I shared all these invaluable experiences.