Hey,

Juan here.

If you made it here through my Founder Memo videos, thank you.

This one's a bit more personal than the previous ones.

I spent 4 nights in a remote area in northern Patagonia called Frey (Bariloche, Argentina).

It was my most intense climbing experience.

No phone signal. Lots of climbers and hikers from everywhere. Great sense of community.

And an alpine paradise formed by a huge valley.

All this creates a big sense of connection to the place.

Here are 3 lessons from the trip that I intend to apply in business, leadership and life.

Being scared of leading

When doing one of the hardest climbs, my climbing partner and friend lead the second pitch.

It was the hardest section of the peak we were trying to summit.

He was able to complete it, and then pulled me up.

I had a really hard time. The climb felt really hard for me. My mouth was 100% dry during the climb. And there were two particular moves that destroyed me physically.

I got to the anchor next to my friend, feeling completely scared of continuing.

Now it was my turn to lead the next pitch.

My friend was on fire. I couldn't get why he was so inspired.

He started cheering me up and motivating me to keep going.

He just climbed a really hard section, and passed by pretty scary moves.

Why was he feeling this way?

I took my time. Hydrated. Got some sugar snacks. Took some breathes.

I looked at the first few moves of the next section to understand how to do them.

And then I thought "All right, I'll give it a try".

I started leading the next pitch. I was afraid of the next moves and I was totally feeling the uncertainty.

But I just kept going slowly, hyper focused and doing move by move.

I passed by the first hard section and took a rest.

Then I kept going and feeling pretty scary but I was already dancing so I couldn't bail.

After an intense roller coaster of emotions, I made it to the next anchor and finished the pitch.

I was now on fire.

I pulled my friend up and when he got to the anchor he was mentally blocked.

The pitch was a traverse and that means that at multiple moves if you fall you basically do a pendulum with the rope and that's a pretty messy situation to get out of.

That was hard for him psychologically.

I was now the one motivating him since it was now his turn to lead the next pitch.

I fully got it.

It's when leading through uncertainty that you're able to get the maximum output out of yourself.

You give it everything you've got. Because you have no choice.

And your own output surprises you and motivates you to keep going.

That's how you go from fear and insecurity to feeling empowered and strong.

It's okay if you're afraid of leading.

But give it a shot. You'll be surprised by how able you are to overcome the moves.

When 1 + 1 = 0

The next day we were so inspired and motivated by our summit that we went for the big cake:

The famous "Torre Principal", the tallest tower of the valley (photo below).

This was a different game for us.

Way longer hike up to the base of the route.

Completely different and unknown terrain.

And pretty tricky terrain above that.

Climbing Torre Principal isn't a straightforward thing you can see visually.

You gotta get yourself into it and find your way through it.

If you're going for the first time as we were, it's just pure adventure and uncertainty.

This is obviously fun and part of the game, but for us, two inexperienced alpine climbers, it felt scary.

We gave it a go.

We made progress.

We had our doubts. We had lots of conversations during the attempt about what to do and how to make decisions.

We got to a section where we could sit and take a break.

And we decided to bail.

Opposite to what happened the previous day where one hyper motivated person was cheering up the blocked one, at this point none of the two of us felt inspired.

My friend was like "Listen, I can't go next. Can you lead?".

I gave it a 30 second thought and replied "I'm not ready to go either. Let's just bail".

It took us over 5 hours to rappel down and get back to our tent.

And we gave ourselves a hard time thinking we failed really badly.

But at one point we understood and told each other that we made the right call.

Why would we take the risk of continuing, if neither of the two were ready for it?

Sometimes the situation is just too hard for everyone.

Take a long break. Calm down. Think. And make the right call.

It was bailing for us. And it was a really good one.

After all, the mountain will still be there and we can try out again anytime in the future.

Pick a target you're prepared for

Trying out the Torre Principal felt great.

But on our way down and reflecting on the attempt, we realized it made total sense we had to bail.

It was the first time ever we were doing something like this.

This remote. This alpine. This tricky.

We had no experience handling terrain like this.

We weren't ready.

Now we know what are the things we have to work on for the next attempt.

What extra gear to bring with us.

And what extra info we need to ask for from the community.

Business goals are very similar.

Or new projects that are much bigger than you're used to.

Imagine if you go through an M&A and your business doubles overnight.

Are you prepared to 2x?

You do know how to operate your current business.

Do you know how to operate it being 2x bigger?

Probably not.

You need new systems. New tools. New frameworks.

This is why coaching, consulting, fractional roles and EAs can be so important during times like these.

Biggest lesson of the trip: pick a target you're ready for.

And if you aren't, get as ready as possible, gather the necessary tools, and then make the attempt.

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