Field trip! What I learned climbing mountains at business camp.
11/3/2003
"Climbing teaches us that the biggest barriers are not on the rock, but in our minds," goes one line in Upward Bound. Hmm, Mount Everest is a pretty big rock...but the point is well taken. In the pile of books that uses climbing (or sports, or war) as a metaphor for business, Upward Bound is one that should go to the top of the stack. Author Michael Useem is a Wharton professor, Jerry Useem is a Fortune senior writer, and Paul Asel is an adviser to start-ups. The "9 original accounts" mentioned in the title are by prominent people who are not necessarily household names. (Jim Collins of Built to Last is one.) Stories of nail-biting journeys are liberally seasoned with lessons learned about teamwork, sacrifice, failure, responsibility, risk, and personal satisfaction. As Michael Useem writes in the conclusion, "When it comes to climbing as a classroom, I've learned perhaps this lesson above all: It is not how well you do your work relative to others that matters, but how well you do your work relative to yourself, and your own potential."