Entrepreneurship - climbing a mountain one step at a time

Vicky Hamilton, entrepreneur and enterprise fellow at Strathclyde Business School, recently climbed Mt Kilimanjaro. Here, she discusses how what she learned as an entrepreneur helped her succeed with this challenge of a lifetime.

As I found myself hiking up the steep, dusty terrain of Mt Kilimanjaro’s summit in the pitch black of night in temperatures around -20 degrees Celsius all I could see was the zig-zag of head torches meandering into the distance. Each time they disappeared I thought ‘that must be it…I’m nearly there’; unfortunately realising that as we got to the peak of those disappearing head torches, all that happened was the line moved inwards towards the mountain before ascending again off into the distance.

I knew as I signed up for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro this was probably going to be my biggest physical and mental challenge to date. I’d trained physically as much as I could, but mentally, when the total exhaustion and tearful emotions on summit night attempt overwhelmed my mind and body, it was my experiences in the world of entrepreneurship and similarity of situation that gave me the mental strength to keep going.

In the world of start-ups, you often feel like you are wandering around in the darkness with the elements against you and no clear view of where you are headed. Sometimes you do want to give up, and you question yourself ‘why am I still going?’, but you know you just have to keep going, trust it is going to work out and believe you will get to your goal; just as I experienced that summit night attempt on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. There will be lots of ‘this is it!’ moments, only to realise you still need to push a bit further. The key to getting there is just stay positive! Have a good team around you, who can support and encourage you and maintain that positivity. This is just as important in climbing a mountain as it is in setting up a business.

Kilimanjaro was tough, it wasn’t easy: business can be tough, it isn’t always easy, but the rewards can be phenomenal. When we reached the plateau of Stella Point and then the Uhuru summit at 6.45am, those 8hrs of hiking through the night, in freezing cold, suddenly became worth the sense of achievement, adrenaline and beautiful views of the world below that we were able to witness. Knowing we were seeing something that not many people will witness (unless of course you climb a mountain to 5895m) was something quite special. Watching the sun rise over the horizon and feeling the temperatures start to warm up gave a sense of relief and accomplishment that we had succeeded in achieving our goal. Again, I relate this to the journey of having a start-up business - at times it can be tough, it will require hard work and hours of endurance but the closer you get to that destination and goal, the easier you’ll start to find it. The path starts to become more visible, the sun will start to shine and the elements will be less harsh, and your growing sense of achievement will be your driving force in that final push to your goal.

My mum once gave me a photo that says ‘Only look back to see how far you have come’; on that summit night, that’s all I did. After the second false hope of the disappearing line of the head torches being the end, I decided to stop my search for the destination, know the path would lead me there eventually and instead just focus on my feet, the moment and the occasional look over my shoulder at how much further along the track we had gone. Reminding myself of how far I’d gone gave me the motivation to keep the momentum. One step at a time - even little baby steps - was one step closer towards the summit. And that is what you need to remember in entrepreneurship and start-up - even one little step is progress and, when you add up all those little steps, it can get you to the highest peaks.

Vicky is founder and director of Recoil Kneepads, a product designed for the professional trades and construction industry.

About Vicky Hamilton

Vicky Hamilton did Engineering at Strathclyde University. She originally developed Recoil Kneepads as part of her final year design project. Following success with bringing her product to market, she now also teaches various design classes on the Product Design Engineering course at Strathclyde University and acts as an Enterprise Fellow at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship, Strathclyde Business School, where she supports students in the early stages of their commercialisation journey.