Entrepreneurship and Epic Journeys in the Grand Canyon
About six weeks ago, three friends and I headed out on a backpacking trip into the Grand Canyon. It was my fifth trip down there in the last six years, so clearly I have an affinity for the place (actually, it’s where I ended up deciding to ask my wife to marry me, but that’s another story entirely).
On four of my most recent trips to the Grand Canyon, friends and I had done the Thunder River/Deer Creek loop, as well as the South Bass Trail. This year though, in an attempt to up the ‘adventure’ quotient, we decided to hike the South Rim and do the six-day/five-night 50-mile Royal Arch loop. High adventure for sure, but a lot of fun too.
Anyway, about a week before my buddies and I left, my wife and I were at a Barnes & Noble bookstore looking for American History titles when BAM, right there staring me straight in the face was Edward Dolnick’s Down the Great Unknown: John Wesley Powell’s 1869 Journey of Discovery and Tragedy Through the Grand Canyon
I have backpacked and hiked hundreds of miles over the years, and never, not once, have I ever packed a book to read along the way. Wasted weight, I’ve always thought. But this one was just too perfect to pass up. Despite the dilemma over weight, I bought the book and committed myself to read it while on my own journey of discovery—and hopefully, I thought at the time, not tragedy—through one of the most remote sections of the Grand Canyon.
So off we went, the four of us, with me packing a book for the first time ever. I held off on reading it until we camped for two straight days right along the Colorado River. The setting was perfect. I was in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, reading about some of the first explorers to ever tackle this great unknown and vast land.
I only had time to read about a quarter of the book, and now I really can’t bring myself to finish it until I go back to the Grand Canyon. But what I read was great stuff. It made me realize something… namely, that the group of adventurers Dolnick chronicles were not unlike many of today’s entrepreneurs.
John Wesley Powell was a one-armed Civil War veteran who assembled a rag-tag crew of nine journeymen to accompany him on his adventure. None of them had any whitewater experience, and not one of them knew what lay ahead. There were no maps or guidebooks; just stories from Native Americans about large white water. Their equipment was completely wrong for the challenges they faced. The worst offender was their boats. Designed to travel in places like Boston Harbor, they were designed to move quickly and in straight lines—the two worst possible qualities for whitewater rafting.
One setback and tragedy led to another. Some days, Powell and his men only traveled a half-mile. They had planned on hunting for food but very rarely found any animals to eat. The unexpected and unplanned for became the rule, and their adventure has been described by many as the “last epic journey on American soil.” Why so epic?
Well, based on what I’ve read so far, I think it has to do with the courage to take risks, and the longing for a solid adventure. Why do I find myself in February of each year ready to plan another trip to the Grand Canyon or some other place? I’m looking for adventure. And in my opinion, there isn’t anything more adventuresome than trying to start a business!
Reading a book about adventure and risk taking at the bottom of the Grand Canyon while on my own adventure is where I came up with the name for this blog: Adventures in Entrepreneurship. The drive that pushes me to go on adventurous trips is the same drive that I find pushing me with Doba and entrepreneurship.
Most entrepreneurs are not really qualified to do what they do. We don’t have experience. We don’t know what lies ahead. We don’t have maps, guidebooks, or the right equipment. Typically, more goes wrong than seems to go right. But you know what? That’s why entrepreneurship is so cool, so amazing, and so dang fun! So epic, if you will. We are all taking risks and looking for adventure. “Last epic journey on American soil?” No way. Those epic journeys are happening every day, and I for one love the adventure of it all.
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