A Series of Hills
Nelson Mandela is frequently credited with the quote, ”After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.” Whether he said it or not, the words ring true for anyone that has accomplished anything of significance. I wonder, does this realization, consciously or not, somehow dovetail with people’s fear of change? Is fear of change actually a manifestation of that realization?
Perhaps at some age we all realize that there is no “downhill run” in our lives, but rather a series of hills. We have personal hills, professional hills, family hills… maybe some people react to that realization with hopelessness and dismay. Those people might be the ones to allow others to push them up the hills (complaining the entire time). I’ll call these people the “flatlanders”. Others, on the other hand, might embrace the uphill challenge knowing that is the best way to be truly satisfied with success. Those are the “mountaineers”.
Philosophy is, in my opinion, idle speculation when not applied to one’s self. After all, the true value of philosophy is to give us reason to think and reflect on our own beliefs. So if we all, at some point, realize that there are hills and how we react to that realization becomes one of our defining characteristics, where do I fit on the scale? Am I a flatlander or a mountaineer? I like to believe that, at least professionally, I am a mountaineer. I embrace the uphill and more often than not I do my part to push the flatlanders over the hills as well.
In the end, I believe that you’re free to chose how you’ll react to the hills. Success as an organization, however, can only be assured when the mountaineers outnumber the flatlanders, when the organization aggressively eliminates those that prevent others from climbing, and when the culture supports celebrating each and every summit.
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