Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains.

Smart woman, Emily Cady.... "Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains." In 1871 she became one of the first woman physicians in America. Do you think she had a few mountains to climb?

I live in Montana among some of the most beautiful mountains in the nation. I grew up in Southern California on a surf board, but I love the mountains almost as much as the beach. One reason is the solitude the mountains offer.

Starting a start-up is no day the the beach. But as it turns out, it is a day at the mountains!

Frustrated with
my inability to get our CEO to commit time in developing this new venture, I was at my wits end. For the last nine months, every time he agreed to a meeting, he'd end up canceling at the last minute. It's not that he didn't care about this important venture, it's that his schedule is almost as busy as the President of the U.S., and a hundred people are pulling on him from every direction every day. I think of everything on his plate as hundreds of pebbles. I get it, but I was no less frustrated. The biggest problem is that we constantly were stumbling over pebbles that kept us from climbing the mountain.

So, I abandoned the idea of setting a meeting with him. Truthfully, getting this initial work done is more important than simply squeezing it in between other meetings. I needed his complete and full attention.

So, what could I do?

I took him to the mountains for a day and a night... no phones, no email. Only a white board, an outline, our focused minds, creative juices, and a good bottle of scotch.

He finally gave it his all... we both did. I could see he felt gratified, and relieved. He must have apologized to me twenty times. I told him to please let that go. We got a lot of great work done.

A couple of highlights:
We named the new organization:
Child Wise

We created a mission declaration:
Accelerating awareness, knowledge, and change for maltreated children.

We created our vision:
To help create the safest, most supportive communities in the nation for maltreated children.

We set two year goals for each of the three initiatives (Awareness, Knowledge, Change).

We made list of prospective members of our Advisory Team.

Sometimes, if you want to really get some work done, you've got to take it to the mountain.