Buisness Lessons I Learned from Snowboarding

I learned to snowboard in 1994. I loved to ski, I was terrible, but I loved it. I had a boyfriend who was a ski racer, a competitive snowboarder and generally up for all things adventure. He helped me renew my love of the outdoors, of the wonder of the mountains and the glory of nature. He also taught me to snowboard. It was a rough learning curve, I fell, got back up, fell, got back up, fractured my tailbone, and got back on the board the next season. We went to Montana. I was a Midwest girl, I had never been to the mountains, the purple mountain majesties, as the song promises, of big sky country. We took the gondola up to the top, I looked out at the incredible view, the snow caped mountains and covered plains, the bluebird sky and glistening snow, then I sat and tears ran down my face. I was terrified to stand and go. The boys all took off. I sat. A while later, my boyfriend’s best friend came back for me. He enticed me to follow him, that day I learned to snowboard. I didn’t expect the lessons that snowboarding would teach me. Over the next several years I learned three things about snowboarding that have served me well in many aspects of my life. When in doubt - point it, go big or go home, and commit.
On a snowboard if the board is sideways, you slow, stop or catch an edge and fall. It’s when you point the board that the magic happens, the board slides and glides gracefully down the mountain. In life deciding which direction to take can be paralyzing, we can analyze and over think which way to turn. Robert Frost famously wrote “I took the road less traveled. . .” but is that the best? How do you know? If you sit with your board sideways and look at the possibilities too long, you are just sitting. If you point it down hill, pick a direction and go, there will be more choices and possibilities will open up. I have found in my life, when I am unsure, to listen to my intuition, to listen to the trees and the mountains and the pulse of the earth, and then, pick a direction and point it. As any Labrador will tell you, going is always better than staying in one place.
However, pointing the board and going requires one more step, except if you are on the top of the K12 and you are planning to go straight unless something gets in your way and turn, like the famous line from Better Off Dead. If that is not your plan, if you are planning to glide gracefully down the hill, you must turn, and to turn, you must use an edge, any edge, but you must pick one. Commit to your edge. If you do not commit to your edge and you waiver, you doubt, you second guess, you land on your face in the snow (I have even hit my head with my board coming over my head when this happens). It’s called catching an edge, and it happens when you don’t commit. In snowboarding, and in life, you choose your path, you choose your values, and you commit to them. If you waiver, if you stray, if you doubt, often you lose your way, or get distracted, or have difficulty with many aspects of life. If you commit, decide what and how your going to do what you do, and who you are, and you commit to these things, life, like the mountain, will unfold before you and it will be a much more graceful, not without moguls, but navigable ride.
On that day in Montana, as I sat under the bright sunshine atop Big Sky mountain, I wasn’t thinking about going big, I was thinking about how I got myself into that mess and how I would safely get to the bottom. But going big is different at different times in life. For Shaun White it might be a 1260 double mctwist to win the Olympics, for me in that moment, it was standing up. As we looked to open the school we thought of all the ways to play it safe and open slowly, to build support, to fund raise, but there comes a time when you have to point it and go big. I have found myself in situations at the top of a cliff or chute where I had no choice but to go big and commit. I find myself in situations with the non-profit where the future of the school, or at least the next big donation, depend on my ability to go big, to be uncomfortable, to have the hard conversation or to make the tough ask. The ability to put myself, my thoughts, my beliefs out there to be supported by others, I learned, in part, from snowboarding. By going big, landing and surviving, not only surviving, but feeling the heart pounding, adrenaline rush fueled smile and surge of joy, of thriving in the moment.
A few weeks ago, on November 20, the sport lost it’s pioneer, Jake Burton Carpenter. Thank you Jake for founding the space, creating the freedom, revitalizing the mountain lifestyle and working to bring us snowboarding. We are forever in your debt. #rideonjake