Simply put, an adventurous person is someone who isn’t afraid to explore what daunts others. It’s someone who has an inherent conviction to delve into the unknown, and surface with a deeper knowledge. Ever since I was young, climbing every rock and tree in sight, I’ve considered myself adventurous. It is only as I’ve aged that I’ve realized ‘adventurous’ is much more than a word used to describe Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. But a word to describe entrepreneurs, thrill-seekers, investors, musicians, lovers, and even your close yet not so close friend who once told you a story about his trip to Mexico where he drank Scorpion Mezcal, a type of tequila bottled with a scorpion exoskeleton. It is as I’ve grown that this word, adventurous, has come to describe me with each of its various definitions.
I’ve recently taken up rock climbing. In the gym I climb at I always walk by this picture of a man crack climbing thousands of feet up in the air. When climbing that high people often have to bring along their food and water adding extra weight. Then when night comes, assuming the climb is long enough, they must pitch a tent on the face of the rock and sleep there, dangling over their own certain death. This, to me, is the epitome of adventure relating to exploration. Each foothold, each handhold, has likely never been touched by another man at least for a thousand years. And when they top out, and look out over the terrain, they can take pride in that what they’re seeing is a specific view that likely they alone, of the 7.2 billion and counting people in this world, have witnessed. It is said that Alaska holds America’s last unexplored land, but I say exploration is unyielding, and adventure of these lands will never cease. As long as there are people in this world like me, who see the world as their oyster and not as distant, unreachable lands, adventure will remain prominent in our culture.
The impediment most people have with venturing out into the world, however, is money, or capital. Which brings me to my next point. Many people want to go to Paris, or Rio, or Tokyo, but when prompted for how they think they’ll make it there the average person would say something like “I don’t know, maybe I’ll win the lottery.” and proceed to laugh it off. I’m not one of those people. If you’re willing to spend two to five bucks on a lottery ticket, why not instead try to start your own business and become a CEO, or invest in someone else’s as a venture capitalist. The obvious answer, of course, is starting a business doesn’t cost two to five bucks, and is risky. At a 7% success rate (according to Business Insider Magazine), you’d be right. Although, with your chances of winning the Powerball, for example, being roughly one in 175 million, or 0.00000057%, that would mean you would have to buy 12.25 million tickets in order to equal your chances of starting a successful business. At $2 a piece you would be spending 24.5 million dollars just to equal your chances of owning a successful business. So the question is, why don’t the same amount of people out there buying lottery tickets invest in or start a business. The reason is, our sense of adventure in America has been lost over the years. With immense corporations breathing down the average entrepreneur’s neck, the American citizen is taught to think small, as being bigger would pose a threat to these corporations. They are taught not to adventure, but I have disregarded these teachings not to color outside the lines, and like many before me, I will be better off for it.
As the nephew of a Chief Executive Officer and son of a Chief Operations Officer of an online startup company, busybusy, I’ve seen into the 7%, I’ve seen how the initially insignificants can think big. As Americans, it is our right to think big, our right to color outside the lines, our right to adventure. I will keep climbing, even if I have to carry extra weight, even if I have to pitch a few tents on the way and rest to regain my strength, until I have reached the top. Because when I reach the top, and witness what few men before me have, I’ll be able to look back on the struggle that got me there, and take pride in that my life was not one of forgettable moments and regret, but of adventure.
