Ten years ago, I first walked the El Camino Santiago (500 miles) in Spain and wrote about my adventure in this newsletter. Last month, I returned to the El Camino and walked the “Norte,” which is the northern coast of Spain. It was another great hiking experience—maybe my last.
I hope you enjoy my “lessons learned” from the first trip below.
My “El Camino” Journey
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
– Lao Tzu
On May 22nd, I left Atlanta and began one of my life’s most challenging and rewarding “journeys.” It’s called the El Camino Santiago, a 500-mile hike from the France/Spain border eastward to the city of Santiago, which is just about 50 miles east of Spain’s Atlantic Ocean coast. The walk dates back to the early first century. Millions of people have made the pilgrimage from start to finish, and many others have started and not finished.
For me, this journey would be like no other. I would walk 15-18 miles a day starting with the long trek up and over the French Pyrenees Mountains, crossing the very hot and flat “Meseta” and finishing with the rolling hills surrounding Santiago, believed to be the burial place for the Apostle St James.
I was walking alone. Occasionally, I would pair up with a fellow “pilgrim” for a while. Sometimes I would go days without hearing my native language. At night I would stay either in a large hostel with 50-100 people sleeping in bunk beds or in a small inn enjoying a private room.
On the 30th day of my journey, I arrived in Santiago feeling very exhausted and extremely sore, but I was quite proud of my accomplishment. Of the El Camino walkers, maybe 20% completed the walk as I did. Some got injured. Some quit. Others do the walk in smaller increments over several years.
I had lots of time to think during my walk. One of the most enlightening moments was when I realized that many of the key success factors I experienced on my walk were similar to those in small business. Here are just a few:
#1. Start with a clear vision for success. A destination. A BHAG. (“big, hairy, audacious goal”) In my case, it was to make it to Santiago in 30 days. Over 500 miles. Anything else would have been a failure on my part. Once I established the BHAG, I also had to develop daily milestones. In my case, it was a minimum of 12 miles a day and an average of 15 miles per day. The milestones create a logical path to the BHAG.
Best-selling author Jim Collins suggests businesses consider a time frame of 10 years or more for their BHAGs. Just thinking of the BHAG should create some level of anxiety about its achievement. In my case, I was very nervous prior to the trip about finishing the hike.
#2. Establish milestones. 500 miles always seemed like a very long way to walk. Even 100 miles looks tough. As a result, I set a number of different milestones during the trip that would help me achieve this seemingly insurmountable goal.
First, I determined where I needed to be each week’s end. Based on that milestone, I next figured out how far I needed to walk each day of that week. That was usually anywhere from 12 to 18 miles a day. Next, I would look at the map and break my day into three to four somewhat equal portions. Usually three to five miles between villages. Finally, as I was walking, I would look 300-500 yards ahead and pick out some visible objects to walk to. It could be a rock, a sign, or a building. I would then tell myself that I just needed to walk to that object, which would get me closer to the village and to a bed that night.
How do you eat an elephant? One small bite at a time.
Your business can set similar milestones as you are chasing your BHAG. For example, you have established a BHAG of $5 million in annual revenue within the next five years. Now, you can work backward to determine how much revenue growth you will need each year between now and the end of that five-year period. Next, based on that annual goal, you now zero in on quarterly goals aligned with the yearly number. Finally, you work down to monthly, weekly, and possibly daily revenue numbers. Now that revenue BHAG doesn’t look quite so tough.
#3. Find or Create a Guidebook. My book was A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Camino de Santiago written by John Brierly. The book is updated each year as the author revisits the walk on an annual basis. The book laid out the walk for me into 33-day segments with great detail on each segment such as the length, the altitude of the climb, sights to see, places to visit, and recommended hostels/inns in each village or city. This book was my playbook. Without it, I was lost. With it, I could confidently walk each day where I was walking and how I would get there.
The business equivalent of the guidebook is a business plan. It could be 100 pages or one page. It identifies the business’s mission, vision, goals, and strategies just as my book did for me. Most small businesses do not have a plan. The majority of those same small businesses fail within five to seven years. Why? They get lost just as I would have on my walk without the book.
#4. Find a mentor(s). Mine was Scott Pate. Scott had walked the El Camino twice before, so he was very familiar with the journey. He helped me prepare for the trip and made himself available to me at any time while I was on the hike. Scott’s insights were invaluable to me.
Business owners also need mentors. Someone who has been where you are in the past in leading a small business, someone who has made all the same mistakes as you and has also achieved great success.
#5. Enlist a Support group. I had a great support group, starting with my family and also including many friends. They all made a point of staying in contact with me as I walked, encouraging me, and supporting my efforts. While I never considered quitting the walk, there were definitely times that I questioned my sanity. Whenever that happened, I would hear from the right person at the right time to pick me up when I was feeling down.
For a small business, that support group may also include your family, friends, employees, key stakeholders, and maybe even a board of advisers or a Vistage group. Leading a small business certainly has its peaks and valleys, and a strong support system is extremely important.
#6. Call an audible when necessary. In football, an audible occurs when the quarterback approaches the line of scrimmage before a play and realizes in the moment a need to change the play. Throw a pass instead of a running play. Run right instead of left. Go long instead of a short pass.
I called several audibles on my journey. On about the sixth day, I arrived in a very small town that had very little appeal to me. Despite what the book suggested, I called a taxi and ventured to the next village. Great call. I found a very nice inn in a larger town with more amenities. A week later, I made a similar call and took a brief train ride. About two-thirds of the way, I needed to make up several days, and decided to rent a bike. Great decision.
Small business owners need to call audibles from time to time as well. Sometimes the circumstances we face are quite different than those we anticipated. Call a different play. Other times, we find ourselves further ahead or further behind than where we thought we would be. Call a different play. Choose an audible.
#7. Keep it simple. After several days on the walk, I fell into a fairly simple daily regimen. I would wake up around 5:15 am, get dressed, gather my belongings into my backpack, and start walking. After six to seven hours, I would arrive at my destination for that day, find a bed, find a “cerveza grande” (large beer), and then enjoy doing as little as possible the rest of the day as the extreme pain in my legs would begin to diminish. I would eat dinner and fall asleep around 10p. Life was very simple.
On my first day back at work, the internet connection on my computer broke down, my printer stopped working, the upstairs television stopped working, my pool looked like a swamp in the Everglades, and…my car wouldn’t start. This was all within the first hour of my first day back at work. Simple life? Not so….
Since my return to civilization, I have been trying very hard to keep my life as “Camino” simple as possible. It hasn’t been easy. We all live very complicated lives with many inherent complexities.
What about our businesses? Is it possible to simplify our businesses? I think so. It starts with the design of our business. Just as I designed my days on the El Camino, I believe it’s important to build a similar level of design into our organizations. This includes policies, procedures, systems, flow charts, and more. The better the design, the fewer possibilities for surprises.
I loved my trip to Spain. The El Camino was a journey like none I may ever experience again. I am also happy to be home with family, friends, and clients. Did I mention Chick-Fil-A? I look forward to building these success factors into my business and those of others as well.
Buen Camino.