Well, on Saturday June 13th, I was thrown an EPIC curveball.

But before I get to that, let me tell you about my Momentum. A group of us–me, Dallen, Liz, Michelle, Taylor, Tyler, Ruth–planned to climb Mt. Rainier from June 25-June 29. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. It’s not an easy task, climbing Rainier. It’s 14,411 feet high. It has a greater base-to-summit elevation gain than 28,251-foot K2 and has 26 glaciers pouring down it’s flanks. You climb more than 10,000 feet up (and back down). (By way of comparison, if you’ve hiked Mt. Timpanogos here in UT, you go up 4,400 ft.) The weather is notoriously dicey. It’s something a lot of backpackers/climbers/mountaineers put on their ‘life list’ as something that has to be done.

I embraced this goal/objective with 110% effort. I was “training to climb Mt. Rainier” and I started working hard. Harder than I even really needed to, but it was my motivation, my momentum. I started trail running, hiking up steep and long trails with 40 and 50 lb packs full of weights and water on my back, mountain biking up hill, walking on my treadmill at 20 degree incline with my weight vest on. During April, May, and first of June, I ended up getting in the best physical shape of my life. I lost 10 lbs. I could go run 10 miles on a trail. It was crazy, I never thought I’d run and enjoy it. It was great. I even entered a 1/2 marathon trail run in Sept in Ogden and was going to start a 3 month training regimen for it as soon as I got back from Rainier.

Needless to say, I had a lot of Momentum in my life towards being active and in shape and towards climbing Mt. Rainier. All the plans and decisions and actions and early mornings etc, etc were hurtling me and my life towards that mountain and beyond….

Part of training for Mt. Rainier was our our final overnight group trip to climb Mt. Nebo, the highest peak in Utah’s Wasatch mountains in southern Utah county. (Jay and Peter had joined our Rainier group to climb Nebo and learn glacier travel).

I had never hiked/climbed Nebo, so this was a fun trip and adventure in its own right. We were going to camp on a snow field at the bottom of the North cirque and then climb the North Couloir to the summit while practicing glacier travel techniques and overnight test all our gear and arrangements.

At around 2:00 p.m. on Saturday June 13th, I and 5 others were standing in a snow gully on the flanks of Mt. Nebo while we waited for the 3 others in our party to catch up. After a pretty severe mid-day thunderstorm thwarted our Nebo summit attempt by dumping sleet/rain/grauple, we had turned back at the base of the couloir and were in the midst of retreating, traversing, and bushwhacking back to our cars when we arrived at that point in the gully.

I was standing roughly in the middle of the 30 degree sloped gully facing down hill. Tyler and Jay were to the far side of the gully, Michelle (red jacket), Taylor (sitting), and Peter (yawning) on the near. I’d kicked in some steps and it was nice to be able to stand on something other than the steep snud (snow and mud mix we’d been walking on) or loose rocks or wet and slippery branches and logs–it was pretty rough terrain getting down into the gully. So there I was, minding my own business, and just as Dallen/Ruth/Liz came to the edge of the gully, Michelle yelled out, “Rock!! Boulder!!” There was no warning, no sound of it coming, which is very odd in the mountains. Luckily, she had been facing mostly uphill and saw it emerge from the mist, barreling and bouncing down the gully. I had just enough time to lift my right leg and start to look up the gully and start to pivot like I was going to step to the left and then face up hill. That boulder slammed into my right leg right about back of knee level. I didn’t ever really see it. I do remember seeing fast movement out of my “peripherals”. They described the boulder as big as a car tire. It was not a little rock. From what they tell me, it hit me so hard it kicked my leg in the air like I was doing a karate kick, spun me around the 180 degrees I was starting to make on my own, and knocked me a good many feet down the gully. I started sliding, and was attempting to self arrest myself, and yelled, “I can’t stop!” when Tyler, who had seen the rock and not knowing where it’d bounce next was actually moving towards me as it came down, jumped on my back and stopped me from sliding any further. It probably missed hitting Tyler as well by a couple feet at most.

Curveball.

Our fun overnight training trip just turned into a wilderness rescue effort, and my Mt. Rainier/Best Shape of my Life momentum just got derailed.

My good friend Dallen, who is an American Alpine Institute certified mountain guide trained in wilderness EMT, and Michelle, who is nearly finished with her residency as a Dr., quickly got to me in that gully and took charge of the triage. (to have those two and 6 others for manpower ended up sort of a being a dream team to deal with an errant boulder and leg collision in the middle of the woods) We knew my leg was hurt pretty bad, and at first, thought it was just bruising, possibly broken. But then I moved my leg and there was blood on the snow, so we checked again, and I had a pretty bad gash on the back of my knee. Out comes the bandana and duct tape, and then the Ridgerest for a splint.

Everyone split up my pack and gear, and we got me onto a pad since between the shock and sitting on the snow, I was starting to get pretty cold pretty fast. Then we had to figure how to get me out. I tried to put some weight on it; not a good idea. We were probably about 45 minutes of nasty bushwhacking away from our cars parked along the Mona Pole road. That turned into around 4 hours of getting me down. For the first part, Dallen would set up anchors with pickets in the snow and belay me while I slid down the gully on my butt. At the end of the rope, we’d reset, and go again. We made good time, especially when the gully was steeper. As the gully flattened, I’d pull myself along with my good leg and arms. When we hit tree branches or one particular nasty poker bush spot, they helped me hop over them. But then the snow ran out.

We then had to get me up and out of this gully, across another one, and then try to get up a pretty open side hill to gain a ridge where we hoped we could move me more quickly, as this section going in was just nasty, steep, and way overgrown. These pictures show a gully I believe that is just to the left of the one the accident happened in that we went up Friday, and it shows a side hill we came up Friday very similar to the one we had to cross.

I put the distance to maybe be 200 yards, and I bet it took us the better part of 90 minutes or more to get me that far. We tried having me hop on one leg between 2 guys, but the slope was so steep and it was muddy and slippery, just wasn’t working well. Tried to have me just grab around Peter’s neck and have him carry me. Didn’t work. After a while, we somehow got me over to that side hill, where Dallen then just rigged up a Z pulley system from the top of the ridge, had me sit down, hooked my harness up, and literally just hauled and dragged me up that hill on my butt, across the rocks and dirt and all. (as a side note, 2 days after the incident, I discovered my butt was sore. Upon further investigation, sure enough, I had a quarter sized raw and bleeding spot where the dragging got through my soft shell)

At that point, I was cold, I was spent, I was bleeding more than ever, and I started to get scared–it seemed like it was taking so long. Dallen and Michelle talked some sense into me and calmed me down, we talked that even if we went for help, it’d be many hours and the best thing would be to just keep getting me down the mountain, so they got to work building a stretcher/liter to carry me with. They took 4 trekking poles, 2 on each side with handles opposed, and lashed them together. Then they wove the climbing rope between the poles, put another Ridgerest on top, and we had something they could carry me with. Dallen, Taylor, Peter, Tyler ditched their packs and started carrying me down that ridge. Jay, Ruth, Liz starting scouting for paths of least resistance while shuttling packs down the hill. Eventually, Michelle jumped in to help too, and we have 5 of them hauling me. I’m not a big guy, but I’m definitely not light either–I’m 175, and with all my boots/clothing and the stretcher, they were hauling 200 pounds across what can only be described as just rough, rough terrain.

We were able to start covering ground pretty quickly (comparatively) with the stretcher setup. Here’s a couple videos showing them hauling me:

Once we made it to a little meadow we could drive the car to (sorry forest service, we did drive it up a closed old overgrown road, literally right over the little flexi sign that said no motorized vehicles, but hey, I was bleeding and sitting on the wet grass), we loaded me up in the back of my Xterra.

Taylor started driving down the Mona Pole road headed to the E.R. in Nephi, which was about 90 minutes away. Michelle was riding shotgun. That road is rough, and this is where the pain really started hitting me. Peter was sitting in the back trying to help hold me from sliding/bouncing around too much. Finally, we made it the E.R., and I was able to relax a bit, although not knowing what I’d done to my leg sure was still worrisome, but little by little I started finding out what all had been busted up in my leg. I’m still not completely sure we know; to this day, we don’t know if I have any damage in my knee.

(A way interesting side story is that Michelle is based in Ogden where she’s finishing her residency, but prior to our Nebo trip, she had been assigned to the Central Valley Medical Center in Nephi for 3 wks–we met her on the side of the frontage road in Mona that Friday. So when we walked into the E.R., Michelle knew all the nurses, knew all the Drs. She also handled the sewing me up project. Still in her climbing boots and outdoor gear. It was a glorious hybrid and intersection of wilderness medicine with a cutting edge medical facility.)

Videos from the E.R.:

Yes, that is my calf. No, it doesn’t float in air.

What my leg looked like after bruising set in after a few days.

Once we were done, they loaded me in the Xterra, and we headed back to Orem/Lehi. I got home about 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I can honestly say that Dallen, Michelle, Taylor, Tyler, Peter, Jay, Liz, and Ruth performed some super-human feats to get me out of that situation. It was a very long, very tiresome day for everyone. Thanks guys!!

That all happened just over 3 wks ago. Since then, we hit the E.R. once for a compartment syndrome scare, again for a blood clot scare, had two ultrasounds, have had several Dr. apts, and have started physical therapy (I call it Party Time, some refer to it as Pain and Torture). For the first 2 wks, I was basically laying in bed, laying on the couch, or moving to/from the bathroom. Luckily (besides that it gets basted hot on my lap) I’ve been able to work a lot on my MacBook Pro. My leg is getting better, I’ve started hobbling on it the last few days, and my foot flexibility is coming along, but that’s easier said than done since my calf was so messed up. I’ve watched as all my hard word and training have atrophied away far more quickly than I could have imagined. Even on my non-injured leg, my muscles look 1/2 as big and just sort of hang there, the muscle tone is shot. I guess that’s what happens when you don’t really walk for over 3 weeks.

Needless to say, I’ve had to adjust my plans, decisions, priorities, objectives, and momentum. I have had to re-prioritize a lot of things, since my time/energy to do stuff took a big hit. But I’ve also had to realize how incredibly lucky I was. Even still hitting my leg, that size of rock could have done so much more damage if it’d have hit from the side, or the front, or even behind with weight on my leg. Let alone if that thing had hit me in the back or heaven forbid in the head. And we had 9 of us to rescue me; one a Dr., one a mountain guide, and 6 tough as nails.

Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. This is the longest blog post I’ve ever done, and if you’ve read it all and watched the videos, you now know most of my Mt. Nebo mountain rescue story. I can think of 100 life / leadership / entrepreneurship lessons from this experience. Maybe I’ll draw on them for future posts. But the main thing I’ve solidified in my mind is that you can’t control what you can’t control. You can only only accept the reality you’ve been dealt. And then get to work moving your momentum of life to align.

I must go now since I have lots of exercises to do. “Pain is my friend” is my new mantra. Especially if I’m going to recover enough to get back out hiking with the kids and complete a 1/2 marathon trail run in September.

(Note: Thanks so much to Jay Fichialos for several of the pictures and videos!!!)

(Final Note: Dallen, Liz, Taylor, Tyler, Ruth, and Michelle went to Rainier and all 6 of them summited on June 27th with great weather and in fine form. My Rainier summit day will happen sometime soon. )

These Robins built a nest on the ledge right outside my 3rd story office window at Doba.

They’re a pretty common bird (320 Million population). State bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Wikipedia has all things American Robin covered. But there’s something pretty remarkable about this common bird that I’ve probably seen literally thousands of in my life.

They’ve been there for a bit. The eggs hatch after 14 days, and then the young leave the nest after another two weeks.

So waste a little time and check out the Robin Cam:

***UPDATE - We’ve taken the Robin Cam down since they’ve all left. Here’s a pic of the final baby debating wether he should jump from a 3rd story window and see if he can fly. ***

I think entrepreneurs could learn something from these guys. #1 skill I wish I had more of as an entrepreneur? Patience. She sits there nearly all day and all night long.

#2 skill I wish I had more of as an entrepreneur? Persistence. Once these guys hatch, they’ll feed them up to 100 times per day.

PS - Thanks Joel (Doba’s great wizard of IT) for setting up the webcam!!

On the way down the trail, there was a little bush that had very noticeable water droplets on the leafs, left there by the skiff of a thunderstorm that came through while we were hiking. So noticeable, K and I both stopped at the same time and said, whoa, look at that. She of course wanted to take a picture, which she had been doing a lot on this trip since Amy and I gave her our old Cannon digital camera to use. It’s pretty old: 3 megapixel, and the screen on the back is barely 1.5 inches diameter. Man, was it a cutting edge, real nice camera back in the day.

Anyway, I said, good idea, let’s take a picture, but I should take this one. The reason I said that is we had to put it in Macro mode and get close and the wind was gusting and the little plant blowing all over the place. Now I don’t consider myself to be a photographer by any stretch, but I do take lots of pictures in the wild and figured for sure I could take a shot of this better than Kaitlin since she holds the camera out at arms length, squints at the tiny screen, presses the shutter button so hard it moves the camera 6 inches, and gets her (most of the time blurry) shot.

Here are the 4 pictures I took, and remember, I was putting my best, and most experienced, outdoor photography with a digital camera foot forward to try to get a shot:

Here is the picture Kaitlin took, after holding the camera out, saying, “Don’t blow the little bush wind!” and pressing the button:

Sometimes, the people who shouldn’t be able to do something–those among us that are completely inexperienced and seem to be way out of the league they’re trying to play in–are the ones that nail it.

So go do something this month that you and everyone else thinks that you can’t do since you don’t have the experience. Something you’re not qualified for. Something way out of your league. You might surprise yourself and others and find that it’s so easy a 5 yr old could do it.

BTW, it’s a pretty awesome pic, hugh? Actually, it’s not awesome, it’s beyond awesome. It’s BeeeAwesome! (K loves that movie)

I had a blast doing mine. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

I was recently interviewed by SoftwareCEO. SoftwareCEO is the software industry’s “Page One,” with tips and tactics from best-practices software firms, plus discussion forums, news, links, and online seminars. Site Members also have access to file downloads, proprietary research, and thousands of dollars in exclusive Buyers’ Club discounts.

The focus of the interview was about how Doba had some growing pains in 2007 and 2008. It’s a long article, but I think it really captures what we’ve gone through the last couple years, and especially how/why we’re now positioned to grow and invest in the midst of these economic headwinds:

How fast-growing Doba took a pause to rebuild

Hope you like the article.

LaunchUp.org is a project I kicked off a couple months back. Best way I can describe it is like barn raising for entrepreneurs, like a community based advisory board. We’ll do monthly events, and maybe an all-day affair in the fall.

I want to work with the existing ecosystem of entrepreneurial support groups and organizations. And we’ll see how it evolves over time. If you have ideas, let me know.

Here’s what I posted on What is LaunchUp.org?

Doba is hosting and providing food/drinks for the first event this next Wednesday, March 25th, at 6:00 p.m. in Orem. One of the cool things is that we’re going to stream the event live, so you can participate from anywhere.

Ben Peterson (Mingle Match, and now of Human Services HQ) will be speaking. We’ll have community conversations about Tweetbooty and Entice Labs, moderated by Chris Knudsen and Brock Blake.

Here’s all the information about LaunchUp #1.

If you’d like to be involved, or help in anyway, just email me. jeremy @ jeremyhanks . com

Hope to see everyone there. It’s going to be sweet.

Next Thursday March 26th at 6:00 p.m. at Brewvies Cinema Pub is Ignite Salt Lake 2.

The slogan for Ignite is: “Enlighten us, but make it quick”. It was started by O’Reilly Media. Basically, presenters get 20 slides that auto-rotate every 15 seconds for a 5 minute total presentation about anything you want.

I’m presenting at Ignite SLC 2 with 15 other cool people. Outline of my presentation as submitted:

Blowing Minds and Melting Faces

Let’s face it. There’s nothing in the world like a mind blowing and face melting rock concert. Let’s explore the intricate (and inexplicable) parallels and links between rockers and entrepreneurs. Because what entrepreneur hasn’t wanted a laser light show for his startup?

It should be really fun. Again, it’s next Thursday March 26th at 6:00 p.m. at Brewvies Cinema Pub, 677 S 200 W in SLC.

Hope to see you there.

So I’m in Noida, India. It’s a suburb of Delhi. Dave Gray and I are here to setup an offshore development center for our 9aisle software spinoff from Doba. I’ll be here for 3 weeks, then yo-yo back to the U.S. for 10 days and then back to India for almost 3 more weeks.

We came to India about 18 months ago, and had a great trip, traveled around like crazy, visited a bunch of companies, and came away knowing if we ever where to do offshore dev, we’d use Impetus. (My report on that trip related to Travel, Culture, and Work.)

The picture above is me and Dave with with Vineet (engineering mgr), Pankaj (architect), and Piyush (team lead) from Impetus.

They’ll be the core team to work through this first phase of immersion and planning.

I’ll be doing some more posts about this project, especially why we’re doing it and being one of the companies that ’ship jobs overseas’ as seems to be mentioned more and more lately.

Don’t worry about me working while all you guys are sleeping.

Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management today announced the merger of the Rollins Center for eBusiness with the Center for Entrepreneurship to create the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.

Since last fall, I’ve been serving on the advisory board with 17 others for the Rollins Center for eBusiness. I’m so excited about this new combined center, especially as I helped an ad hoc committee put together recommendations on how to make this merger work, and how the new center can focus on helping BYU students use technology and entrepreneurship to change the world by solving some big problems.

I’ll be joining the new center’s 15 person advisory board, made up of individuals from a broad base of departments from BYU, part from the Center for Entrepreneurship, and part of us from the Rollins center board, to help this merger be successful and do great things.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about how we can accomplish this, by all means, let me know. It’s exciting news and a great development for BYU. I know my entrepreneurial roots started at BYU, and all my first formal and informal advisors were from connections and departments and centers on campus, so this is cool beans. And since I did graduate from BYU, and they let me beg my way back in after I’d dropped out for a couple years, and gave me a degree 12 years after I started, figure least I can do is return the favor for all the help I got from them.