Swimming against adversity

When Chittenden Locks in Seattle was built in 1917, the US Army Corp created the fish ladder, a series of 10 and later expanded to 21 weirs or steps that allow salmon to migrate upstream. Salmon hatch upstream in rivers and swim down to the sea where they spend 1-3 years of their adult life before making a tough journey back to spawn in the rivers that hatched them in the first place. Only the strong survive, nature's way of ensuring that the species remain strong and healthy. The ladder must provide a strong enough current and flow of fresh water to attract the fish and yet not so strong that they cannot jump each step.

I marveled at the size of the salmon and their tenacity as they fought a pretty strong current, biding their time and eventually gathering enough strength and courage to jump each step.

I thought that every entrepreneur must be have a heart of salmon. Swimming against a strong current with pretty low odds, we are not deterred in our quest to create the next startup. It's part of our DNA and often it is not a question of money but rather a desire to create and leave something substantial behind, our legacy.

I wondered if the fish saw the entire arduous journey they would undertake whether they would start in the first place. The beauty is...

Nature only teaches them to jump one step at a time.