Consider this visual illustration. Mount Everest towers five and a half miles above the earth. What is it that drives men to climb to such great heights? Men turned back because it was cold and because there were howling winds. There was danger. There was ice. Nonetheless, two of the men in the expedition survived. Edmond Hillary and his guide Tenzing Norgay stood at the top of Mount Everest, the most famous mountain in the world. In his diary, Edmund Hillary wrote, “Nothing ventured nothing gained. We arrived at 11:45 am in the morning.” That was May 29, 1953. They decided at noon that “they must make their descent from the mountain unless the raw, naked fury of nature would overtake them by nightfall” when they got back to the camp and they would perish.

Think about it.

Fifteen minutes on top of the world. What need was Edmund Hillary trying to satisfy?

Today, a young man in working in sales endured fourteen-hour days for weeks so that he could stand before his peers for fifteen seconds of acknowledgment, and get an award that he would hang on his wall. Note though that when he changes jobs; he will not put that award on his new wall. He may not throw it away, but it will sit in his closet and collect dust. What need was this young man trying to satisfy? All men climb mountains. The only question is why they are doing what they are doing.