Peru Apr 14, 2019

Betting on Risk

by Christoph von Ruexleben

Ever the entrepreneurs, Diego and Janeth proudly showing off what they’ve built.

Machachi, Ecuador

3,844 miles from San Francisco

A harsh wind was bearing down on us. We were 18,000 feet up, and yet over 1,300 feet of frigid climbing still remained. We slowly skirted along a narrow trail bordered by a steep plunge into the unknown, far below. The lights of Quito shimmered in the distance. Moonlight glistened off of icicle-laden crevasses. It was a clear, cold night and we were nearly there – nearly the first party of the day to reach the summit of Ecuador’s second highest peak. Nearly to the top of that smoldering giant and quintessentially beautiful volcano, Cotopaxi.

Southeastern Panama is hot. In truth, it’s more than hot – it’s steaming. A country-sized natural sauna. A muggy, wet jungle mist coats everything and your skin can’t help but to perspire as it fights a losing battle against the inevitability of overheating. We ran up the 45º driveway time and time again.



A sloth – appropriately named perezoso (also the word for lazy) in Spanish – lounged in the trees with its permanently grinning expression seemingly mocking us as we trudged down the steep hill yet again, another lap filling our minds and lungs with dread. We hadn’t lost our minds entirely, despite willingly overexerting ourselves in this jungle gym, we’d simply been convinced to commit. Sold on the premise of achieving something bigger than ourselves, on taking a risk with an upside that we’d cherish forever and a downside that we’d rather not consider.

Entrepreneurship, by definition, involves risk. Think of those you know who have succeeded or failed in pursuit of it. Undoubtedly, they cast the comfort of steady, stable employment aside in favor of something more raw. Something more dangerous. Yet, it is not often that the entrepreneur risks said stability to build a business that is inherently based on risk itself. It was in Nor

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