Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/56260
E Entrepreneur, orchardist, and author John McQuaig sees parallels between climbing a mountain and running a business. by Geraldine Warner Parallel PEAKS ntrepreneur, orchardist, and mountaineer John McQuaig dreamed for years of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. He finally reached the false summit, Gilman's Point, at an elevation of 18,651 feet, after climbing for five days. The summit push, which took more than seven hours, began before midnight and he'd not slept at all that night. Utter exhaustion made the prospect of heading back down very appealing, but McQuaig resolved to plod slowly and wearily onwards to the true summit, the roof of Africa, 700 feet up and a three-hour hike across snow. "After years of dreaming, seasons of training, months of planning, and five days of climbing, I have reached the top!" he noted in his log after he reached the summit. As he sat down to eat a snack and rest before the descent, his mind wandered. Oddly, what came to mind was business. "It occurs to me that what it took to climb this mountain closely paral- lels what it takes to run a business," he wrote. Only 50 percent of the 20,000 people who attempt to climb Mount Kil- imanjaro each year are successful, which parallels the success rate for new businesses. Afterwards, as he mulled over other similarities between successful mountain climbing and business management, he decided to write a book on the topic. "I've consulted with businesses for 35 years, and you're always looking for a way that's memorable that will strike a chord with people," said McQuaig, who had experience of writing business articles and whose father, Douglas, who taught accounting, wrote one of the top-selling text- books in the country. McQuaig's book, entitled Parallel Peaks, describes eight "keys to the sum- mit" that he believes make a crucial differ- ence between success and failure in either field. Entrepreneur McQuaig became an entrepreneur at the age of ten, mowing lawns for 25 cents an hour. In high school, he had a painting business. He was 24 when he started his accounting firm, McQuaig and Welk, which has grown to include business consulting and coaching. He was a cofounder 25 years ago of the North Cascades National Bank, which he chairs, and has a real-estate development company called Water Works Properties LLC, based in Wenatchee, Washington. McQuaig bought his first orchard in 1979 and now has 430 acres of apples and cherries at Entiat and Orondo. He deals strictly with the business side of fruit growing and hires people to do the horticulture. "When you work by the hour, you're always looking for something you can invest capital in that has the potential to make money when you're not working," he explained. "At the time, I was looking at a lot of my clients who were making good money on small acreages. You could have 20 acres of pears in Peshastin or 40 acres of apples in Chelan and make a really good living." His orchard is what he devotes the most time to, after his primary job as a CPA. "We have good managers," he said, "but just taking care of the business side is pretty demanding." 24 MARCH 1, 2012 GOOD FRUIT GROWER