A friend of mine asked me to join her on an adventure to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal. We left on November 26th and returned December 12th. Seventeen days to fly to Nepal, climb halfway up the 10th highest mountain in the world (ABC), climb back down and fly home. Not complicated. We knew what we wanted to do. The goal was set.
Oh, but the planning that went into it! And the discussions! We spent months researching and discussing. Do we go it alone? Do we use a guide? Porters? All the research we did said that the trail was well marked. You could do it without a guide. Her daughter had done it just a couple of months ago and said the same thing. You can do it, no problem. But, we decided to hire a guide and porters to help us along the way. We knew that although we are fit, we were headed into the unknown. What about the weather? What about trail conditions? Can we eat that? And having help would make it easier to stay on track, to find our way and have a remarkably successful trek. A GREAT choice it was! There were complications, questions, and one day that the clouds gathered and we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of us. It was a secure feeling to have a guide who knew where we were, where we needed to go, and what we needed to do to get there.
You could draw a real comparison to your financial future using that same story. Can you do it alone? Can you do the research to figure out what to do when and how? Which path should you take, what investments do you choose? Of course you could, but you and I both know that having a guide to keep you on the path when there are distractions along the way holds a better promise of success. When you have a guide who is on your side and wants you to reach your goal successfully, it makes the journey easier and more pleasant.