The Accountability Factor
Derek Preston
As I took the last step up the ancient stone staircase and walked to the edge of the sun gate, I got my first glimpse of one of the most spiritual places on earth— Machu Picchu. As the rest of my Forum mates made their way to the top, we broke out food and water, sat on the ledge overlooking the massive ruins and caught our breath from the seven-hour hike that had taken us up to the 8,000-foot plateau. We joked,
laughed and smiled at the accomplishment we had made. It was a great moment in my life.
As entrepreneurs, we all seek to live lives of abundance— financial abundance, physical health, spiritual realization, emotional stability, etc. What has made EO such a great experience for me has been the emphasis on balancing these goals and finding a group of peers that is willing to act to achieve them, support each other and hold each other accountable. The trip to Peru was a perfect example of the power that EO has to influence people’s lives.
Individually, I don’t think any of us would have overcome the inertia of daily life to make a 4,000-mile journey to the highlands of the Andes Mountains. There were a million reasons not to go. Ultimately, the reason we were able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the top of Machu Picchu and see something that few ever will was because we had committed to each other that we would make it. As a group, we were stronger than all the excuses. As a group, we had made one another better and pushed each other to accomplish something that will stay with us the rest of our lives. That’s what EO is all about, and that’s what EO means to me.
Derek Preston is the founder and CEO of SNAPforSeniors, Inc. E-mail Derek at
[email protected].
