One of my absolutely favorite movies, hands-down, is the 1982 film, “The Man From Snowy River.”

The movie was based on the 1890 poem written by Australian bush poet Banjo Paterson.

From the poem:

“He hails from Snowy River, up by Kosciusko’s side,
Where the hills are twice as steep and twice as rough,
Where a horse’s hoofs strike firelight from the flint stones every stride,
The man that holds his own is good enough.
And the Snowy River riders on the mountains make their home,
Where the river runs those giant hills between;
I have seen full many horsemen since I first commenced to roam,
But nowhere yet such horsemen have I seen.”

In the film, it’s the 1880s in Australia. A young Jim Craig loses his father and takes a job at the Harrison cattle ranch where he’s forced to become a man.

At the beginning of the film, Jim is standing upon a mountain. It’s the location of his childhood home.

And the view is simply breathtaking.

Mountains as far as the eye can see. Clear blue skies.

Sun shining brightly upon a neatly-built wooden fence.

Even the craggy rocks surrounding it seems to have a sense of order and beauty.

Jim had the idea he’d continue to live there after his father passed but the mountain men wouldn’t allow it.

“You have to earn your place up here, just like your father did,” said a gruff, grizzled man sitting on a horse.

The other mountain men who also were on horses just stared at Jim.

And so, Jim had to leave the mountain to prove himself to the mountain men (and himself), that he could handle the tough conditions that living on the mountain required.

I always get a few nuggets of insights when I watch this film. Here’s the latest:

The wealthy lived in the “low country.” It was in the valley where their large, luxurious ranches were built.  It’s flat. Easy riding. It doesn’t take a lot of effort to exist in such a place.

But the best view of that gorgeous country didn’t come from the valley.

It came from being in the high country – the mountains. 

Those who lived in the mountains were “mountain men and women” who knew it took a lot of effort to live there.

It was hard.

But that’s the way you get the view. 

Isn’t life overall like this?

You have easy and you have hard.

You have a choice each day to make an easy decision or the harder decision.

Sometimes you only have time for the easy.

But when you choose the hard way or make the hard call, just remember it’s one more step toward getting to the top of that mountain and enjoying the view.

It could be a decision to commit yourself to doing three activities a week for your marketing.

Or fix a broken process because you know that in the end, it will make things better, even though it will take valuable time to do it.

These types of decisions “toughen us up.”

Keeps us  going even when at times we feel like giving up.

Because you know that if you do make these hard decisions, there will be a payoff at the end.

A gorgeous mountain view. 

What’s your “mountain?”

Take it one step at a time.

Eventually you’ll get there.

It just takes deliberate decisions to move you forward.

I love to tackle “marketing mountains.”

Contact me if you’d like to have a partner.

Helping you gallop toward big wins…
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