This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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I believe we can learn as much from failure as we can from success, if not more, in fact. And it's with this principle in mind that we are running Failure Friday, a collection of short stories, all about mistakes, missteps, disasters, and of course, failure. Been doing this for a couple of months now, getting great feedback on it. Thanks so much to everybody who has tuned in. And just like our Throwback Thursday segment, which conveniently takes place on Thursdays, 'cause today is Friday, hence the term Failure Friday, you're gonna hear directly from sinuslords who have struggled to get something off the ground or have otherwise encountered a big disaster.
They're gonna tell you a short story of something that went very wrong. Now, these stories will vary, but often it starts with an idea or an assumption, something that they thought would happen and then what really happened, and of course, what they learned. In other cases, like today, it may be more like, well, things were going along just fine. And our idea was actually working, but then we encountered some sort of roadblock, obstacle, reality check, et cetera. Whatever it is, I applaud their courage.
I'm grateful to everybody who's been participating so far. I hope you'll support them as well. I always include links to their websites, their social on our notes page. I usually give them a shout out as well, so I'll do that in this episode. But without further ado, today's short story features Mark Johnson, founder of Hobnail Trekking Co.
We told Hobnail story in episode 677, 677. Tennessean meets Nepalese Sherpa on Lyft ride, sells adventure trips. Pretty cool origin story of how this business came to be, doing these Himalayan treks. And everything was going so well until a small pandemic shut down the whole world. That was about a year ago.
Let's let Mark tell the story. I'll come back at the end to wrap us up. [Music]
Hi, this is Mark Johnson with Hobnail Trekking Co., one of the very few Himalayan trekking companies based in the United States. So our disaster has to do with our good old friend, COVID-19. I first heard about COVID at around the same time that everyone else did, somewhere in January, 2020.
At the time, Hobnail Trekking Co. had been in business for three years, and we were finally building some momentum. We had sent 25 Americans to Nepal and all the way to Everest Base Camp with very little problems, thanks mostly to our amazing Sherpa crew in the Himalayas. And we were gearing up for the 2020 season. But by March, this mysterious virus had not only derailed our hard-earned momentum, it had buried it entirely.
Nepal was locked down and all travel visas had been suspended. How in the world would we deal with this? Well, luckily for us, Hobnail Trekking had not become our primary source of family income yet, and was still in the side hustle designation. And we were able to ramp up our marketing and web design business enough to compensate. Meanwhile, we stayed in close touch with the folks on our mailing list and our social media contacts through regular posts, our podcasts, the How in the World podcast, and a monthly newsletter.
We made sure that people knew that we were not giving up on their bucket list dream. In Nepal, however, our Sherpa friends and the thousands of people who rely on trekking and climbing for their livelihoods were in far worse shape and were scrambling just to put food on the table. We probably lost around $40,000 potential dollars in 2020, but Nepal had lost their entire tourist industry, which accounts for 10% of their $24 billion gross national product. As things stand now, in April of 2021, the Himalayas are poised to open up completely to trekking and climbing without restriction. And we know that a lot of people in America and across the world are anxious to get out, travel, and explore far away places again.
Our Sherpa team in Nepal is excited to get back to work, and the mountain air of the Himalayas is probably more pristine than it has been in decades. We believe that as long as we persevere, hobnail trekking will come out of this pandemic in perhaps an even stronger position than before. As Winston Churchill famously said, "Never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in." [Music]
Hey, thanks so much, Mark, really appreciate that story. What a challenge it's been for so many businesses over the past year. And I especially appreciate how Mark kind of highlights the challenges that it's been for his Sherpas in Nepal.
Because as hard as it's been for some business owners in the States or Canada or other Western countries, there's also been a fair amount of government stimulus and other support for people who are struggling, whereas in a situation like Nepal, it's a little bit different. So, so glad that things are getting up and running again. I also appreciate this Churchill quote, since he was quoting Churchill, I thought of this one as well, "Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." And as you can hear in Mark's update, he has had no loss of enthusiasm, so I really respect that. I encourage you to check out their website, hobnailtrekingco.com. That's hobnailtrekingco.com, H-O-B-N-A-I-L, or follow them on Instagram @hobnailtrekingco.
I don't know Mark aside from working on these episodes, but it looks like they've got some really great reviews, testimonials, looks like an amazing experience. If you're thinking ahead and you're like, "What am I gonna do in six months or a year or something? How can I plan a big adventure to kind of celebrate my return to the world?" Perhaps something like this could be good as well. I'll try to feature some more opportunities like that in the days to come, just 'cause I know a lot of people are interested. So thanks again, Mark.
Thank you, listeners. If you have a question, if you'd like to update us about your hustle, just come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. And that aforementioned notes page for today, that's gonna be sidehustleschool.com/1560. One, five, six, zero. Hope you have a wonderful day wherever you are in the world.
I hope you'll come back tomorrow as well. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
