On 9th April, all being well, I’ll be posting a photo of me and my 15-year-old son waving a NABS flag among the peaks surrounding Everest Base Camp. And after three months of training to hike more than 5,000 metres above sea level with a teenager in tow, I’ve come to believe that 25 years in advertising may have been the best training ground of all.

Like with most endurance challenges - whether that’s mountain climbs, marathon runs, ironmans, you name it - our industry is very good at celebrating the pinnacle moment. The pitch win, the campaign launch, the Cannes trophy on the shelf.

But we talk a lot less about the climb it took to get there. The weeks, months or even years that build to those moments. And, crucially, how this time matters just as much as the moment at the summit.

It’s a long climb to peak fitness - and to the best work

For Oscar and me, 2026 has been all about the training. Five days a week in the gym, far too many sessions on the stair machine and incline treadmill, circuit workouts and cardio. Then come the weekend hikes, which are getting progressively longer and steeper as the main challenge approaches.

We’ve hiked the flat landscapes of Norfolk, traipsed the woodland of Epping Forest and up the steep gradients of Box Hill, all with a 10kg pack on our backs.

It’s physically arduous, repetitive and it can be tedious. The same is often true in this industry - we’ve all been in meetings that go nowhere, believed in ideas that got knocked back by clients, and been part of long and hard pitch processes that don’t necessarily lead to a win.

Regardless of whether you reach a great outcome or not, the journey requires resilience, perseverance, humility and a willingness to keep going when the process becomes difficult. In other words, the same qualities you need to get up a mountain.

Preparation helps build for success, but it doesn’t guarantee it

By the time we reach the Himalayas, Oscar and I will have trained for three months. We’ll be fitter than we’ve ever been. But there are some things you simply can’t train for.

At base camp, oxygen levels are roughly half of what they are at sea level. Around three-quarters of trekkers make it all the way there; the other quarter turn back, most often because of altitude sickness. It doesn’t matter how fit you are – your body might still say no.

Business can feel similar. You can prepare meticulously, assemble the best team and put everything in place for success. And sometimes it still doesn’t go your way.

But that doesn’t mean the effort was wasted. If the training phase of this long hike feels like my years in advertising, then perhaps the climb itself will feel like working towards a big business objective. Whether that’s building a team, shaping a strategy, launching a campaign or pitching for new business, you’re working towards something that matters.

The company you keep shapes everything

You might not always hit the target head on, but the point is the journey: doing your best work, learning along the way and inspiring the people around you to keep going.

In my case, that team consists of me and a 15-year-old who initially greeted my suggestion of this adventure with the words “Absolutely no way, why would I want to do that?” But after a couple of weeks, the idea percolated and he changed his mind. Now I suspect he mostly wants to beat his dad to base camp.

Any parent of a teenager knows how hard – and occasionally infuriating – it can be to drag an adolescent out of bed on a normal school morning. But when it’s 5am on a Sunday and you’re both facing the prospect of a cardio session at the gym or a long hike with 10kg on your back, that hormonally-charged reluctance can attain precipitous heights.

Getting my son up is one thing; getting him up a mountain another, a prospect that is both terrifying and exhilarating. But I think he’s starting to get it now. And as much as I sometimes have to push him to do the training, his ultimate willingness to take on the challenge is motivating me just as much.

Leadership, as it turns out, starts at home. As any parent knows, simply demanding something rarely works. Instead, there’s a mix of persuasion, encouragement and the occasional bit of gentle coercion.

And sometimes you just have to lead by example.

What this experience so far has reinforced is the notion that the most meaningful achievements – whether in business or in life – take hard graft. They’re built step by step, long before anyone sees the summit.

Trent and Oscar Patterson are fundraising for NABS. If you’d like to donate, you can do so here.