Returning from the Canyons

What a Vision Quest Reveals

I’ve just returned from leading a Vision Quest in the wild canyons of one of my favorite places on earth. Eight extraordinary men joined me from across the country, each carrying their own questions, thresholds, and quiet hopes for what the land might reveal.

None of us knew exactly what would unfold, and what happened was greater than any of us could have anticipated.

For three days, each man fasted. For three days, he sat in solitude. For three days, he unplugged completely from the demands of work, family, responsibility, and the endless noise of technology.

In a world that pulls us outward at every turn, these men chose to turn inward.

This wasn’t a retreat. It wasn’t an adventure trip. It was a rite of passage — something our ancestors understood deeply, but something most modern men never experience.

The Return to Silence

When the noise of daily life falls away, something remarkable happens.

At first, you hear everything you’ve been avoiding — the questions, the fears, the exhaustion, the old stories you’ve outgrown but still carry. Then, slowly, another voice begins to emerge: the deeper voice of knowing. The voice beneath the noise. The truth that’s always been there but rarely gets a moment of your attention.

This is why Vision Quests matter. This is why this work is so needed.

We don’t lack answers. We lack the silence required to hear them.

The Power of Story and Witnessing

After the solo time, we returned to the circle — a fire burning, the canyon walls holding us, the night sky stretching above. What happened next was something ancient.

Each man told the story of his time alone on the land.

And then we mirrored that story back to him.

This is one of the oldest forms of human meaning-making. It’s how we understand who we are. It’s how we metabolize experience. When someone mirrors your story, they’re not telling you what to think. They’re reflecting back the truth you’ve spoken — the part you may not yet see clearly.

In that circle, something rare took place.

Walls fell. Truth surfaced. Meaning deepened. And the group became something more than a collection of individuals — they became a band of brothers bonded by a threshold they crossed together.

These men will carry this shared experience for the rest of their lives. So will I.

A Different Kind of Fulfillment

In my 20-year career as an entrepreneur, I’ve built companies, raised money, hired teams, survived storms, and pushed through more than most people will ever know. Some of it was beautiful. Some of it was brutal.

But this Vision Quest… This was something entirely different.

Not because it was big or flashy. Not because it was public or celebrated. But because it was fully aligned with my purpose — my zone of genius, the work I now know I am here to give back to the world.

There was a moment out there where everything clicked. Everything that had felt hard for years suddenly felt natural. Everything that had once required force now unfolded with ease.

For years, I pushed upstream. I fought for progress, for growth, for outcomes.

But in the canyon, leading this work, I felt something else entirely:
flow.
trust.
joy.
ease.

The current was carrying us.

Our motto became “joy and ease,” and the land delivered both in abundance.

A Landscape That Has Held Me for Years

The Quest took place in one of my favorite landscapes — a place I’ve returned to again and again for its raw beauty, spiritual weight, and unexpected playfulness. The desert has a way of stripping everything down to what’s essential, and yet it’s also a place of simple joys: shared meals after days of fasting, cold water on hot skin, laughter echoing off stone walls.

This canyon has been a teacher to me for years. Returning with others — guiding them through their own thresholds — felt like honoring something sacred.

The Men Who Showed Up

The men who joined this Quest didn’t come for entertainment. They didn’t come to check a box. They came with courage, heart, and a willingness to face themselves.

Their feedback since returning has been deeply affirming: This work matters. The medicine is real.

One man called it “the most important thing I’ve ever done.”
Another said, “I finally heard the truth I’ve been avoiding for years.”
Another: “I feel like I remembered who I am.”

That’s the power of a threshold. That’s the power of solitude. That’s the power of stepping away so you can return to what’s real.

The Path Forward Was Made Clear

This Quest was more than an event. It was confirmation of something I’ve known for a long time but hadn’t yet fully claimed:

This is my work.
This is my contribution.
This is the path forward.

The years of pushing, striving, grinding — they were part of my journey, but they’re no longer the way. The Vision Quest, the work of initiation, the deep facilitation of identity shifts — this is where I am meant to stand.

I am profoundly grateful to the men who said yes, to the teachers and communities who shaped this path — Boyd Varty, Scot Deily, the School of Lost Borders, Entrepreneurs' Organization, Sangha — and to the land itself for holding us with such grace.

I didn’t expect this to be the most meaningful work of my career.

But it is.

And the message could not have been clearer:
Follow this.
Trust this.
Rise into this.

A Question for You

Every one of us faces thresholds — the moments when the old world is falling away and the new one has not yet arrived.

If you’re standing on that edge right now, consider this:

What part of your life is calling for silence, truth, or a rite of passage? What might you hear if you stepped away long enough to really listen?

Sometimes the most important thing we can do isn’t to push harder — but to step into the canyon and let the land do its work.