What is our obsession with climbing mountains ? Our natural instinct when seeing a mountain is to imagine ourselves at the top looking down. I think it's because we are all conquerors. We want to find challenges in life and prove that we can achieve them, this will make us feel successful; feel that we can go higher than others.
One very interesting thing I found in China is that the philosophy is a bit different. I once heard someone tell me that the secret to success isn't to put yourself above others, it's to put yourself below others. He made a metaphor about the rain and water. Once it hits the top of the mountain it can only go one direction; which is down. Once it reaches the end of the mountain it will continue further and collect in streams. If you are a valley you need to do nothing and all this water will come to you automatically, you need only to place yourself lower.
I very much like this ideology, and to me it makes a lot of sense. If you want to be successful you need the energy and support from others to reach there. If you allow someone to excel you and feel good about himself he will not be scared to share of his experiences and knowledge, he will be glad to do that.
A valley is but a mountain reversed. We can be equally successful by learning to conquer the valley!
This is is my submission for 