Optical business expert and author Dominic Watson climbing Mount Kilimanjaro charity
Optical business expert and author Dominic Watson is currently climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise £2,000 for two charities and to inspire others to follow their dreams.
Taking part in the 10-day challenge which set off on 19 October, Myers La Roche director Mr Watson wants to tick a huge item off his own bucket list and hopes to encourage others to develop their own bucket list.
The trip, organised by Advocate, is self-funded by Mr Watson, who has set himself a target of raising £2,000 for two causes close to his heart, Vision Aid Overseas (VAO) and Water Aid.
With decades of experience helping practice owners to improve their lifestyle and prepare to exit their business, the Myers La Roche team knows that business can become all-consuming. They have found that practice owners often work too hard and become ill, holding onto their practice for too long and letting their business decline, or finding out that, when they come to sell that the practice, it is nothing without them.
The Kilimanjaro trip is part of their strategy to show practice owners that by becoming more commercial, whilst still retaining their ethical business principals and focus, they can re-engineer their business to work for them. As Mr Watson advocates in his first bestselling book ‘Rockstar Retirement Programme, How to Retire like a Rockstar,’ that business owners can run a business and live a life less ordinary.
“I want to personally experience another really huge bucket list adventure and really practise what I preach, showing people that absolutely anything is possible if you put your mind to it,” he explained.
“I have chosen Kilimanjaro because I have two young children and my wife wouldn’t allow me to attempt Everest,” he added. “But at a whopping 5,895 metres high, Kilimanjaro is still a pretty big beast and a genuine challenge for me.
“I want to inspire my children, coming back with tales of adventure, travel and the human spirit and I’m hoping that this will give them their own thirst for challenge, exploration and travel.”
Explaining his choice of charities, Mr Watson said: “Supporting Vision Aid Overseas is an obvious choice, having worked in optics for nearly 20 years. It is completely aligned with Myers La Roche and our clients, indeed many of them have volunteered and delivered eye care for VAO in Africa and Asia.
“Water Aid is simply an incredible charity, helping provide some of the world’s poorest people with a clean and ready source of fresh water. It is incredible how providing fresh water, something we in the West take for granted, can transform lives and allow people to help themselves.”
Mr Watson will be back in the UK at the end of October. To support his fundraising target, visit http://www.justgiving.com/companyteams/DomWTanzaniachallenge
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