Hanging out at Stanford Entrepreneurship Conference

Hanging out at the Stanford Entrepeneurship Conference '04 listening to some folks who still have the fire in them.

Hal Klopp (founder of The North Face) is giving the lunch keynote, and the guy is funny as hell.  Told an amazing entrepreneurial story about some folks who were mountain climbing and one of the climbers had a serious accident and was in danger of dying.  They called for a helicopter to come up and rescue the guy, but the helicopter pilot wasn't sure he could make it.  Well the pilot manages to land it, and they load the injured guy in... but then there's not enough air to take off again (it's too thin).  So two of the other climbers -- who are entrepreneurs of course -- they say "we know what to do".  One gets on either side of the helicopter, they grab it by the rails, and they THROW THE HELICOPTER OFF THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN.  The helicopter falls down several hundred feet, catches air, and flies off to take the injured dude to the hospital.  End of story.

Now THAT is what entrepreneurial spirit is all about...