How do we live a full and satisfying life? How do we know what we can excel at? How do we start believing that we have many options?

Find Your Own Mountains is a collection of stories from Paul’s travels and exploits which he diarised throughout his life, and which greatly contributed to the discovery of his own capabilities and the formation of his character. He distils the essence of his learnings in a sequence of 18 letters to his daughter, written for her eighteenth birthday, as she embarks on her adult life. But the letters and stories resonate with all of us, regardless of our age and background. There are tales of challenging outdoor adventures alongside accounts of running with the bulls in Pamplona on a hangover, or humorous episodes from his late-teenage gap year tour. Each new situation, whether it was negotiating his way through the wilderness of Canada, being knocked about on the deck of a sailing boat by murderous winds in the South China Sea, trying in vain to fight mosquitoes and leeches in the Borneo jungle, or negotiating a friend’s release from a Thai police station after a boozy night in Bangkok as a young lad, leads to another step in self-discovery and the revelation of potential to be explored further.

Written in a beautiful, accessible and engaging style, Find Your Own Mountains is a deeply moving, inspirational, philosophically enriching book that might not only help readers live a fuller life but also encourage them to explore the literary works of classical thinkers, other adventurers and poets who greatly influenced its author.

In Find Your Own Mountains, Paul Samuel, explorer, businessman and serial successful entrepreneur, shows that the key to finding answers is understanding your character and your potential by actively seeking opportunities to expose yourself to the unfamiliar. Begin with the smallest of steps to open yourself to trying something novel and get out of your comfortable daily routine, and you will be amazed what you can unearth about yourself, and how many doors of new possibilities can open for you.

Paul Samuel

Books