Risky Business

Just what is experiential education--and why did corporations and small businesses pay a total of more than $500,000 last year to give their executives and employees the Fulcrum experience? "That is the question we're asked," says Bourne. "We create experiences that magnify real-life situations. Then we give a person or group an opportunity to look at that experience and see how it relates to their lives and how they might want to change something to [make it] work more beneficially."

Whether it's rock climbing, swinging across a river from one side of a cliff to another, or navigating a military-style ropes course, the training involves "a series of very difficult tasks that usually takes place at heights," says Paul. "When [participants] successfully face the fear and meet the challenge we provide, they discover tremendous strength within themselves, which they draw from to meet other challenges that are more familiar, such as expanding their business or negotiating a contract. Adventure is the deepest, most visceral, most easily integrated teacher on the planet. There's just no better way [to learn]."

This article was originally published in the May 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Risky Business.