Charlie Wittmack was about 13 years old when he started telling people that he would someday conquer Mount Everest. Back then, most people teased him that such a dream was unattainable for a kid from Des Moines. But people who knew Wittmack were not surprised when, 13 years later, his dream became reality.

After climbing mountains on several continents and becoming the first Iowan to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain in 2003, Wittmack has returned to Des Moines to pursue more “Everest dreams.”

This fall, Wittmack was hired by the Davis, Brown, Koehn, Shors & Roberts law firm as an attorney specializing in general litigation and trial advocacy. Outside work, he talks with students, businesses and organizations around the country about setting goals and leveraging success.

“Climbing teaches you that every time you achieve something, you should try to achieve something more difficult after that,” Wittmack said.

Using what he has learned from climbing, he tells others the first step toward reaching your dream is to identify what the dream is.

“Dreams aren’t goals or achievements,” Wittmack said. “They’re bigger than that.

Dreams are what make us who we are. A dream is kind of like something that’s off on the horizon that you can see from a long ways away.”

He said adults tend to have a harder time identifying their dreams because they get bogged down with everyday obligations and are afraid of failure. After identifying the dream, he says, you break it down into short-term and long-term goals. After you achieve those goals and realize your dream, you go after another dream. Here’s how those steps have played out in Wittmack’s life.

His first experience with mountain climbing was at age 13, when he and his father went to Colorado to climb Long’s Peak. But that first climb didn’t go as well as Wittmack had hoped. On their way up to the summit, Wittmack became scared and decided to stop. He waited while his father climbed on to the top and returned.

Disappointed he had not been successful on his first climbing attempt, Wittmack turned to an accomplished athlete for advice on how to better prepare for his next trip up the mountain. Wittmack’s swimming coach helped him get in touch with John Naber, who won four Olympic gold medals in 1976.

“He was about the first person who didn’t laugh when I said that I wanted to climb Everest,” Wittmack said. “He said it was great that I had identified my dream, and he suggested I set some short-term and long-term goals to help me get there.”

Wittmack realized that in order to conquer Everest, he would need to become skilled at climbing not just mountains, but mountains with snow, glaciers and vertical ice waterfalls.

A year after that first climbing attempt, Wittmack and his father returned to Long’s Peak, and both of them made it to the top. Wittmack continued working toward his climbing goals as a teenager. While attending Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, he organized climbing trips for other students. Putting the trips together helped finance his climbs in places such as the Andes Mountains, the Swiss Alps and Mount Rainier.

“Any time we had an opportunity to get away from school for a few days, a few of us would hop in a car and go drive all night to someplace like the Grand Tetons,” Wittmack said. “We’d climb around for a day and go back to school.”

In all, Wittmack spent seven years preparing to climb Everest. Knowing that for every five people who reach the top, one person dies trying, he wanted to be as prepared as possible before making his attempt. Part of his planning process included extensive medical research and learning how to handle fear.

“There are two types of fear,” Wittmack said. “The first is the kind where we’re doing something we shouldn’t be doing and our body is telling us to stop. The second is when we’re on a new path where the outcome is uncertain and the consequences of failure are severe. I had to learn to identify between the two.”

Wittmack’s hard work finally paid off on May 22, 2003. After battling three months of the worst weather on record and surviving for several days without food or water, he reached the top of Everest.

At age 26, he accomplished something that no other Iowan had done before. You might think he would have taken a breather after that. But actually, his life hasn’t slowed down at all. He and his wife, Catie, were married in 2004, and he graduated from law school this past May.

In September, Wittmack achieved another “Everest dream” by successfully passing the Iowa bar examination to become an attorney. At age 29, Wittmack now says his goal is to become as successful in the legal profession as he has been on the climbing circuit.

“Everest made me see that there are no limits to what we can do,” Wittmack said. “Limits are just illusions. As attorneys, we have to realize that those limits aren’t there. We can work harder. We can study harder. We can research harder, and when we invest all our selves in a matter, the summit’s easy to reach.”