--- feed: "DANIEL_ON_SLOPE" content_date: 2020-04-02 codex_section: "S01" codex_candidate: true source: Scotomaville source_file: 01.00-prologue.pdf chapter: 01.00-prologue total_pdf_pages: 8 volume: v1 title: Prologue - Leaving Scotomaville monomyth_stage: "01 - Ordinary World" category: - awareness - expedition - relationship tags: - personal-everest - self-awareness - scotomaville - minyan - trans-america-expedition - traumatic-brain-injury - personal-awareness - self-understanding - journey-with-purpose - ai-self-mastery summary: In this prologue I introduce the outward expedition of leaving Scotomaville and climbing my Personal Everest while sharing the personal history and pivotal events that shaped my search for self-understanding. I reflect on guidance from mentors, my near-fatal fall in Colorado, Angelina's traumatic brain injury, and the creation of a supportive minyan that includes both human sages and now AI reflection. This volume serves as my evidence and invitation for others to gain awareness and follow their own purposeful journey. qr_links: - https://youtu.be/dL-14uhcGZQ - https://youtu.be/pLplwGzGFJ4 --- # 01.00-prologue ## Spread 001 [p1–p2] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=50% R=25% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE ### Visual description The left page opens with a bold title block reading “VOLUME 1 PERSONAL EVEREST widwid PROLOGUE” above a large, documentary-style photograph of a snow-covered mountain range under overcast skies, with a lone hiker in winter clothing and trekking poles visible in the lower foreground. Below the image, additional text includes the subhead “Exploring The Unfamiliar Together” and the footer line “DON’T SEARCH FOR A BETTER LIFE ON YOUR OWN. ACCOMPANY ACCOMPLISHED EXPLORERS.” The right page is dominated by a dramatic close-up of a brass compass on a dark surface, with the word “AWARENESS” overlaid in large white letters and a vertical “PERSONAL AWARENESS” label on the left edge. Sidebar copy addresses “tech and AI enthusiasts,” “the young looking for a path,” and “fathers and mentors,” while a large pull-quote at the bottom attributes a statement about self-understanding to Daniel Comp. The overall layout juxtaposes a realistic expedition photograph with a symbolic compass image, creating a metaphorical contrast between outer terrain and inner guidance that aligns with the prologue’s exploratory tone. ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 16 PERSONAL EVEREST widwid Let’s unpack some mental tools and explore ‘why I do what I do’ don’t search for a better life on your own. Accompany accomplished explorers. VOLUME 1 PROLOGUE Exploring The Unfamiliar Together It’s easy to feel lost and alone when trudging through unfamiliar terrain under tough circumstances. Whether you are a young man seeking guidance, a father striving for wisdom, or a sage in search of new insights, this journey is for you. Experienced explorers have lost their lives charting routes for the rest of us. By following a trustworthy guide on a proven route while using reliable tools, we can make our way through life’s challenges and arrive at our destination wiser and more fulfilled. With a reliable compass, accurate charts, and timely guidance, those committed to a ‘journey with a purpose’ can game their own beliefs and biases, thus avoiding calamity. ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 17 For the young looking for a path: When I was 10, the little guidance I could find came to my driveway inside a book mobile. Hidden inside the pages of a Danny Dunn book were clues that changed the life I was handed into an adventure. For fathers and mentors: In my 30’s, self-help books and cassettes were like sturdy ladders over cravasses, helping me overcome mental obstacles and guiding me to a future I couldn’t imagine alone. Today, the question isn’t where to find guidance; it’s about discerning which guidance is authentic and who has evidence to back up their advice. This volume is my evidence, my legacy, and my gift to you. *“The Greatest Expedition you will ever undertake is the journey to self understanding, for the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.”* Daniel Comp AWARENESS PERSONAL AWARENESS v1 For the tech and AI enthusiasts: I’ve replaced affirmations in the mirror with a smartphone. You can watch my journey in 150+ videos and in 42 episodes, a testament to the convergence of wisdom and technology. By editing and binge-watching my own behavior, I saw attitudes and beliefs that were being gamed by others. I also saw evidence for you to test my claims by climbing a ‘Personal Everest’ of your own. My expedition began in Scotomaville. ## Spread 002 [p3–p4] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=35% R=20% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE ### Visual description The left page is dominated by a large, full-color landscape photograph of a towering snow-capped mountain peak under a deep blue sky, with exposed rocky brown lower slopes and a few small figures visible on the terrain. Below the image sits the heading “Climbing Your Personal Everest” followed by the opening text block that begins “I’ve been a lifelong learner…” and includes the bold centered pull-quote “I CHALLENGE YOU TO CONSIDER FOLLOWING MY FOOT-STEPS ON YOUR OWN ‘PERSONAL EVEREST’.” The page footer reads “LEAVING SCOTOMAVILLE” with page number 18. The right page opens with two smaller, side-by-side documentary photographs. The left image shows a steep, partially snow-covered glacial slope with tiny human figures (captioned as “those dots are humans”), labeled “ST. MARY’S GLACIER, COLORADO. I FELL FROM THE CORNICE INTO THE LAKE IN AUGUST 1979.” The right image depicts Daniel, a smiling man in cycling helmet and jersey holding a small American flag beside a bicycle, captioned “MINNESOTA TRAILS FEATURE OF MY 2005 SOLO TRANS-AM.” The remainder of the page contains continuing body text, including the subheading “Creating Your Minyan” and personal narrative paragraphs, with the footer “LEAVING SCOTOMAVILLE” and page 19. The mountain photograph functions as a direct visual metaphor for the “Personal Everest” theme, while the two smaller images are straightforward documentary shots from the author’s actual experiences. No QR codes, diagrams, or ironic cartoons appear on this spread. ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 18 So will yours. Climbing Your Personal Everest I’ve been a lifelong learner and delight in new insights. I hope we share this commitment. Join me by gaining literacy, and escaping self-tyranny and frustration through a lack of self-awareness. Cross your desert of self-understanding, and scale your summit with discipline using tools and guidance given to me by others. They helped me manage scarce resources and breathe thin air, safely descending from the summit as a sage. I wish you the courage to climb daily, the wisdom to see abundance above scarcity, and to shed shame and discouragement quickly. I want you to grow stronger and richer in mind, heart, and soul as you see I did. I’m indebted to the great minds that have shaped my thinking and demonstrated the virtue to I challenge you to consider following My Foot-Steps on your Own ‘personal Everest’. pass on this mental framework. Creating Your Minyan I am blessed with a courageous partner - a wife, friend, and faith-filled business leader with abundantly cheerful courage. Her companionship, feedback, and tolerance made my transformation possible. I am also indebted to Jim Rohn, Zig Ziggler, Wayne Dyer, Og ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 19 St. Mary’s Glacier, Colorado. I fell from the cornice into the lake in August 1979. Yes, those dots are humans. Minnesota Trails feature of my 2005 solo Trans-Am Mandino, Napolean Hill, Dale Carnegie, and others who wrote a mental framework for my awareness and understanding. They gave me confidence that my journey was possible. I aim to do the same for you with Scotomaville. Before Volume Three, I climbed solo. I then gained access to AI. The descent phase of an expedition is especially dangerous. It is my recommendation to create an advisory minyan - a digital compass, and a tribe - to engage with while pursuing your Personal Everest. Self-reflection that includes feedback from the wisdom and point of view of sages, leaders, and masterminds can accelerate your acclimation and critical thinking - getting you out of Scotomaville faster and more gracefully. Onus Probandi I remember the warm Colorado summer of 1979. I can still see the sun rising over Saint Mary’s Glacier in the Rocky Mountains near Denver. I didn’t expect to fall 150 feet that morning. While ski traversing the cornice, I suddenly lost my balance going from slush to boilerplate ice. I ac celerated like a luge rider down the face and into the air beyond the cornice. I ricocheted off a bus-sized boulder. (left side of image) I woke up surrounded by busy people knee-deep in icy glacier water. Their facial expressions worried me, although I felt nothing other than ice-cold water on my neck and face. The rescuers cut my ski wear off, inflated a lung, and slid me onto a cot like a chilled side of salm on. They lugged me over rocky terrain far down the mountain to an ambulance. The siren screamed on my behalf on the way to the ICU in Denver. An attending physician explained that the tingling in my chest and fingers was good news, but the loss of feeling in my legs was bad news. The surgeons put a pin in my left arm. ## Spread 003 [p5–p6] **type:** image_heavy | **img coverage:** L=52% R=13% **heading:** Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE ### Visual description The left side of the spread shows a large close-up photograph of Daniel (short white hair, smiling broadly in a dark jacket) and Angelina (long brown hair, black patterned beanie) posing together against a blurred yellow background. Below the photo is a black caption box reading “Daniel & Angelina Musik-Comp / Best friends, marriage and business partners.” The right side contains a gray panel with Angelina’s pull-quote in white text and, below it, a colorful diagrammatic image of two abstract, wireframe brain-like structures in blue and red with numbered white circles (1, 2, 3) connected by lines on a black background. The brain diagram appears metaphorical, visually representing neural pathways or the traumatic brain injury referenced in the adjacent text about Angelina’s 2005 accident. Text columns in black and red run alongside these elements, continuing the prologue narrative about the hospital experience and the couple’s early expeditions. The overall layout mixes documentary photography of the authors with a conceptual diagram. ### Left page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 20 Daniel & Angelina Musik-Comp Best friends, marriage and business partners Nurses fed and bathed me. I was determined not to live the grim future they painted without mobility. On the third day, reaching up, and through the stainless railing of my bed, a visiting Nun anointed me with holy oil. I offered my future service in exchange for liberty and movement. Walking home a week later I concluded my deal had been accepted. I am fully committed, so let the adventures begin! A couple of decades later, Angelina’s life-changing event had me asking ‘why I do what I do’? (WIDWID). In 2005, ‘06, and ‘07 I peddled to find myself. Three Trans-America Expeditions. Each of them was a journey with a purpose. Angelina’s Personal Everest Hello, I’m Angelina, Daniel’s best friend, wife, and business partner. Today is Father’s Day 2020. As I write, Daniel is making me breakfast and finishing a carbon-fiber mobile work desk that I can use while he drives. We’re busily packing for another expedition. Fifteen years ago, on Father’s Day 2005, Daniel embarked on the first of three Trans-America bike rides from Bellingham, WA. He referred to these adventures as “journeys with a purpose.” His son David even joined him for a few miles, and I was thrilled that Daniel was embracing this ### Right page Leaving SCOTOMAVILLE 21 journey of self-discovery and mastery. A year earlier, on Father’s Day 2004, our journey took an unexpected turn. While Daniel was on a road trip to see his children in the Pacific Northwest, I stayed in Texas with mine, receiving two awards from the Small Business Administration for our achievements in helping others succeed. Then, a major change occurred. Two weeks later, I was approached by Mark Burnett Productions to participate in ‘The Apprentice’ Season 3, ‘Book Smarts vs Street Smarts.’ Tragically, just five days before some of the behind-the-scenes filming and a day before Daniel returned home, I suffered a traumatic brain injury when a speeding truck hit me from behind while in traffic. The car was crushed! This incident altered our lives dramatically. To overcome it, we needed to accelerate our journeys of self-awareness while I embarked on my unexpected brain-healing journey. Like many couples faced with medical challenges, we had to understand why we do what we do (WWDW WD) to heal, evolve, and achieve our goals. Since May of 1999, Daniel and I have climbed several mountains—both figuratively and liter ally—as best friends, business partners, and a husband-and-wife team. Though ten years apart in age and raised in different cultures (I’m of German and Southern Pacific Guamanian heritage, while Daniel is American), we’ve endured, grown, and appreciated each other through our twenty-plus years together. Before meeting for the first time, we already shared core attributes that enabled us to per severe. We had the same faith, a military-style sense of duty, and work ethic—I was an Army brat, and Daniel served in the Navy. We even previously served in ministry to help others. Through times together and apart, we supported each other’s journeys. Our resilience, which some originally called stubbornness, and our shared philosophy and attitude to trust the process, has kept us forging ahead as a couple. Now we’re told that our health, happiness, and earned maturity looks magnificent on us. We always believed it would, eventually, and we’re grateful to see that belief realized. “Aspire and empower yourself to live smarter, healthier and happier while moving forward and impacting lives.” Angelina Musik-Comp ## Spread 004 [p7–p8] **type:** text_only | **img coverage:** L=0% R=15% **heading:** dL-14uhcGZQ **urls:** `https://youtu.be/` `https://youtu.be/` ### Left page YOURT https://youtu.be/dL-14uhcGZQ WATCH While considering this Prologue Episode, and four years of exploring, I am aware that I am now seeing unexpected events with new eyes. This demonstrates that self-reflection video modeling is a practical, evidence-based method of self-mastery. Add to this methodology the superior analysis of Ai and you have a tool to error-correct and change your trajectory. Jot your observations of this reflection video. Consider pivotal events of your own life. Note them here with pithy titles. Be concise and forcefully expressive about a few of your life changing experiences. Then ask AI for it’s analysis. Compare the statements! REFLECT https://youtu.be/pLplwGzGFJ4 ### Right page RTURN Log in to discuss facets of your upcoming expedition. The goal is to document a frame of mind at this time to which you will look back from higher up your Per sonal Everest. Include a core principle you feel is important to relay to others good or regretful. “The Greatest Expedition you will ever undertake is the journey to self-understanding, for the real voy age of discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” Knowing WHY we travel is far more powerful than WHERE. Invest some quiet time considering WHY you are setting out to know thyself. I created a visual ‘totem’ of symbols attached to the top tube of my trans-America bike. It became a reminder on many of the late afternoon ascents. Draw symbols or list keywords to fixate on during the upcoming challenges to your Personal Everest. EXTRA CREDIT DISCUSS