Steve Fossett ran into a little trouble during the Iditarod, the 1,100-mile Alaskan dog sled race. His lead dog decided on his own to stop to rest and insisted that the rest of the team rest with him.

Yelling didn't work, so Fossett marched to the front of the sled, got down on his hands and knees and bit the husky's right ear.

As Fossett describes it in his new memoir, "Chasing the Wind," the bite "was hard enough for him to know that I was the lead 'dog,' that I was the alpha male in this chain of command."

Fossett, during a recent Investor's Business Daily interview, chuckled at the memory of that power of will. He said he sometimes had to try a similar tack with his employees — figuratively speaking — to let them know who was boss.

"You sometimes have to assume a leadership position and make it clear that you are setting the direction," Fossett said. "Usually I do this by laying out what needs to be done and saying, 'This is the way we're going to do it.' It's just a matter of laying out a plan."

Even so, he kept his ego in check. "I do take advice," he said. "I did not dictate in a vacuum. Before I laid out my plans, I listened."

Fossett's always been good at looking at every angle and seeking advice before making a move. It helped him make Lakota Trading Co., which he founded to trade commodities, a powerhouse on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

While he worked hard and stayed aggressive to amass a fortune, he wanted more adventure.

So Fossett started pursuing other activities that interested him — the more daring, the more intriguing. He went on to capture more than four dozen world records in flying, becoming the first to fly solo nonstop around the world — in a balloon, then a plane. He holds the world record for sailing solo across the Pacific, and completed the Iditarod, the Boston Marathon and Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. He's climbed the highest peak on six of the seven continents and raced cars at Le Mans and in the Paris-to-Dakar auto rally. He also won recognition for swimming the English Channel and skiing.

Fossett, 62, was always involved in physical activities, sharing many of them with his father. His father taught him that Aesop was right: Slow and steady wins the race.

"My father didn't have very good wind," Fossett said. "Yet he loved to hike and climb mountains. As a teenager, I'd climb with him. But he was slow. Still I found by adopting a very slow pace, we were always able to get to the top. Also, when you go slowly you don't have to make as many rest stops. So you make pretty good progress getting up the mountain."

He also discovered that with effort, you can achieve almost anything. As a youth, Fossett was active in the Boy Scouts. One of the requirements to become an Eagle Scout was a physical fitness badge. Although Fossett was active in a wide range of sports, he couldn't do the six compulsory pull-ups.

He refused to quit. He set up a chinning bar in his home and worked out on it at least twice a day. "It took me months before I could do the six pull-ups. But I kept at it because I wanted to be an Eagle Scout."

Eventually he earned his physical fitness merit badge and became an Eagle Scout, and the lesson stayed with him. He applied it after learning that just because you find a commodities trading firm, clients don't flood in. Fossett called 20 prospects to land one account.

"It's what needed to be done," he said. "I had to do it early in my career in commodities and I've had to do it to succeed in some of my adventures. (Persistence) has paid off. It's very much been worth it."

Extending yourself to others is something else that's paid off. For example, a young man, Joe Ritchie, approached Fossett for a job. Fossett acted on instinct and hired Ritchie when fresh out of college to work as a computer programmer.

Fossett mentored him. "I coached him and helped him get his first position in commodities," Fossett said. Later, when Ritchie developed a system to determine the value of stock options and put it into a handheld computer, he shared it with Fossett because of his previous kindness.

Fossett was well on his way to success before Ritchie's system landed in his lap. He never turned down customers — even those thought too small by other brokers. Ever optimistic, Fossett figured some customers would grow into major accounts.

And they did.

When he accumulated enough wealth, he decided to devote himself to his various adventures. One of his early goals was to climb Mount Everest, but Fossett soon recognized that wasn't realistic. For health reasons — he suffered asthma as a child — and because he lacked the patience to sit in a base camp and wait for good weather, he shifted his goals. "You can't do everything," he said.

Success or failure is often tied to how well his adventures are planned. "In the planning stages I (might) find something that convinces me this project is not going to succeed, so I (might) cancel it," Fossett said. "It's in the planning stages, too, conversely, that something can be accomplished."

Because proper planning is important to Fossett, he insists on handling it all himself. This way, too, he's certain that the tiniest of details gets attention. Crucial to the success of an around-the-world flight was that the plane land on Midway in the Pacific at night, because the island is a nesting colony for 3 million albatrosses. The birds, which are active during the day, might've destroyed his plane.

Every plan should match the mission goal. On his first solo trans-Atlantic sailing, from France to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, all Fossett wanted to do was finish. So he chose a longer, more southerly course that promised milder weather. More experienced captains chose a more direct, rougher route that caused boats to capsize. Fossett finished and came in fifth place out of 20 starters.

"I think I really surprised the professional sailors," he said. "Just to finish that race is difficult, but to finish fifth shows you know how to handle your boat."

BY CURT SCHLEIER