Challenges for sure. Bring them on.

When I was 20 I flew to the USA to buy a small 4 seater aircraft (Beechcraft Duchess).  I got it equipped with extra fuel tanks (1000 litres) and took 3 of the seats out so that I could fly for 21 hours. I got some cool avionics put in including a Horizontal Situation Indicator. This combined the compass with the VOR and ILS.  But I was on a tight budget and got an inexperienced guy to do it.  Alas he placed the magnet for the compass next to the servos (motors) that drove the ailerons for the auto pilot.  I found out half way between San Francisco and Hawaii that each time I put the autopilot on it turned the plane 10 degrees north without me knowing.  I was well on my way to ditching in the ocean half way between Hawaii and Japan.  Luckily I got one good latitude/longitude read from my satnav (pre GPS) that showed I was off course and was able to correct and arrived in Hawaii after 15 hours of flight.

This flight from the US to Australia was an huge challenge. I had faced death.  But once survived it did something deep inside me.  Gave me confidence.  But something more, something I cannot describe in words.