Many believe the Chinese symbol for “crisis” equals danger plus opportunity. Not true. The rational opportunity in danger is to move on. Take it from a motivational keynote speaker - Why learn the hard way?
The western horizon was pristine while the east bore down with a menacing posture. The storm appeared a few hours hence. With the sailplane rented for 90 minutes, flying was a ‘safe’ bet. Seconds before take off, the chief instructor tapped on the bubble canopy. “Do you see that black cloud over there? Stay away from it.”
This was your 70 th solo flight. Early enough in your flying career to still hang on any bit of Carol’s advice.
The flight was mind-blowing. Thermal columns punched out of the scorching Texas soil like invisible hot-air geysers. A nudge under the left wing. “One, Two, Three.” Roll the 45-foot wingspan back into the vortex of rising air. Whoop, whoop, whoop. The altimeter spiraled up. A thousand feet per minute. You glided along the underside of the cloud base. Off to find another heart pumping thermal. Glancing at your watch, 85 minutes of bliss has passed. Time to turn back to the Caddo Mills airstrip. Bliss morphed into compounding uncertainty.
The return flight path was met with a headwind you’d never experienced. Your mind raced. Uh oh. That cloud you were avoiding had every intention of beating you to the runway.
Pock. Pock. Pock-Pock-PockPOCKPOCKPOCK - Rain! Like an angry teen beating a snare drum. Ugh. Rain means down. Down is bad when you have no engine and you’re still uncomfortably far from home. You decide to lessen your rate of decent. That was my first mistake. (57% of fatal plane accidents are a result of pilot error, 12% more due to weather – bad odds)
By the time you get to the downwind leg you haven’t descended enough. With too much altitude, I made my second mistake. Deploy the airbrakes early to shave off more altitude. Oops. Too much - too early.
Rolling into the base leg exposed the wings to a wall of wind that foamed from the mouth of the massive, gnashing, black cloud. This shoved the plane way past the intended final approach. The left wingtip was dangerously close to the ground. Disintegration by cartwheeling flashed past the mind.
Fortunately, the wing didn’t catch. You missed the telephone poles. You landed 45 degrees across the runway. You pulled off an emergency landing, missing giant ditches in the field beside the hanger.
Wobbling out of the plane, crisis was averted. The opportunity to fly again was as appealing as a root canal with a chisel. With a new-born at home the message from the heavens was loud and clear. “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. But there are no old-bold pilots.”
The odd crisis now and then clarifies the parameters of danger and the inherent lack of opportunity therein. If you ever get a sign that your opportunity-cost is clouded by too much danger… time to move on. Or - learn the hard way.
Vince "Forward to a friend OR if YOU are that friend - Sign Up Here"
NY Times bestselling author, Vince Poscente, is the founder of Libretto Publishing and has written five bookstranslated into more than twenty languages. He writes about harnessing the speed of change, the way to reach BIG GOALS in less time, accelerating potential of human capital, how to get out of your own way and best of all, instant impact with lasting influence.
