ABSTRACT
This chapter is a poignant example of the importance of keeping oneself grounded. The author does this by telling a story about flying. The author was confronted by his mentor while allowing himself to wallow in self-pity. The mentor, stopping the author in his tracks, told a nostalgic, yet direct story about learning to fly cargo planes during pre-Vietnam era operations in Laos. He explained to the author that he had initially walked onto the runway expecting to be an automatic ACE and was abruptly put in his place by the flight instructor. The plane, an F-117 flying boxcar, was a hunk of junk. But it was what he had to fly. Similarly, in the safety profession, practitioners are often dealt less than ideal conditions. When that happens, we all have the choice to either “fly the plane we’ve got,” or roll over and accept defeat. The Stupid Simple Tool in this chapter is a mindset that needs to be adopted by anyone hoping to succeed in leadership (safety or otherwise). Leaders who succeed are those who do so in spite of their circumstances, not because of them.
