ABSTRACT
This story rewinds the clock to the author’s experience in the United States Air Force basic training. He recounts his unconventional rise to a place of leadership amongst a group of young men who did not initially view him as such. The undertones of this chapter speak to discovering the qualities of a good leader within oneself before even knowing one possesses them. Throughout this tale, the author makes note that it was not his drive or ambition to become a leader, but his resolve to avoid failure that ultimately led him to success. At the end of the chapter, the author recounts his weapons qualification test. Through this example, the case is made that by aiming at the wrong target (incident rates, for instance) an organization may short-change its ability to determine what went wrong when unwanted consequences (injuries) occur. In the second Stupid Simple Tool, the author proposes that companies should aim to eliminate the big-ticket items of worker deaths, maiming (things like lost limbs), and other permanent disfigurations before ever worrying about whether something is an OSHA Recordable.
