Page 142 - Never Fly Solo

ABORT! ABORT! | 115
man on a tough initiative, project, or personal issue? Will you
solicit feedback from those who will challenge you and tell
you straight up what you need to hear and not from yes-men
who tell you what you want to hear? Are you willing to
expose your weaknesses, doubts, and fears and solicit your
wingmen’s thoughts and opinions? And having asked, will
you listen to them and take the appropriate action? Perhaps
they will tell you to bail out and quit. Or they may encourage
you to stick with the mission, because you may not see the
impact your abort will have on your wingmen or those you
love.
Unlike Moose, that morning at Morón I had wingmen I
could call out to for help, but my ego stopped me. Even
though I had wingmen, I thought and acted as if I were taking
off from Spain on a solo mission. And because of that, I
thought I messed up when I decided to quit.
Jet fighters have ejection seats because no aircraft is per-
fect. Neither is the pilot—and neither are you. You’ll make
mistakes. You may need to use that ejection seat because you
may not see the missile hurtling toward your aircraft or
because you realize you’re on the wrong flight path. My
advice to you is to quit with confidence. But quit only after
you’ve earned the right to quit. And after you quit, dust your-
self off, find a mission worth flying, and then get back to
work planning for that new mission.
Ultimately, you alone can make the final decision. But
don’t make that decision solo. When you have a wingman or
two who care about you and are really looking out for your
best interest, making that call will be a lot easier. Fortunately
for me, I learned this lesson on a mission I never flew. Some-
times it’s better to stay on the ground than fly with a broken
wing.