From Chapter 8, "Kindness: The Art of Paying it Forward" in Ingredients of Outliers The famous French author and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was born into an aristocratic family in 1900. Growing up, he wasn’t a particularly good student, and at age 21 he entered military service with the French Army. After taking private flying lessons, he accepted a transfer to the French Air Force. Back in civilian life in 1926, he resumed flying and became one of the pioneers in flying international mail routes, a dangerous job in those early days of aviation. At about that same time, … [Read more...]
Near Fatal Experience
Being prepared is something that has saved my own tail in a few sticky situations. In fact, just last year, I was involved in a near fatal airplane crash. I was the passenger in the cockpit of a plane, which crashed on takeoff. A pilot friend was flying when a gust of wind hit us right at the moment of takeoff from a mountain airstrip. The plane veered off the runway to the left and then back to the right before striking a hangar. Luckily, the person in the backseat near the exit (also a pilot) kicked the door open a moment before impact. Otherwise, we would have been trapped. The pilot … [Read more...]