Sully Sullenberger
Leaders must learn to discipline their disappointments.
It is not what happens to us, it is what we choose to do about
what happens that makes the difference in how our lives turn out.
Jim Rohn
It's not everyday you get to see and hear a Hero speak. I am blessed for the opportunity I had because the Texas Association of REALTORS® made arrangements to have what I believe is one of the best Key Note Speakers I ever heard at the 2015 TAR REALTOR® Convention in Fort Worth, TX.
Sully Sullenberg is the pilot who safely landed the plane into the Hudson River with 155 passengers and crew on board. The first thing that impressed me about Sully was his age. At a time in our lives when so many experienced professionals are retired and no longer working for a major company, I was in awe because this pilot, today's American Hero is 64 years old. Could a younger, less experienced pilot successfully handle such an emergency? I doubt it.
Watching the cockpit recordings and showing where the plane was at and listening to Sully's voice was surreal. He was always in control and he never panicked. His knowledge, life experiences, time management and communication skills were perfected as a result of all his years in training and flying planes. Nobody is trained to land a plane in water. Scully had 208 SECONDS to solve the problem that no one behind the scenes behind any other controls on the ground knew how to do and it was up to him to safety land the plane because passengers and human life was at stake. Time was of the essence! Scully and his co-pilot are not actors playing the part of characters, such as Top Guns in a Major Motion Movie Theater - this was a real life emergency situation! Subsequently Sully IS a Super Hero!
What Scully did wasn't just an accomplishment, it was a miracle that occured on that very cold day on January 15, 2009. He did not have time for flashbacks - he stayed focused because time was ticking. Clearly, his years in the business developing listening skills and techniques paid off! He kept his composure and everyone was safely rescued. Scully admits that what he had to do was very difficult but he knew that you have to make those greatest challenges of your life a part of you. You deal with the situation at hand, making decisions based upon what you are trained to do because lives depend on it.
My greatest take-away from Scully's speech was understanding what all instructors try to teach - by applying what you learned over time you can accomplish more in less time and in this case there wasn't any time for mistakes, checking the manuals, or getting on-line to find out what to do. You just do it!
©Patricia Feager 9/12/2015
Comments(34)