Word Allergies

February 3, 2007 by neilkrey.

My years in the aviation industry have been evenly split between time in the cockpit and time behind a desk – over 15 years of each.  In my desk-life, I have worked in management for some of the most successful companies in aviation – SimuFlite, FlightSafety International, Bombardier, Raytheon, Hughes Aircraft, and General Dynamics.  I not only learned a lot about being a pilot, I learned about business.  What I have learned makes me believe that sometimes they are not compatible.

Imagine, for example, sitting in a business meeting with your boss and coworkers.  The boss asks if the project you are responsible for will be finished on time.  If you answer “No”, the results are not likely to be pleasant.  The same is true if you say “You will have to wait.”  It seems that in our results-oriented business world, you need to develop an allergy to words such as “no” and “wait”. Read the rest of this entry »