Take Off & Landing

Recently a friend of mine posted the shortest take off and landing of a single engine airplane. It was footage from a competition and the winner had won four times in a row. Within a matter of seconds and, after going just a few feet, the plane was off the ground.

And the landing was just as spectacular! Normally most planes need a long runway for a take off or landing but this plane glided down slowly and, like a sky diver attached to a parachute, the pilot landed his small plane, almost on a dime.

If i hadn't seen it I would not have believed it and, I also consider my friend, who posted the video clip, somewhat of an expert: he sells airplanes for a living.

So many factors are involved in aerodynamics: speed, weight, wind, and torque or force, to name a few. Think of all the old footage you have seen of the Wright Brothers or others who tried and failed at getting airborne.

Once Orville and Wilber Wright mastered the right formula, others were able to replicate it and now planes and jets are flying all over the world.

There is another frontier where I believe many different types of Wright Brothers have been attempting to launch something, and they are still trying to determine the formula of getting something off the ground.

I first met some of these early pioneers of flight when I attended, and eventually hosted, a weekly employment meeting. Each week unemployed men and women would gather to network. They would introduce themselves, explain the type of employment they were looking for, and trade information with others.

In a similar type of meeting, held at a different time of the week, entrepreneurs would get together and network about business ideas and businesses they were trying to launch. They even called their group the Entrepreneur Launchpad.

In addition to these two groups, I've attended chamber of commerce meetings and other business to business events. I have watch individuals try to collectively cooperate to achieve intended results.

The concept is a simple concept, but the beauty and genius entirely and completely unknown to me before. Like black charcoals on a round barbecue grill, individually it may be quite impossible to ignite the type of fire that would heat up the grill, but collectively, the constant contact between charcoals, with a flame, the right amount of oxygen, and the right amount of lighter fluid, the formula for producing heat to cook on a grill is achieved.

If you make the connection, you see that individuals are like individual pieces of  charcoal, often hard to light or motivate on their own, but individuals, working together to reach similar results, are like coals bunched together, synergizing their efforts and are compounding the results.

The unemployment meetings I have attended are unlike most meetings however. No one is selling anything to each other or trying to sell anything to each other. They are also not really in a position to hire anyone, so it is not like a job fair. In reality, it is a lot like a support group that reciprocates information, referrals, and other contact information. And, having seen these groups in action for several years, I have seen amazing, unselfish results.

In fact the above mentioned Entrepreneurial launch pad was actually started by a few people who had been attending the unemployment meetings and realized that there was power in group participation, although i don't necessarily feel that the pure motives are the same. The reason I mention this about the launch pad or maybe other group meetings like this is, no matter how pure you want the motives to be, sometimes there is someone who attends who really wants to sell you something directly, get you to join their mlm, or even worse, may steal you business idea or invention, because you didn't have the contacts or the resources to do anything with you idea.

Online social networks are a powerful tool to connect people. From Twitter to Facebook to Instagram to Linkedin it feels like we are more connected to others than we used to be. But I wonder if this level is more superficial than substantive. How strong are our friendships? How good are our connections? How long lasting are our relationships?  How many people can you call when you need something or when you are really in trouble?

I have spent the past few days in deep contemplation about this subject  How good of a friend am I?  A few years ago, while going through a terrible divorce, I started my own support group called Brothers Helping Brothers. It wasn't affiliated with my church, my line of work, or any other organization or group, it was simply for those having a hard time with the trial and transition.

Although I had been hosting the group for several years, within only a year of being single, I met a beautiful woman who I would eventually marry. Sadly I lost time and interest in the group and it faded from my priorities.  Even though the group had no part in lining me up with my wife, my single friends had helped me pick up the pieces of my life and move forward. Although my Facebook is still linked to many of my friends, I wonder how strong my contacts really are.

Naturally, over the course of our lives, our friendships shift and change. We make friends in school, then graduate and lose contact. We make friends at work, change jobs and lose contact. We make friends in wards, on missions and then, even though we don't intend to, we lose closeness and contact.

Perhaps the answer to my question is a simple one: my friendships are only as strong as the friend that I am. If I am a true friend or a good friend or a loyal friend, I will get what I give. In the end, my friendships will be a reflection of the person I have become; they will reflect who I am.

Maybe Casper the Friendly Ghost put it best when he said, "A friend in need is a friend indeed."