You know, leaders, as long as leaders have strength, strength with authority as Andy said and expertise and talent and all that. One of the most powerful ways that leaders have strength that people follow from the heart is that your people have got to feel like you would do anything for them. That you would die for them. You would die for the mission. In other words, you are there for them.
In fact, you would jump out of an airplane for them. How many of you would do that? Come on, let’s have some takers here.
When I was engaged to my wife, her birthday was coming up, and I said, “Oh, I got a great idea for your birthday. I’m going to take you on a golf trip.” She goes, “Whose birthday is this?” I said, “Okay, what do you want?” She said, “I want sky diving.” I said, “Okay, I’ll take you sky diving.” She goes, No, I want us to go skydiving.” I said “I’ll take you out there.” She said, “No, I want us to jump out of the plane.” I said, “like with an instructor, they’ll hook you up or static line.” She goes like “No, no, that’s for wusses. She said, “I want us individually to pull our own shoes and jump out of the plane.” I said “great.”
Now, when you’re engaged you got a vision, right? You can’t lose influence. You can’t lose credibility. You got to have courage, so I’m acting like, “I’m there, let’s go do this.” Now, meanwhile, I’m calling every venue in the country see if they knew the speaker on her birthday, but I’m in.
So we go out there and we go to this place and, the first thing they do for literally, the first hour is this cheesy little attorney is showing you all these videos and reading you case law of why they’re not liable when you die. That’s what the first hour is. And then, the rest of the day they train you, you know first in the technique, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and then you get all your wings out so you don’t crash and tumble and all this.
But then, for the rest of the day they’re showing you pictures, holding up pictures of problem scenarios and I am freaked out, scared to death. Scared pass death. In fact, I think I’ve already died. And they’re on the picture, “What do you do when you see this?” and sheets all tangled and flashing in the wind. You got to figure when you dump that one and go to the reserve and I am petrified. My wife had no fear, whatsoever. I am petrified but I’m going to die for the cause, right.
So, here’s what happens. The whole time, we’re sitting there and about to go and then there’s an alarm, a wind warning. So we got to wait an hour to die. We go to a coffee shop. We’re sitting there. She is, I’m sitting there and I’m studying all diagrams and all that stuff and look at her. Excuse me I am really sorry. There, maybe that’s better. I I’m sitting there freaked out and she, I look at her at the coffee table, she is asleep. I’m going to die. She is asleep. She has no fear. I am afraid but I will die for this cause.
Now, here’s what happens. Wind warning is over, we go, and they take us out to the plane. We get into the plane, sit down and there’s I think, five of us in our group and we’re sitting there and just the way it worked out, I’m sitting by, what used to be a door in the plane, it’s a hole. And so, I didn’t realize it but I’m going first. So I don’t even get to see her die. I’m dying first.
And so, we take off, this I’ll never forget this. We get to 2,500 feet. Now, we are going to 13,000 feet. The edge of the oxygen level where coliseums looks like ants, above the oxygen level and we are going to pull around chute. And we get to 2,500 feet, and I look down and I can’t recognize anything. We are up there and then the instructor says, “Okay, I want everybody look out the window and see what 2,500 feet looks like, because you need to recognize what that looks like because that’s the last moment anything good can happen. You’re falling 120 miles an hour.
So I looked out and something happened in me. I became a leader. I was no longer afraid. I was no longer afraid, I just went dead calm. I’m looking out, I know what I got to do. Now, I think that’s because since I knew I was going to die, I had worked through the stages of death and I was at acceptance. So I knew that I was going to die but something just happened. I just went calm and now I’m into it, I’m going to go. So then she looks out the window; she is sitting down there, she looks out the window and all of the sudden she goes, “Ah!” and she screams and all of the sudden she goes, “I’m not going, I’m not going, I’m not going.” I’m going, “Yes.” So excited now because I’m calm and so she’s over there fighting with the instructor and I just say, “That’s your problem. I’m jumping.”
So we get up there and she says . . . It came to the time where she is freaking out. I didn’t know this until later when I saw her on the video because I had to go first. And so, I look out and then I see and I go and you jump out of an airplane first time. I never have done this and you jump out and they tell you, you got to hold your wings because if you flap, you’ll go into spin. So I’m like . . . and the winds 120 miles an hour on your face. Go drive the freeway and stick your head out of the window at 120 miles an hour and that’s what happens.
So I get down 7,500 feet, or 5,000 feet, I think, is where we pulled it. I pulled it and all of sudden there’s a whack and it goes dead silent. I look up and the chute opened and I am like, this must be what heaven is like. And I’m floating around and I’m talking to God and saying, “I thought I’ll talk to you face to face but this will do,” and it was amazing. You get 8 or 9 minutes to that. I don’t know what’s going on but I saw the video later, what’s going on meanwhile back at the ranch up on the plane, she is freaked, freaked, freaked. The video has her “I’m not going, I’m not going, I’m not going.”
So the instructors take her over to the door, this is true, you’ll see it on the video, and they go “You’re going” and they go “1, 2, and they throw her out of the plane. She goes out of the plane; there’s another guy that dives next to you with the video and it zooms in on your face. She’s going down like this and we’re not in church. I can say this, or I can mouth it. The video zooms in on her face she is going down and you hear the word frozen on your face, all the way down.
We get down there and the video is going, “I’ll never do that again.” Ladies and gentleman that is leadership. You are going to ask your people to do stuff, it sound great until you get into it and that’s where you are going to have to literally suck it up, go brain dead, and show them that you are willing to jump out of the plane for the cause. You are willing to do whatever it takes. When they see you doing that and then they freak out, they’ve got somebody to attach to that will lead them through their influence pass themselves. God Bless, you guys.
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