We all have big moments in life when we must be the best in our world. Whether it is a job interview, a meeting with decision-makers or some personal challenge, we have to excel over a short time. How do you prepare for a moment of excellence?
Many bridges can be built between those big moments and aerobatic competition at world level. Twice, I have been World Aerobatic Champion. Twelve years apart.
To be the best, you only need to be the best for 3 times 7 minutes, spread over ten days or so, and only every 2 years. That’s all. Before, no need… After, too late. The central question is: how do you get it right at the right moment? That is what aerobatic competition taught me.
Here is the answer: let us fly over two words, passion and patience. They go together and grow from the same root, the Greek verb meaning “to suffer” in the sense of “to experience”. These words give us keys to preparation and to organising time, which we will explore together. Passion is what makes you endure more than others; patience is what makes you bear the slow progress towards excellence, the improvements and the mistakes, the parts of preparation that belong to the long and medium term. How do you bring patience into a passion so that it can last, take shape, grow richer and come to fruition?
The passion we have thrown ourselves into meets constraints, which we overcome through learning, building a team and gaining the experience, mastery and skill to get round them with inventiveness and confidence.
To make the team perform, I have to listen to it. Let people speak. “Whoever listens is listened to.” Trust, always…
What share of risk is acceptable? How far does trust go? We work through a succession of mistakes. “Forbid mistakes and you prevent victory.”