Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance
Those are the 6P's, as passed down to me by Barry Landy. They serve as the cornerstone of P6 Aviation.
Turns out that it's a great philosophy for flying and also for starting a business. Fortunately, though I was completely unprepared for the latter, I've managed to survive year one and write about it.
Here's the deal, if you don't already know. Every entrepreneur book and cliché is right -- there is just no way to figure any of this out without actually taking the leap. There is honestly nothing I can teach you, but I can corroborate the following:
You'd better get good at making decisions. They come at you relentlessly. You may not always make the right one, but as I say about mistakes in the cockpit: keep them small, catch them quick and don't let them build on top of each other.
Surround yourself with the best people you can find and trust them. In our business, we fly the best equipment available at this level and we trust the platform. Mind you, in the cockpit we always "press and verify" when it comes to buttons, making sure that the airplane and its systems are working as we want them to, but once they are, we trust that the equipment will do its job well.
Be relentless in the pursuit of excellence. So far, we've been good at many things and not great at others. Part of that is that probably no new business gets off the ground without some aches and pains. But man, we try really hard to provide a consistently safe and enjoyable flight training experience. It feels like excellence, but I'll let you know in a few years.
