The End is Just the Beginning

Yesterday was the last page in a chapter of life that will leave a permanent mark on this family.

This is a picture from my last flight in the C-17, what is commonly called a “fini-flight.”

These are the most important people in the world to me: my wife Beth and my children, Blake, Emily Rose, Robby, and Jake (which I explain more fully here).

I learn a lot about life and leadership through our interactions, our mistakes, our challenges and trials, and through moments of joy like these. As the leader of this family, if I fail to learn from each opportunity, then I fail as a leader. This is the essence of learning by analogy.

Incidentally, nobody else is as forgiving, to the growing pains of leadership, as they are.

I have been afforded a wealth of opportunities as an Air Force officer–the things I learned and did yesterday are not the same things we will do today or tomorrow. But I have been blessed with an enormous set of tools for facing the unknowns on the road ahead. This is learning by analogy!

I’ve never been an EntrePilot before.  My wife hasn’t been an EntreWife–the wife of an entrepreneur–before.  But neither of us has been the parent of a twelve-year old before either (soon…).  Honestly, the challenges we’ll face in leading this family together are far more scary than the those of running a business.  But we know Someone Who can help with both.  And we know a lot of people from whom we can learn…by analogy.

As we walked away from the airplane yesterday, we walked toward a future of opportunity.