On April 5, 1988, an experienced skydiving videographer was filming an instructor and first-time student as they skydived from approximately 10,000 feet. The videographer had made two successful jumps earlier that day. With technology what it was back then, the recording equipment the videographer used was a heavy VHS deck stored in a backpack that he wore. The camera was unlike the smaller GoPro style cameras used today but was nonetheless mounted to his helmet in order to capture all the action.

The videographer was the first to jump from the plane followed by the instructor and student. All seemed to be in order. Shortly after filming the other skydivers for a brief period and hurtling toward the ground at 150 mph, the videographer attempted to deploy his parachute only to discover he wasn’t wearing one.

The videographer was a veteran skydiver who had made over 800 jumps in his career. Strapping on a parachute would only seem natural to the casual observer. By those who knew the videographer and those present that day, it is believed his preoccupation with the recording equipment, the weight of the equipment itself, and fatigue caused him to lose focus and fail to properly prepare. The videographer free fell nearly two miles and as a result of his improper preparation, he tragically lost his life.

While most leaders and business people don’t find themselves in this kind of life and death scenario, there are some important lessons that can be learned from this story.

Repetition Can Create a Lack of Focus

When doing the same thing over and over again it’s easy to lose focus on what’s important. A skydiver with 800 jumps could almost fold and pack a parachute blindfolded. Strapping on a parachute before entering the plane one is going to jump from is second nature to the veteran skydiver. Yet, from time to time, we learn of these unbelievable stories of someone failing to remember the most basic necessity of skydiving, the parachute. What is the repetitive action in your occupation or business that you run the risk of forgetting to do? Is it failing to simply “ask” for the sale assuming the potential buyer will surrender to you at some point? Is it failing to prepare for the presentation that you’ve done a hundred times before?

Preoccupation Can Ruin a Good Occupation

The National Science Foundation estimates the average person thinks thousands of thoughts per day. With that much inner traffic, it’s easy to become distracted. Business owners and operators have much to think about and prepare for. With so much on their minds it’s easy to become preoccupied with things that waste valuable time. It’s critical to prioritize tasks to ensure the most important items get done first. To avoid becoming preoccupied with less important and irrelevant tasks, it’s good to develop a daily plan of action. Whether one chooses to use an electronic planner, a written to-do list or a hybrid of both, developing a good system will ensure greater success.

Being Prepared is Not Just For Boy Scouts

Preparing for the task at hand is one of the most important aspects of successfully completing the task. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If I had 8 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my ax.” It’s easy to take short cuts when it comes to doing things one has done over and over again. Winging it might work every now and then, but to expect great results, one must prepare for success. What’s the goal of the event? What’s the desired outcome for the meeting? What does a winning sales call entail? Proper vision, planning, and preparation will create higher rates of success.

In our journey through this life, in both our personal and professional life, we will experience joy and sorrow, victory and defeat, triumph and trial, opportunities and obstacles along with success and failure. In short, we will experience peaks and valleys.

Although not very optimistic, some have said, “If you’re not headed out of a valley, you’re headed into one.” Remember, optimism does not deny reality, it’s an attitude in which one deals with it.

Many of our greatest life lessons and growth opportunities come from living life in valleys, not on mountain tops. As G.K. Chesterton said, “One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”

When enduring life in a valley, here a few things that might be helpful to remember.

Valleys are Unavoidable

If there was a road sign that defined life, it might read, “Caution, Valley Ahead.” They’re unavoidable. Sometimes the choices we make bring us into a valley, other times, it’s simply part of life that we experience times of sorrow, suffering, defeat, loss, challenges and despair.

Valleys are Unpredictable

As much as we plan and prepare, which is an important component in life, we don’t know what the future holds. In our planning and preparing, we need to understand “valleys” happen. It’s simply not possible to go from peak to peak without traveling through a valley.

Valleys are Unprejudiced

It’s easy to look at successful people in life and assume they had an easy path. Learn the story of those who achieved that success and learn the set-backs, challenges and delays they experienced along the way. Valleys are not assigned to a certain few in life but to everyone who lives and breathes.

Valleys Build Patience

A valley experience can helps us gain insight, develop understanding and teach us patience. We can choose to resist going through the valley, however, such resistance does not alter the course, change our direction or clear the path to a better life. It’s best not to make major life decisions while experiencing the crisis of a valley. Patiently taking inventory and making minor adjustments can sometimes be helpful.

As author Brian Adams wrote, “Learn the art of patience. Apply discipline to your thoughts when they become anxious over the outcome of a goal. Impatience breeds anxiety, fear, discouragement and failure. Patience creates confidence, decisiveness, and a rational outlook, which eventually leads to success.”

Valleys Build Character

A young girl went to her grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed that, as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, “Tell me, what do you see?” “Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” the young girl replied. The grandmother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

The granddaughter then asked, “What does it mean, grandmother?” Her grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity – boiling water – but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened! The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” the grandmother asked her granddaughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Photo credit: thescenicshutter

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe Pioneer 10. According to Leon Jaroff in Time, the satellite’s primary mission was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons, and beam data to earth about Jupiter’s magnetic field, radiation belts, and atmosphere. Scientists regarded this as a bold plan, for at that time no earth satellite had ever gone beyond Mars, and they feared the asteroid belt would destroy the satellite before it could reach its target.

But Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and much, much more. Swinging past the giant planet in November 1973, Jupiter’s immense gravity hurled Pioneer 10 at a higher rate of speed toward the edge of the solar system. At one billion miles from the sun, Pioneer 10 passed Saturn. At some two billion miles, it hurtled past Uranus; Neptune at nearly three billion miles; Pluto at almost four billion miles. By 1997, twenty-five years after its launch, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun.

And despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to scientists on Earth. “Perhaps most remarkable,” writes Jaroff, “those signals emanate from an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light, and takes more than nine hours to reach Earth.”

The Little Satellite That Could was not qualified to do what it did. Engineers designed Pioneer 10 with a useful life of just three years. But it kept going and going. By simple longevity, its tiny 8-watt transmitter radio accomplished more than anyone thought possible.

The story of Pioneer 10 and the 8 watt transmitter is a testament to a well-designed plan and the boldness to carry it out. The story is also a helpful reminder of 3 important principles today’s business leaders and others need to apply if they want to boldly go where few dare to tread.

Know the Mission

One of Stephen Covey’s, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” is, “Start with the End in Mind.” In other words, know the mission. Know what you want to accomplish and begin to develop a plan to achieve it. Aimlessly wandering through the wilderness with no clear goal or objective demotivates all involved. When leaders and team members know the mission, everyone is able to get and remain focused, measure progress and avoid distractions.

While the scientists at NASA feared there could be dangerous obstacles along Pioneer 10’s path, they still believed in the mission and knew exactly what they wanted to accomplish. Their goal was to reach Jupiter, photograph the planet and its moons and beam the images back to earth.

Zig Ziglar once said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

Go the Extra Mile

Going the extra mile is a phrase we often hear but seldom see in practice. It’s the extra effort, the additional effort that can bring about success. Many have said there are no traffic jams along the extra mile. In part because so few people are willing to endure the burden longer than necessary. Much like the start of a marathon, many have the intention of finishing, but few have the endurance to go the distance.

There are challenges along the “extra mile.” For one, it’s a road that never ends. Good customer service is a one-time effort while great customer service is an ongoing effort. An excellent sales record comes from continued training, understanding the needs of the customer, courteously overcoming objections, never letting “no” be the final answer and an innate ability to be at your professional best in every situation. With so few people venturing in the direction of the extra mile, for those who do, it can feel desolate, remote and secluded. But it’s the extra mile where champions are made, fulfillment is accomplished, happiness is realized and success is achieved.

The question is this, what are you doing today that you didn’t do yesterday that will help you get to where you want to be tomorrow?

Napoleon Hill said, “One of the most important principles of success is developing the habit of going the extra mile.”

Exceed People’s Expectations

Pioneer 10 was designed to accomplish the goal of reaching Jupiter, yet it accomplished far more than anyone could have imagined. It exceeded the expectations of those who designed it and knew its capabilities. Each of us and the organizations we work for are designed to achieve far more than we can imagine. The willingness to go the extra mile is what makes the difference between good and great.

Natalia Chrzanowska, content manager and author at Brand24, shares the story of Peter Shankman, an angel investor, who just before boarding his flight tweeted, asking Morton’s Steakhouse to meet him at the airport with a porterhouse steak when he landed. When he arrived he found a man wearing a tuxedo holding a bag with a juicy steak inside. He shared the experience on his Twitter profile immediately. A great example of jaw dropping customer service.

Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Group, said, “The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them – preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.”

Photo credit: NASA.gov