The gravity of airport runs

# Chapter 65

There are many things that are required of us as we build our networks and our people. Last night required me to do a 250 mile airport run in the dark, two things I would rather not do, but it was necessary. The very fact that they asked me to do it shows the confidence that I have built with these people over the years. They never had a doubt that I would go and make a pickup. These are the kinds of people and leaders we want to be and must be.

Having said that, they did not clearly consider that my 60 year old eyes don’t drive at nighttime very often, hardly ever in fact for almost 10 years now. But they made the call based on relationship not the facts or mitigating factors. And that is a huge win! Don’t underestimate the importance of that critical factor. I would have found someone else to drive us down if the route had not been all Interstate and big highways. There are ways to work around dangerous factors when the motivation is right. And when people trust you this much and you are their go-to person, then you step up and deliver.

Plus they are asking because of the implied reciprocity of our decades of relationship. I have crashed at their flat in Berlin literally hundreds of nights over the last 17 years. I was the most natural person in the world for them to reach out to and make an ask. Again these are very positive things and if you don’t have people asking you for help, then you haven’t been or aren’t the kind of person that you should be. People asking us to assist them doesn’t mean that you are a pushover, it means that you are valuable to them and that your importance in their lives has far reaching effects.