Quite often the source of inspiration for Pep Talk comes from the least expected moment. The latest? While settling in for the weekly gathering of a bunch of knuckleheads, men and women, comprising the Denver chapter of Business Network International.
This simple dude from Missouri loves to hang with these good folks. We meet each Wednesday morning. We also have social events. For instance, a bunch of BNI’ers showed up recently for First Friday at The Shack, a sponsor of my sports talk radio show, Afternoon Drive. We sang really bad karaoke and had a blast doing it. Bruce, as Elvis, was off the charts.
Anyway, we gather consistently in the morning for breakfast. While busting each others chops and fighting over the bacon, we also focus on never growing weary of doing good things for each other. Especially when it comes to referring business to one another. The power of a team. A buddy of mine, Billy Mac from Hackensack, would call that good mojo, “One Heart Beat.”
Anyway, part of the process involves an “educational moment” designed to encourage everybody to improve as entrepreneurs. Each year someone steps into the role of delivering the message. This year it’s Jeff Coverly. A graduate of Boston University, the good guy moved to Denver in the late 80‘s and runs a successful physical therapy practice. He focuses on out-patient orthopedic challenges with an emphasis on manual therapy.
But each Wednesday morning, the owner of Coverly Physical Therapy plays teacher to the gathered. He recently asked a simple question: “Have you ever been to Cape Canaveral and seen a Space Shuttle launch?”
Most in the crowd of about 40 folks had not experienced a launch. Too bad. It no longer exists. The program has been mothballed. Sounds like we missed something cool.
Coverly began: “The Space Shuttle is huge. About 15 stories tall. It weighs 4.5-million pounds. It’s designed to be shot 200 miles off the ground.” The affable man paused perfectly before concluding, “It all starts with a small human step. It takes a tremendous amount of power to get it off the ground and heading toward its destination,” Coverly described. “It all starts with one small human step.”
Five minutes before blasting toward the heavens a person pulls a manual-locking pin from each of the shuttle’s two side-booster rockets. The countdown has begun. Eight big bolts, 28 inches, that detonate on ignition, the only barrier keeping the marvelous flying-machine on the launch pad. Time clicks on.
Things begin to change dramatically in the final ten seconds. “10..9...8...7...Stop!” demands Coverly. “At 6.6 seconds the onboard computer starts three main engines.”
The launch is imminent. “6...5...4...Stop!” he continued. “Main engines achieve 90% thrust and ready to deliver 1.1 million pounds of thrust.”
Coverly had taken over the room.
“3....Stop!” We learn the computer issues three commands that pushes a capacitor to 40 volts, fires three main engines and kicks the boosters into high gear with the ability to deliver another 6.2 million pounds of thrust. The launch pad is a powder keg.
“2.....1.....Blastoff!”
Side boosters ignite, the eight bolts explode and the shuttle is charging away from earth. 300,000 gallons of water are released to deaden the sound wave. The big flush causes the great plumes of white steam we observed trailing the shuttles.
Coverly then brought home the lesson. It applies to a billion-dollar government space mission, an opportunity before us professionally and, perhaps, something in our personal lives. It’s one of those, “The venues change but the strategies are the same,” kinda moments.
Getting off the launch pad of life quite often involves a simple step. In the case of the Shuttle, two simple pins removed. It’s the same with our lives. Maybe the challenge hails from a physical ailment, a soured relationship, the loss of a job. It really doesn’t matter.
What does matter is whether we’re able to muster the courage to take a small step. To have the guts to remove the stakes keeping us pinned to the ground, unable to soar.
It’s really easy to sit around and talk about effectively dealing with life’s challenges but, we all know, far more difficult to execute the necessary steps. It ain’t easy. There’s a tendency to believe we’re the only ones caught in the fray. We’re not. That’s why it’s important to seek others in similar spots and encourage one another to achieve our goals and overcome the challenges to whatever ails us - home, work and elsewhere.
Coverly, in concluding his remarks, brought a grin to my face with this gem: “Astronauts say the view is brilliant up there. Ours will be too.”
Amen brother.
Blast off into the great unknown. No doubt, the air space ahead might become turbulent. Hang tough. Persevere. Make necessary mid-course corrections.
A simple step. Remove the pins.
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