Flight Missed? …or, Opportunity Caught?
Flight Missed? …or, Opportunity Caught?
“I’m sure glad I missed my flight” isn’t what you expect to hear from a traveler whose flight connection didn’t work out and who was forced to endure an unexpected overnight at the Atlanta airport. That single comment, though, told me that I’d met a winner in Frank Brown, Sr. Every word matters.
One short sentence can tell you so much about a person. Within 60 seconds of hearing him say he was “glad” he’d missed his flight, I knew that Frank was destined to create a wonderful life for himself and those fortunate enough to cross his path. Within an hour, I had multiple confirmations that my first impression was prescient.
I met Frank as I groggily stumbled through Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport. I’d just stepped off a not-long-enough red eye flight from Sacramento, connecting to my onward flight headed for New Orleans. I started to sleep pretty well on the plane; the flight time was under four hours --- just long enough to begin getting a good rest, and not long enough to feel rested. As it wasn’t yet 6:00 AM when I’d reached Atlanta, Delta’s Crown Room hadn’t opened for early morning travelers, so I was slowly wandering the concourse, waiting for the club’s doors to be unlocked, when I spotted a poster advertising Joe Calloway’s newest book, Work Like You're Showing Off!. As I stood in front of the poster, feeling grateful that I can call famous Joe a friend (and, OK, also feeling a little envious, wishing my publishers would put up airport posters promoting my books), a young man walked up to me and said,
“Are you on TSTN?”
He was wearing earbuds hooked up to his iPhone and I first thought he must have mistaken me for an airport employee. My muddled mind tried to sort out his question. Is he asking what concourse I’m on? What flight I’m on? Is he asking for an airline code or something?
Then it clicked. TSTN is “The Success Training Network,” a TV network that has featured me presenting “Every Word Matters,” a program about how we all project personal impressions based on the sentences we utter. They taped the show over a year ago, so it wasn’t fresh in my mind. This earbud guy’s asking me the question because he’s watching a podcast of me on his iPhone right then, right there, in the airport! I’m standing in front of Joe Calloway’s poster, wishing I were famous like him, while the guy standing next to me is watching my TV podcast on his iPhone. How ironic!
It turns out that this young man is just starting a speaking career and I can tell you with great assurance that he’s going to be a huge success. Actually, he’s already a huge success. I knew it from his first sentence. Because, you see, Every Word Matters. There were probably 99 other travelers in that airport at the very same moment, 5:53 AM, saying, “What a bummer, I missed my connecting flight and had to overnight at the airport. Why the &]#\ did it have to happen to me? What bad luck. Bad stuff always happens to me.”
Yet, this Frank guy’s saying he’s glad he missed his flight.
All 100 of those travelers had the same thing happen to them, they just chose to react differently. Frank looked for the good in the neutral fact of missing his connecting flight, and he found it…because he was looking for it.
So, the Crown Room opened and I invited Frank in as my guest. We talked. He explained that he was on his way to speak to a youth audience at a school in Ohio and has first book is just coming out: “The Work Ethics of a Hustler.”
Huh? In Frank’s market, a street “hustler” is the hero in a bad neighborhood. He’s got the cash and the flash; the Bentley and the bling. His business is drugs, and the hustler reaps the profits.
Frank’s no drug dealer, but he is a peddler. He’s selling a success plan to the young people in his audiences. Since they already look up to the guy on the street corner, Frank uses the “hustler” as his success icon and helps his audiences figure out what they can do --- other than deal drugs --- to emulate the hustler’s success. The hustler has a plan, thinks big, sets goals, overcomes obstacles, is committed, takes calculated risks…exactly the strategies that produce success in any endeavor. Frank’s “packaging” of that message ensures that kids will show up and listen. Smart!
Every word matters. Frank points out that he always includes the word “Senior” with his name --- although he’s a young man --- because he wants people to know that he’s a proud father of twins, Franklin and Francesca. He shows me photos on his iPhone and beams. Then he shows me a shot of his beautiful school queen wife and beams again.
Frank grew up in Oakland, California; a black kid in a bad neighborhood. It would have been so easy for him to feel that he was a victim who’d been “dealt a bad hand.” He could have become that hustler on the street corner. Instead, he’s making a difference, helping others, raising a family, investing in his future. He’s confident and charismatic. If you’d had the same brief encounter with him, you’d also have walked away knowing that “this guy’s got the stuff and he’s going to make it big, and make a big difference in the world.”
Frank was “glad” he missed his connection and “got to” overnight in Atlanta because he got to meet the guy he was watching on TV right there, right then, in person.
But, I’m the truly fortunate one. I got to meet the guy who demonstrated that “every word matters.”
I’m sure glad I took the red eye flight through Atlanta.
“I’m sure glad I missed my flight” isn’t what you expect to hear from a traveler whose flight connection didn’t work out and who was forced to endure an unexpected overnight at the Atlanta airport. That single comment, though, told me that I’d met a winner in Frank Brown, Sr. Every word matters.
One short sentence can tell you so much about a person. Within 60 seconds of hearing him say he was “glad” he’d missed his flight, I knew that Frank was destined to create a wonderful life for himself and those fortunate enough to cross his path. Within an hour, I had multiple confirmations that my first impression was prescient.
I met Frank as I groggily stumbled through Atlanta’s Hartsfield airport. I’d just stepped off a not-long-enough red eye flight from Sacramento, connecting to my onward flight headed for New Orleans. I started to sleep pretty well on the plane; the flight time was under four hours --- just long enough to begin getting a good rest, and not long enough to feel rested. As it wasn’t yet 6:00 AM when I’d reached Atlanta, Delta’s Crown Room hadn’t opened for early morning travelers, so I was slowly wandering the concourse, waiting for the club’s doors to be unlocked, when I spotted a poster advertising Joe Calloway’s newest book, Work Like You're Showing Off!. As I stood in front of the poster, feeling grateful that I can call famous Joe a friend (and, OK, also feeling a little envious, wishing my publishers would put up airport posters promoting my books), a young man walked up to me and said,
“Are you on TSTN?”
He was wearing earbuds hooked up to his iPhone and I first thought he must have mistaken me for an airport employee. My muddled mind tried to sort out his question. Is he asking what concourse I’m on? What flight I’m on? Is he asking for an airline code or something?
Then it clicked. TSTN is “The Success Training Network,” a TV network that has featured me presenting “Every Word Matters,” a program about how we all project personal impressions based on the sentences we utter. They taped the show over a year ago, so it wasn’t fresh in my mind. This earbud guy’s asking me the question because he’s watching a podcast of me on his iPhone right then, right there, in the airport! I’m standing in front of Joe Calloway’s poster, wishing I were famous like him, while the guy standing next to me is watching my TV podcast on his iPhone. How ironic!
It turns out that this young man is just starting a speaking career and I can tell you with great assurance that he’s going to be a huge success. Actually, he’s already a huge success. I knew it from his first sentence. Because, you see, Every Word Matters. There were probably 99 other travelers in that airport at the very same moment, 5:53 AM, saying, “What a bummer, I missed my connecting flight and had to overnight at the airport. Why the &]#\ did it have to happen to me? What bad luck. Bad stuff always happens to me.”
Yet, this Frank guy’s saying he’s glad he missed his flight.
All 100 of those travelers had the same thing happen to them, they just chose to react differently. Frank looked for the good in the neutral fact of missing his connecting flight, and he found it…because he was looking for it.
So, the Crown Room opened and I invited Frank in as my guest. We talked. He explained that he was on his way to speak to a youth audience at a school in Ohio and has first book is just coming out: “The Work Ethics of a Hustler.”
Huh? In Frank’s market, a street “hustler” is the hero in a bad neighborhood. He’s got the cash and the flash; the Bentley and the bling. His business is drugs, and the hustler reaps the profits.
Frank’s no drug dealer, but he is a peddler. He’s selling a success plan to the young people in his audiences. Since they already look up to the guy on the street corner, Frank uses the “hustler” as his success icon and helps his audiences figure out what they can do --- other than deal drugs --- to emulate the hustler’s success. The hustler has a plan, thinks big, sets goals, overcomes obstacles, is committed, takes calculated risks…exactly the strategies that produce success in any endeavor. Frank’s “packaging” of that message ensures that kids will show up and listen. Smart!
Every word matters. Frank points out that he always includes the word “Senior” with his name --- although he’s a young man --- because he wants people to know that he’s a proud father of twins, Franklin and Francesca. He shows me photos on his iPhone and beams. Then he shows me a shot of his beautiful school queen wife and beams again.
Frank grew up in Oakland, California; a black kid in a bad neighborhood. It would have been so easy for him to feel that he was a victim who’d been “dealt a bad hand.” He could have become that hustler on the street corner. Instead, he’s making a difference, helping others, raising a family, investing in his future. He’s confident and charismatic. If you’d had the same brief encounter with him, you’d also have walked away knowing that “this guy’s got the stuff and he’s going to make it big, and make a big difference in the world.”
Frank was “glad” he missed his connection and “got to” overnight in Atlanta because he got to meet the guy he was watching on TV right there, right then, in person.
But, I’m the truly fortunate one. I got to meet the guy who demonstrated that “every word matters.”
I’m sure glad I took the red eye flight through Atlanta.
posted by George Walther | 9:34 AM
|
0 comments
