Hello,
Some of my best thinking about business happens a few thousand feet above the ground.
When you’re flying, there are no Slack messages, no emails, and no constant notifications pulling your attention away. It’s just you, the instruments, and the horizon.
That space forces me to slow down and think clearly… a lot. And somewhere between Santa Monica and the coastline, I was reflecting on my pilot’s license journey so far and found some similarities between flying and entrepreneurship.
What Aviation Is Teaching Me About Entrepreneurship
Lesson #1 You Can’t Rush
I started pilot training last July, and if you know me, you know patience is not exactly my strongest trait.😅 When I commit to something, my instinct is to finish it as fast as possible.
One requirement to earn your pilot license is 40 hours of flight time, and I immediately started chasing those hours down aggressively. My goal was simple: finish as fast as I can!
Plot twist: I failed my pre-solo checkride, initially.
Not because I didn’t understand the material… but because I was rushing.
My instructor Lorenzo said something that stuck with me:
“Good things take time… there are old pilots and there are bold pilots but only a few old and bold pilots.”
In other words, rushing rarely ends well. Not in aviation and not in business.
Lesson #2 Decision Making With Multiple Variables
Flying forces you to constantly process multiple streams of information at once. Your attention is moving continuously between instruments, radio communication, air traffic, and weather conditions.
At any given moment you’re monitoring things like:
- altitude
- airspeed
- engine performance
- surrounding traffic
- navigation
- weather patterns
Pilots call this aeronautical decision making.
And at the same time there are a lot of moving parts in business:
- sales
- operations
- your team/ new hires
- finances/strategy
All with the focus of making the right decisions under uncertainty. And the only way these decisions can be made is when you’re fully focused and know what you want.
Lesson #3 Don’t Get Behind the Plane
One phrase pilots repeat constantly is:
“Don’t get behind the airplane.”
It means you should always know what’s coming next. If I’m flying from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara, the sequence is predictable. You depart, get handed off between air traffic controllers, check weather reports, and prepare for landing long before you reach the airport.
Good pilots are always thinking two steps ahead of the aircraft. Great entrepreneurs do the same.
They anticipate client feedback, prepare for tax deadlines, build systems before growth forces them to.
A Small Win
I recently passed my written pilot exam with 92%. 🙏
There’s still a bit left to complete: a couple more hours of instrument flying, some solo time, and final test prep. If everything goes well, I should finish the license sometime around April or May.
But this time I’m not chasing the finish line.
Because aviation reminded me of something important:
Urgency is powerful. Rushing is dangerous.
And sometimes the smartest move in business is simply slowing down enough to make the right decision.
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Community & Events
- Sat, March 21 // BDX Coffee Squad | Leipzig, Germany: Event Details
- Mon, March 23 // BDX Run Club | Leipzig, Germany: Event Details
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Chat soon,
– Benni
