Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais - Boeing Vice Chairman Ray Conner on Courage, Servant Leadership, Imagery

Episode Date: November 22, 2017

**if you have any issues with a dead spot while listening, redownload the episode and you should be good to go. There was a technical glitch that occurred for a few people on the initial download.This conversation is with Ray Conner, who was responsible for running America's largest manufacturing export, Boeing.If you're not familiar with the company, you've likely put your life in their hands (if you've been in an airplane).Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jetliners, defense, space and security systems.Ray is the Vice Chairman of The Boeing Company, and a member of the Boeing Executive Council.We met when he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer.Ray earned his stripes at Boeing - he started as a mechanic long before realizing his vision of becoming CEO.How does that happen?While Ray struggled in school, one of his high school coaches taught him the value of goal-setting, self-talk, and visualization which helped pave the way for his future endeavors.Ray became focused on who he wanted to be as a person, rather than what he wanted to do for work and that shaped his personal value system that he still maintains to this day.We explore the core principles and practices that guided him which includes being a leader who serves others first and having the courage to do what's right, especially when it's not popular or easy.I hope this conversation reminds you, or reinforces for you, what it's like to lead with other's well being in mind. _________________Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMasteryGet exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindsetFollow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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David, D-A-V-I-D, protein, P-R-O-T-E-I-N.com slash finding mastery. Now this conversation is with Ray Connor. Ray was responsible for running America's largest manufacturing export, the Boeing company. And if you're not familiar with the name of the company, you've likely put your life in their hands if you've been on an airplane. Boeing is the world's largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer of commercial jet liners, defense, space, and security systems. Okay, so Ray is the vice chairman of the Boeing company and a member of the Boeing executive council. When Ray and I met, he served as the president and chief executive officer at Boeing

commercial airplanes. And so Ray earned his stripes at Boeing. He went from being a mechanic on the factory floor to realizing his vision of becoming CEO. It's an incredible journey that he lays out. And how does that happen? And I think that it's many people's dreams for their children is that do earnest, good work, care about what you're doing, and make great decisions, and the future will work out for you. We say those types of things to people. If you can imagine, anything will happen. That's not quite right. And I don't want to get in the way of people's dreams, but the idea behind Ray's journey is that he captures that work ethic does matter

and great decisions do matter as well. And then really caring, like deeply caring. And I think that's part of the equation that sometimes gets missed. He highlights it here. And when we explore the core principles that guided him, leading with being a leader who serves first, I mean, that's really how he defines himself. And there's lots of definitions of leaders and leadership, and his certainly sits squarely with caring about others first. And it begins with him, all of his action begins with him as what he articulates, the courage to do what's right and to stand for what's right, especially when it's not popular and easy. And he's been forged in that way.

And then for youth sport coaches, how about this gym? I mean, Ray outlines just how potent and powerful those early formative relationships are. And one of his high school coaches taught him the value of goal setting, self-talk, and imagery. I mean, those are like core mental skill foundations that his coach taught him at a very young age. And then he attributes those to helping him pave the way for his future endeavors, eventually being the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which is an incredibly large job with lots of lives on the line.

He talks about that as well. So if you're spending time with kids, get those skills in, spend time, teach them how to do imagery, how to speak to themselves, how to become aware of their talk and how that either creates constriction or tension or how it creates space and freedom for them to explore, like get that stuff in. And it's not only for sport performance for sure. I mean, there's something beyond performance that I know that this tribe and folks that are listening to this conversation are deeply invested in. And it's beyond life performance as well. It's the way that we are able to be with ourselves and connect to other people. And it's got to be time. It just has to be time that we carve out time

to train our mind. It's no longer, in my mind, a valid excuse to say the days are too jammed to carve out time to do mental training. That has gone the way of the dodo. We understand the science, we understand the potency of it, and it's just a function of discipline at this point. And for Ray, he became focused on who he wanted to be as a person rather than what he wanted to do for work. And that helped shape his personal value system. I hope this conversation reminds you or reinforces for you what it's like to lead with others' well-being in mind. And keep exploring, keep clarifying, keep doing the work that you're doing, and keep upskilling your inner skills. I mean, this is a phenomenal reminder of how important this stuff is. And with that, keep carving your own unique path and with fire and simple joys, let's jump right into this conversation with Ray Connor. Ray, how you doing?

I'm great, Mike. How are you? Good. Okay. So this has been a long time coming, this conversation. And I feel fortunate that we've had a couple of years under our belt for a relationship and it's just been so great to know you and to see you work and to see what you've done. Likewise. I just want to say, yeah, there we go. Okay, cool. That's perfect. So on this celebration conversation about you and what you've come to figure out, bring us back home, bring us back to the beginnings and give us just a quick little snip of what it was like when you're a kid, because now as you know, kind of running shop, as I like to say, as a CEO for Boeing Airlines, give us a sense of what it was like young for you.

You know, when I was a young kid, you know, I was a little bit young for where I was in my grade, summer birthday kind of thing. But I think my mom, after three boys prior to, just wanted to get me out of the house as quick as possible. So you're the youngest? Yeah, I'm the youngest of four, and four boys. Okay, hold on there. What was that? Just go for that for a minute. What was that like, being a young one?

Well, actually, it was fabulous. I had two older brothers that were 10 years, were 12 and 10 years older than me. And then I had a brother that was, right, just two years older than me. And then I had a brother that was right, just two years older than me and then myself. So we had my kid, my folks had us in pairs. And they were exactly the same years and days apart with each pair. Okay. So when you were six, your brother was 16? Yeah. Okay. And we would, and so we would, we would compete one set of brothers, younger and older, against each other. So we would have these competitions in our living room, move all the furniture out of the living room, and then we would play football in there. So we'd take the oldest brother with the youngest brother and then the

and then come on yeah and it was great and we we did this on everything so you remember you remember young pairing up with an older brother yeah and then the two of you guys would go to go to compete against the other two yeah and then what was the tone of competition like in your like this was regular right on a regular basis it was like every every weekend okay before i ask about the tone because i think that's really important like what was the size of the living room was this a large living room it was like it was not a large living room but do you know how a football field gets worn out in the come on in the middle that's what happened with our rug with our carpet so you guys were active it was an an active. Oh, yeah. We were very active.

We just, you know, we did, we, my parents had a summer cabin and we, in the summer we would go down there and we, I, you know, I learned to water ski when I was five because my older brothers got me, you know, on those skis and they wouldn't let me, you know, not do it. They didn't care if I was they just made they just had me doing stuff that i was just always kind of pushing it was it like aggressive like hazing type or was it supportive challenging what was it like my brothers always felt you know i always felt this with them it was come on you can do it let's let's let's's go. And just wanting to keep up with them

because I always would hang out with them and their friends and they would say, well, Ray can do it. My little brother, he can ski, so you guys should get up too.

Go show them how you ski. They were constantly just kind of pulling me along, me along but in a very you know nurturing way okay so did you feel like on a regular basis around your brothers you are on the edge meaning that you're like they would bring you to the frontier you know i never had fear but it wasn't fear okay so it wasn't fear based it was like come on you can do it yeah they always made me feel like i could do it how i think this is really important it was i guess you know they would they would tell me how to do it and then if if in if they saw hesitation and say no you can do this right you can you can do this and you believe them they're my older brothers how could i not believe them i mean i had this amazing trust okay right. They're my older brothers. How could I not believe them? I mean, I had this amazing trust. Okay. Right. What you're describing is like, I think what the

greatest, the greatest of friends, the greatest of coaches, the greatest of brothers will do is that somehow they translate, they understand what another can do and they put them into those conditions. And then when they start to rattle and get scared a little bit, they encourage them. Oh, yeah. And they give them reasons that they that the doer can begin to believe what's possible. Absolutely. So you can't just say, good job, go get it. No.

And it's not real. No, it was always I. And my dad was that way with me, too. I must say now. What did your dad do? Like what was the industry he was in? Oh, he was in, he worked at Boeing as well. Okay.

So I kind of grew up with that Boeing company industry, which for growing up around the Seattle area, that wasn't unusual. A lot of families had, you know, if your dad worked there, then you ultimately, it was the biggest industry in the area. Okay. All right. And did your brothers work with Boeing as well? I had another, one of my oldest brothers, older brothers worked there too, but then the other one did not. Okay.

And then go back to the living room. What was the type of competition? Like what did you type of competition? Like what, what did you learn about competition? I don't want to give you any kind of words to prime it, but just what was that like for you? I just felt like I was as tough as they were, you know, I mean, and I, well, I mean, they, I don't know. It was just, we were competing and I was part of my team against my other brother's team. And I just, I competed just as hard as my older brother that I was, that I was with. And we would, we would just go at it. And sometimes there'd be fights and stuff like that, but, but that was all part of it. And somebody would end up, you know, crashing into the wall and

cutting their head open or something like that. And then we'd have to, you know, deal with that with the parents and stuff. But, you know, my parents didn't. It was never a big problem for them either. They encouraged it. They allowed you to move the furniture. Oh, yeah. They allowed us to move the furniture and they saw the rug getting, you know, worn out and all this other stuff. But they just felt like that was just four boys and that's what

they do you know i i didn't have i didn't have brothers so i always wonder what it's like and i do think that was a great experience for me yeah like there's an advantage of having you know yeah it was it was that was a that was really one of the i think from a foundation standpoint of learning that limits, sometimes you don't know those kinds of limits. Now, that was more of a physical limit in a way. Now, the mental thing and the academic thing, that became a different challenge for me growing up. What do you mean?

I was not. First of all, I had such a strong family life, and I kind of went to school a little bit early from a maturity standpoint. I think it set me back a bit in school, and I had a hard time asking questions. You know, I see some kids that are my daughter's first-grade teacher, and you see some kids that are really kind of outgoing in their energies about learning and stuff like that. I was always a little bit hesitant, and I always felt like, I don't know why it was, but with school it was a little bit of a more difficult task for me. Athletically, that was not the case. I had that strong, you know, foundation with my brothers,

but school was not a big thing for them. And so that did not really transfer down. And, you know, my dad really was not, he was not a college educated guy. He was, you know, academics had not been a big thing in our family up to that point. Did you end up struggling in high school? Yeah, I would say that academically, it started at a young age that I struggled. Just because I was, I don't know what it was about it. I really haven't been able to put my finger on that. I don't think about it that much anymore. But I guess a fear of embarrassment or failure. Oh, look at that.

You know, was, you know, because I was really good athletically, but then I didn't carry that same confidence into the classroom. And you didn't want to speak up. No, because you didn't want to ask the question. Because you could be exposed. Yeah, didn't want to go Didn't want to ask the question. Because you could be exposed. Didn't want to. Didn't want to. Didn't want to go to the board to do the math.

Did you have some sort of like disability in learning or. No, I think it. Well, maybe. Who knows at that point. I mean, I was, you know, that was quite a while ago. Yeah. I mean. Before they were thrown around.

Yeah. Who knows? I may have had a bit, a little bit of attention deficit, but I don't think so. I think it was more just a lack of confidence. Okay. More so than anything else. Yeah. And then right underneath the surface was this fear of being exposed that, oh my gosh, they're going to find me out.

Oh, there's no question. Is that what it was? You know, academically, fear of failure. Okay. Athletically, I had no fear so you had different models for different experiences different rooms yeah if you will and and you know to a certain extent I would say you know with my with my father I mean he was always a guy that and particularly as I grew up you know you can be anything that you want to be, right? You can do anything.

What he would say was, you can do anything you set your mind to. I think he knew enough about me and saw enough about me that if I set my mind to it, it was going to happen. What was happening was I think that fear or whatever it was in the classroom kept me from really setting my mind to it. And it wasn't until I actually did what my dad said and really put my and decided this is what was going to make the difference that things changed in turn for me. Okay, so you grew up with this idea that competing is cool

and you're tough physically because you got lots of reps with people that were older than you. And in my mind, I've got this idea that they would wrestle or tackle you in such a way that it was appropriate for an eight-year-old, but barely. Like they're just pushing that frontier just a little bit. And then they supported you on all the physical things to say ray you can do it you did you did something else you could do this like giving you storylines for it okay that okay so we're on the same page there and then somehow the value system wasn't about education then you didn't study probably enough because knowing you it's not an intelligence thing it's like you didn't have maybe the no ethos the ecosystem i didn't have you know what i what i didn't have was the

work ethic that came with the education the same work ethic that you're putting in physical yeah to the to the there's no question about it because when i when i would really and that's back to what my back to what my dad would say is if you could do anything you set your mind to. Because when you, he knew I had a great work ethic. And if I took that work ethic that I had shown in other things and applied that to, you know, academics or whatever the case might be, a job, I could accomplish what I really wanted to accomplish. So dad told you anything was possible? Yep.

If you put your mind to it? Yep. Okay, so the value of like putting your… And mom wasn't quite there. What would she say? What would mom say? See, my mother came from, she was a true immigrant from Italy. What part?

Northern or southern? Well, she was a first generation, but she grew up in this real immigrant mindset family and farmer and went through the depression, had a disability. So life wasn't as… Physical disability. Physical disability. She had polio as a young a young person yeah this is this this one ran through was that on the east coast no it was here oh she she so she migrated here yeah well her her father first went to

Montreal and then came here okay got it all right yeah but but but you know her life was a little bit different. And they suffered through the depression pretty heavily. And so it wasn't always a great view. And she didn't have as positive an outlook on things. It was, and particularly around the academics, I always felt like you should go take, she used to say, you should go get a trade. In other words, son, I'm not going to tell you school's not for you. You should really try to go get a plumber or electrician job.

It's such a kind way of saying it. Then again, but then the other voice was my dad. Okay. So I want to talk about this for a minute because it obviously worked for you, right? But it took a while, Mike. Yeah, but the idea and the message – I don't even know if you went to school, like college. I don't know if you went to college. Yeah, yeah.

You did. Yeah, I did. I did. So – but the message – this is the part I want to learn from you. I have a reaction to the pop culture phrase or the kind of parental guidance, exactly what your dad says, that you can do anything in this world. Yes. And I love the thought of it. And then when I really think of it, I don't know if it's true. I don't know if I'm setting somebody up for failure because I'm not saying to them in some kind of way more concretely guiding them to explore what they love most or what they're naturally good at or what they want to spend their time getting better at.

And so – but I'm – like that's my reaction. Like are we setting people up? It worked for you. Well, here's what it worked. So let me go back in time a bit. So that comment from my dad was there. When I was in high school, a coach from Kennedy High School had left Kennedy High School, Lou Tice, and along with his wife, created Pacific Institute, right? And we were part of his first class as high school athletes.

So Lou Tice was like the, how would you describe Lou Tice? Because the way that I would take a pass at it is that he studied, he was a coach that studied psychology. And this was back when? 1972. So early, early in the field of, of sports psychology. Right. He didn't, he didn't study it. Like he didn't get a master's or PhD or anything like that, but he was a football, high school football coach who liked it.

Yes. Who liked the psychology part of the game and then found it so interesting. They built a business and we're teaching people about it. Okay. And we were kind of his Guinea pigs in a way in high school, in high school. Well, he had already broken away. He was no longer a coach, but we were starting. I mean, he was really start, he was starting. And that's where I learned about goal setting affirmations the power of positive thinking the power of language uh self-talk you know you know visualization in high school in high school so so okay in high school so i think

you combine that that's what i was going to do you combine that and you bridge that with my father who was a real simple guy but wise just a really wise nice nicest guy i've ever met but a competitor like nobody's business i mean he was he was an amazing athlete actually and but he could compete and uh and he just worked harder than everybody else that that was his thing but you can combine the goal setting the affirmations the visualization with the you can do anything you set your mind to okay now it was about okay setting your mind to the right things to become the person that you could that could do those things that's it wasn't about i want to be this i dropped it back and said what are those characteristics or what are those things that would put me in a position to actually to be able to do those things? So I started creating more of a foundation of building a mindset and a visualization and an affirmation about like, for instance, I had,

I had a, I was very, and it kind of goes back to the same fear. I was really fearful of speaking in front of a group. And so what age are we talking about? Well, it went for a while. I mean, it went from college through my early years in my career. But I had that, I kept building the affirmation. And every morning, I would go myself being prepared to do that talk, doing that talk, and then having that feeling of being able to do it really well. And then mechanically, how many kind of self statements would you make to yourself? About 10. About 10. And it's something like, I can do difficult things or whatever. No. It would be more affirmative. I am a strong, confident leader. Okay. I prepare for every meeting. And then you do about 10 of those.

10 of those. And I'd see myself and feel that emotion. For each statement? Each statement, yeah. Okay. And then you wouldn't afterwards do a couple minutes of imagery each one that you would say you would imagine that statement okay and i would imagine it and well i imagine myself being in that moment i don't like affirmations

like as a kind of general thing and so when i'm hearing you do it it doesn't mean they don't work but i just don't appreciate the science of it. But what I appreciate that you just did is that you did an affirmation and then you anchored it within some imagery and you'd feel that. Well, see, that was the key. It's the second part. It's not the silly statement. It's like prayer. Right. Okay.

It's like prayer. You know, at night or in the morning, usually when I'm waking up, you know, because I do have a strong spirit. And that's another thing that my parents built into us was a strong connection, spiritual connection. But when I say my prayers, it's almost like doing the same thing, right? You know, giving the strength to be, you know, the strength to be the, you know, the kind of leader that, you know, positive, you know, just kind of every morning kind of reaffirm how you want to approach the day. You still do that same habit now, but with a little bit of a prayer lens to it. Is that a prayer to God or is it a gratitude? Okay, so you pray to God.

Is it gratitude-based or is it strength-based? It's both. It's both. First you have to, what I was taught, is that you first have to be thankful. Okay. And then ask for the help to be strong in the things that you're trying to do.

Okay. Because when you're, you know, I think we don't take enough time to step back and say, what are you actually, what are the positive things in life? So when you're thankful for what you have and what you've been surrounded with, like great family or, you know, wonderful wife or terrific kids and, you know, great job. You know, you got to take that moment because it puts you in a different mindset. And then it's about, for me, this is all just me personally then it allows me then to say okay now today i

you know i'm gonna attack that they give me the strength to to to do help me be strong in this situation where i'm where i know i'm it's going to be tough and we've gone through some very difficult things family or business are? Are you talking about business, family, whatever? Yeah. Whichever. But knowing what you're going to face for the day. Would you say that you in your life, you faced some real challenge, like some difficult challenges? Oh, there's no question.

You have? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I want to get to that in a minute, but I want to make sure like what you're doing is it almost sounds like you would have read this from a book, but I think you learned it early. But then you actually did it.

Yeah. Right. And I'm telling you, Mike, this is the thing that it gave me. It's the foundation of which then I built to go back to get to my go get a graduate degree and put myself in a position once I got the graduate degree, that put me in a position to be into some jobs that I could then accelerate. But it wasn't about I want to be that. It was about being the very best at what I was doing at the time. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Momentus. When it comes to high performance, whether you're leading a team, raising a family, pushing physical limits, or simply trying to be better today than you were yesterday, what you put in your body matters. And that's why I trust Momentus. From the moment I sat

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great science. And if you're ready to feel the difference for yourself, Felix Gray is offering all Finding Mastery listeners 20% off. Just head to FelixGray.com and use the code FINDINGMASTERY20 at checkout. Again, that's Felix Gray. You spell it F-E-L-I-X-G-R-A-Y.com and use the code FindingMastery20 at FelixGray.com for 20% off. You know, we had a conversation, we, like me and the mouse in my pocket, with Drew Bledsoe, the quarterback from,

the former quarterback from, in the NFL. And he said, Mike, if I list, I would do my goals on a regular basis, like write them down. And never were the top three goals about being in an NFL quarterback. And he was the number one draft pick coming into the league. And it sounds like you did the same thing. It was never about being the CEO of the largest export in America of Boeing. It was never about being that person. It was about being, how did

you put it? The best, the best, well, the best person and the best at what i was doing at the very that time right so when i wanted to grow and there's no question so growth was important growth as a person as a person as a capability growth and capability keep going you know this is good you know you have to first of all you have to take a good assessment of where you are and where you where where are things that you could grow in, things that you're strong in but you're still growing. And those were the things I focused on. How did you know how to be honest with that?

I work with so many people or know so many people that say a lot of what we're talking about but don't actually do it, but then have this thing where they can't get to their own truth about what they are awful at and what they're really good at. And the story gets in the way. Well, failure does that to you sometimes, doesn't it? Yeah. I mean, setbacks. And I shouldn't say there's failures. Setback.

Like when it doesn't go the way, when there's some pain. A setback does that. But that's the great thing about sometimes about athletics too if you're gonna you know you're if you're not giving up i mean you just want to cash it in and say okay i'm not gonna do that anymore but you know i didn't my mind didn't have that choice i was gonna i needed to keep forward a family i wanted you know do well and yeah i had a setback okay I learned from that so why did why did I have a setback was I not prepared was I you know I didn't you know I didn't do my home what what was the reason why and then I would work on that and I would look at myself first as I do the

self of a what could I have done differently do you work on your strengths or do you work on the weak link maybe the because the I the affirmations is strength based right and then the well because what went wrong I would take the affirmation and on the areas that I was weak and I would affirm that I would be affirming to to be where I wanted to be. OK, got it. That's how you do it. And I would say, you know, so let's say public speaking was a weakness for me. I would affirm that I'm a great public speaker. But you weren't.

But I wasn't. So how would you play that game? But then I would break it down. I prepare, I practice, I know what I'm going to say, because I break down the things that I needed to work on to be a better public speaker. Okay, got it. And I would see myself doing those things. And then I would ultimately see myself making that speech, inspiring people, doing the things that we need to do. So that morning imagery program that you were creating, did you say it was like 10 minutes? More like 15. 15 minutes, is that? Yeah, I would get up early enough where I could do that. program that you were creating was this did you say it was like 10 minutes or what is it more like

15 15 minutes is that yeah i would get up early enough where i could do that and then the buddhist ideology would definitely kind of nod their head to this that thoughts and behaviors there is no separation they're the same thing i would agree with that yeah and because you alluded to that earlier they're only the same thought same thing when you have this great intention around it. And then you invite and evoke the emotional experience because you're present with the words that you're actually saying. Well, you have to put the emotion with it. There's no, if you don't put the emotion with it, it's just words. It's just words. There you go.

I mean, it's a movie that doesn't generate any emotion. So you don't know why would you want to go back to that movie? You know, I watch movies over again just because I want to feel. I go watch a movie again just because I want to feel that emotion, you know. I want to go watch The Gladiator because I want to watch that one scene where he walks the line with his men, and you see the incredible admiration of his soldiers to the general. And that's what I want to feel when I look in the eyes of my people. And how do I create that admiration?

You know, you get in the battle with them. That's what he was. He was a terrific warrior. I mean, so, I mean, I watched movies like that's why I rewatch a movie because I just want to feel that emotion. I have a desire to feel that kind of energy. And so the affirmation without the movie that creates the motion is nothing. I love this. Let's kind of recap just quickly. Goal setting.

Yeah. Imagery. Yeah. With some statements that would precede it. And the goals were never about what you were going to do, but who you were becoming and the capabilities, the things that build capabilities. And then your imagery would surround that. Okay. And then you're still, are you still doing that? Or is that just a high school thing that you did or a college

thing? No, I mean, I did that all the way. I still do it. And that, and then the prayer has taken over. Prayer has been more about that now. Yeah, there you go. Okay. All right. Let's jump into some of those challenges that you were talking about. What, what have those been? And maybe there's one challenge that comes to mind that encapsulates so many of them, but what, what would be one of the challenges that you faced either family or business or wherever you want to go with it? Well, you know, I, uh, so, so when I was in high school, so we had my brothers were in pairs and the brother that I had that was my pair got a brain tumor, went through radiation treatments, and then ultimately passed away when I was a senior in high school. It was a devastating thing for our family.

And then I went off to college right after that. Wait, hold on. Let's go back to the devastation part. Was that like, I imagine, for you as you were older? college then right after that and wait hold on let's go back to the devastation part was that like i imagine for you as a as you were older so you were just getting into college yeah i was 17 at the time did you oh so you were young well i mean i went to oh that's right you were the younger yeah yeah okay i got the order wrong okay so how does a family deal or how does a 17, how did you deal with the, you know, I don't know.

I mean, it was like, uh, yeah, it was just, it's a void that you don't, you can't really get your head around. So a little bit. And the only, my outlet then was, you know, athletics. So I went to school on and played football in college and, and I put all my, I put all my energy into that. And I probably didn't apply myself, which I know I didn't apply myself academically as well as I should have. And so I went all the way through my four years in that way.

And I kind of got to the end, and I still had more to do. But to be frank, I was kind of, I just wanted to get, to get away from school for a while. And so I went to work, I went to work for Boeing as a, as a mechanic and, you know, drilling holes and bucking rivets and doing that kind of thing. So your first job, was that your first job period or was that your first job? Well, I had worked through college, you know. I was always working through college. Okay, so you graduated college or did you leave? No, I did not.

I left a little early. Yeah. And I went. And then. What made you make that decision? You know, I don't know. I guess I was playing my mom's movie. You played her tape.

Yeah, I was playing her tape. I was playing her tape. I was kind of in a depressed state, I guess. From going back to the loss of your brother? Well, I don't know. It kind of just built up. You know what? Here was the deal.

Okay. What I was allowing myself to do, and you see this with people, when you're not fulfilling your own expectations, you tend to then dig a little hole. The hole gets bigger. The hole gets bigger. And for me, I had expectations of myself. Based on your dad? Yeah. I was not setting my mind to the things that was always about just the athletic part of it.

It wasn't about the academic part of it. And so I was digging this hole for myself. And it just got, then when the athletics was over, and you see it with young college-age kids today. So the good part was I left, I went to work for Boeing, and I saw, I finally got a view of what I could see myself doing in the future. And I said to myself, I could either sell airplanes, I would love to be able to either sell airplanes or run one of these big factories. No kidding. Yeah.

So you were on the floor drilling holes. Yep. And you said, I would love to sell it or run it. My father's statements finally cleared my head to be able to say, what do I want to set my mind to? There you go. And I gave myself, I said, these are two things that I could really see myself doing. What a rad journey. To go from the factory floor to running the whole thing?

Yeah. And so then I started. I did an assessment, self-assessment, which is the one thing you always have to do. Did you write it down? No, I didn't have to. I just said, look, if I'm going to do one of those jobs, then I better go get myself educated and really get an edge, you know, business education. And so I went, I started going back to school concentrated work and got my BA degree that I had been working on when I was in college before. I got that, came back to Boeing, and then I started going to grad school.

And Boeing paid for my grad school. So I was in school for probably almost eight years. And I stayed focused on getting that degree. So I hired in in 1977, and I ultimately got my graduate degree in 1985. Wow. Yeah, you went to work. But I stayed focused, and I applied myself to what my vision was.

And I put myself in a position now in my mind to start working on doing those things and having the kind of skill that could ultimately lead me to that point. But I stayed very focused on what I was doing at the time. And I tell this to young people. Be the very best at what you're doing at that moment. But, you know, prepare yourself for the next job, but be the very best at what you're doing. I get kids, I want to be like you. I want to be a CEO. Okay, well, are you the very best at what you're doing. I get kids, I want to be like you. I want to be a CEO.

Okay, well, are you the very best at what you're doing today? Because that's what you should focus on. Because being the very best at what you're doing today will lead you to the next spot. And then be prepared for the next spot. And so that's what I would do. And then I would work on those skills through the affirmation, all my affirmations on what, what I needed to improve on in order to be even better at what I was doing. Okay. So from factory floor to CEO, you had, you've, you dropped out of school and then you, you lit a fire. Somehow you had a fire lit like,

Oh, I'm going to need school if I'm going to be able to become that person that I want to become. So then you went back to school and grinded it out. Yeah. Okay. But you had a purpose for it. I did. Yeah. Okay. And then, so can we talk about purpose for a minute? You know, so what, I think there's a really big question, so I don't want to put you on the spot with it because I recognize the magnitude of this question question but do you have a sense of what your purpose as a man is

as a human being well you know uh and i don't want you to make something up no i'm not yeah you know i i think the one thing that even as a kid i always um gravitated towards leading, you know, in a way, coaching kind of thing, or, you know, kind of being that master sergeant that all the troops would come to, to, you know, do the job. And I always felt, took great pride in being that person that people, you know, wanted to come get some guidance from. And, you know, I guess it gave me great fulfillment to be able to help others or help us all come together to meet that common goal or to get better. That was, I guess now they would call that servant leadership of some kind, but I really felt a strong connection to the group, to the people that I worked with,

and I always felt that was my strength, and it's what gave me great satisfaction. Okay, so being a servant leader. Well, I guess that's what you would call it. It's how you've designed your life. I guess in a way. When I think about what my role is today, my role today is to make the lives better for the people that work for us. And you do that through a number of different ways. You get out there and you help sell airplanes

and you have to communicate to them what their role is in making that happen and getting people on the same page to do that. My role is to ensure that we are a great company to our community, that we are a great company to our community, that we are a great supplier to our customers, and we are a great partner to our suppliers. I feel like that's my role. My role is not, and I'll be very honest, I don't view my role as a number one thing being the stock price.

I don't even look at it. I couldn't tell you how much I make. I view what we're doing, because when I look at this community and how many people work for us and how many people are dependent on what we do and how we do it and how we stand in the community, I feel like that's the most important thing for us. So there's a seriousness in what you just said.

Like there's a serious tone in the way you're describing it. There's a heaviness almost in what you're, like the responsibility. Am I getting that tone right? It's not heavy. It's what motivates me. So there's not a burden if you's, it's what motivates me. So it's, so there's not a burden. It's not, if it came across a way, I didn't mean it to be, it is, it's more of a passion. You felt my passion for it. Okay. You, you, I'm incredibly passionate about those things. And because it, it is what drives me. It drives me to make sure that we are

providing our customers with the very best product that it possibly can be. You know, it is incredibly important to me that we are viewed in this community in a positive manner and that our people are excited about coming to work. How are you doing on those? Well, I think we're, we've made a lot of progress over the course of the last five years. I think we're, you know, based on my conversations with our customers and I think I know where we are with our community. We, we take a lot of hits, but, But I think everybody would say we're pretty darn good. And how many people are you leading?

76,000. What does that feel like to say out loud? It seems enormous to me. It doesn't feel like it. You know, I guess because I grew up in that company, you know, in a way, and I would say this, and I try to explain this to people, that Boeing, the Boeing commercial here, because it's all kind of right here, right? Most of it's right here in the Puget Sound area, is the biggest small business in the world. And you really need to think about it that way.

You need to think about it as how would you run your a small your own small business that has because the reality is we have very few products they're expensive products but we don't have a lot of products we have very few customers you know there's like 250 300 airlines but you know when you think about it, I made a list of all the people that I needed to call to get some information. And it was like 50. And really kind of not shorting anybody. But these are really kind of the big drivers. And so that's not a lot. When you think about it, when you think about when you think about a 70 billion dollar business, which is what we are, it's the biggest small business in the world that employs a lot of people because it takes a lot of people to do this. But it still has to have that small business mindset where where you are completely focused on that few set of customers, that few products and the people

in the community at which you do that with. And we have a few in our, in our supply base too. It's not, it's not real complicated. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Cozy Earth. Over the years, I've learned that recovery doesn't just happen when we sleep. It starts with how we transition and wind down. And that's why I've built intentional routines into the way that I close my day. And Cozy Earth has become a new part of that.

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for 20% off your first order. That's calderalab, C-A-L-D-E-R-L-A-B.com slash finding mastery. So you gave me a tour of the facility. It's more than a facility. It's a plant. I don't know what you're exactly. Well, you only saw one plant. I know. Well, it's massive. a facility it's a plant i don't know what you're exactly well you only saw one plant i know well that's massive what you saw one third one one third of the of what we do and so you had you had some innovation that you share with me i'm not gonna ask you to talk about the

innovation or whatever you publicly can share is cool but you know how long does it take to go from let's say first drill bit or something that takes place place to make a plane to you get it off and it's tested? Yeah, well, in a existing production, it varies airplane by airplane. But it's, you know, right around anywhere from the smaller airplanes, the 737 size, which is about 30 days. You can make a 737 in 30 days? Yeah, we bring all the stuff in and we get it out in 30 days and deliver it. And a 737 seats how many people? About 100 and depends about 180.

And then what are the type of size planes that you go from coast to coast in America? Well, 737 will go coast to coast. The international ones like the 7-4, that usually takes about 100 days to do. The 787 is our newest airplane. It takes us about half that time to do.

We're getting better. Same thing with the 777-2. Those are big airplanes that fly internationally, big wide bodies carry anywhere from 250 to 350 people

and 47 carries 450 people and how many products do you have? we have 5 5 products, 737 all the way up to to the 747 so we have 737 787, 767,

747, and 777. And we're developing a new 777 today. That's what it's in development. So let's geek out on some of the technology and technological advances that you have. What's the new stuff moving forward for the next 10 years that you see in your industry of manufacturing massive you know people movers well i mean we've moved to the composite structure which is you know innovative in itself never been done with the commercial airplanes now we have a pretty much all composite airplane in the 70s what does that what does that mean well? Well, it's not aluminum anymore.

It's a fabric that's stronger, lighter. It's like what you make a tennis racket out of. So composite means that you make it. Somebody's making that. It's not like that. Making the material, and then we are winding the material to create the fuselage and to create the wings and those kinds of things. Is the challenge to make it light and strong? Yes.

And then out of those two variables, is it strength or light that is more important or more challenging for you? They're both equally. So it's like this mix between the two. And aerodynamic. But you see, what we're able to do with the composite, we're able to make much more aerodynamic wings and those kinds of things. So that's the next technology that we're bringing is the wing on the 777, which will be the largest composite wing ever built. Largest composite wing. Okay.

And then so is that something you're building? You said in-house? Yes. You're going to build that? Yeah. And then how long does it take to build a wing? Oh, well, we're under construction now. We got about a million square foot facility that we put in place to do this.

We spent about a billion dollars to make that happen. And then our next technology is actually the technology that will go into producing it, you know, with the automation and those kinds of things. How do you make decisions on a billion-dollar budget, like a billion dollars you spend? Well, you know what you want to do from a product standpoint, and then it becomes a question, okay, now how do we do it? Okay, so you make a decision that, like, we need to get our product to be A, B, and C, and we're not there yet. And then I'm sure that there's some massive decisions you could go a you could go area one two or three oh yeah i mean we made some massive decisions and some of those were you know things that we made in the community that became very you know kind of contentious because we said look we need to have

we need to restructure our our union agreement because our pensions were becoming overwhelming. So we wanted to restructure how we provide people with a retirement plan that wasn't so onerous on our balance sheet. So we had to get that done in order to keep the composite wing being built here and the new 777X being here. As opposed to overseas? As opposed to maybe having it to do someplace else where we could bring a whole new compensation structure and benefit structure in as opposed to bringing we needed to change the whole benefit structure here within the Puget Sound and working with our union to make that happen.

Now we got there, but it was a very difficult thing. It was, for me personally, it was the most difficult thing I've done in my tenure because it was almost we were pitting, you know, what we needed to do against our own people it was something you know because being the person I wanted you know being this kind of hopefully being a servant leader leader it almost flies in the face of that in a way because you're having to do something that is and the only way I could make I was trying to make sure that we could keep it here. In order for, to keep it here, this is what we needed to do. I wanted to be able to provide the

people of this area, the opportunity to continue to work on these products and keep this company located here. But we, in order for us to do that, we had to do this. Yeah. Cause you took a beating in the press took a huge beating so what was that like for you it was the toughest thing ever i mean mike i was getting i you know it's we're split people some people saw the need for it some people saw that that it was by far and away you know the thing they wanted to keep their jobs other people just hated me for it or hated hated the reason we were doing it and then i became the the lightning rod for it because i was the one they had to stand in front and do some say but i was i think they all realized for

the most part you know maybe some did not that i was doing it because I wanted to keep it here. And I was being, you know, we had to make that choice. You know, I would get terrible emails. I got one email from a woman that said, you know, I hope you get pancreatic cancer because I hear it's the most painful cancer there is. Oh, my. Really? here it's the most painful cancer there is oh my really so so for a kid that grew up here in in the in this area who had you know whose family worked here at Boeing and who I who started here and at that point I was probably here for 35 or 7 years I don't know how long but but to have that going on that was tough somehow but I answered every email. You answered all your emails? Everyone.

Everyone that came in around that, I tried to explain to them what was why, why we're doing it. Even with that woman that came in, I said, I'm sorry you feel that way. I'm just trying to make sure that we do the very best for this company, for our people, and that we continue to keep this work here. And I think by answering all those and being honest with people and giving them the reasons why and explaining to them what the offer was about, because we gave a really good offer. Some people really got it, and then there was kind of a clash between the union leadership and and ourselves and you know at least i was answering every email and then i got it i would get things

back that would boost you up and people would say you know it sure is nice that the ceo answers the email but i can't get that answer from my union leadership oh got it okay so so it became it almost part of the personal value system that you have right and it was part it's part of that you know why am i i'm here to and that's also why sorry to interrupt you but that's also why it hurt oh yeah and then how did you deal with that hurt because it's public like public shame if you will or public lightning rod it was a cool phrase you used but then when you went home or on your car ride home, when you're by yourself and you're knowing that you're, you're being highly criticized for decisions and actions that you're wanting to move a company forward, how do you deal with that? Do

you bring it home? Do you talk about it with your wife? Do you, do you write about it? Did you just swallow it? Like, like how do you do, how does one, and I'm asking you like like how do you do how does one and i'm asking you like how did you manage through that process because this is what most people are afraid of right yeah and it's also what you were most afraid of early well yeah i was i mean it it was you know that's where you you know i knew we were in the best interest. All I was focused on was getting to a agreement so we could keep this stuff here. Why is that so important to keep it here? Because that's the heritage of this company. It's the heritage of this region.

And I care deeply about the people that have worked here prior to me, the people that are dependent on us and the, and the people that work for us today. And what we were dealing with was their future and the reputation of this company. Did you know when you were making the decision to affect the pension that it was going to be brutal? Yeah. Yeah. Like publicly. Yeah. And you still made that tough decision. Absolutely. Yeah. And then, okay. So I think that I don't want to, I don't want to lose that thought that this is what most people I think are afraid of. And this is like my research, like not formal research, but like being in the amphitheater with people is that going for it is scary,

not because you're going to be physically hurt, but because what people will think when they see the strong man or strong woman go for it. And it's not up to popular opinion to be up to be of worthy. So I don't know, you've done it. So I wonder how you could teach us to go for it, like the value of going for it, and maybe a couple ways that you had prepared for that younger years. So what gave me strength to do that, I knew it was the right thing to do. And it was being driven from the right place.

It was my job then to convince people that it was the right thing to do how did you know that it was right because with if we didn't it was going to move and then if it moves what happens people lose their jobs got it okay and that's and that was more important to me than anything else now we made some compromises and we got there. But the way I dealt with it, I just stayed really focused on this is the right thing to do. I stayed focused on communicating, answering those emails, being honest, being as transparent as I possibly could. And I'm not trying to be too spiritual here, but, you know, those prayers in the morning were really important because it took a lot of,

it took a lot of strength in that visualization that comes with that, which is, you know, giving the strength to be the, you know, to be the kind of leader. And I would kind of describe the leader that I wanted to be, that I was looking to be, and then go home one night and say, you know, you could look yourself in the mirror and say, I did it. I did all that. And I used to tell my kids this when I was coaching them. You know, the biggest test of the day is when you look yourself in the mirror. And if you, if you can't look yourself in the mirror and say, I did everything I could that day, then that's, that's what true happiness is, is when you can, real peace comes when

you can look yourself in the mirror, you know, and say that I did everything that I possibly could. Okay. When's the last time or how often you go either way? Maybe do you feel a sense of inner peace? You know, I would say probably more than half the time. Half the time, like half of the day or half the time you look in the mirror? When I get this, when you're in the moment, sometimes you're not feeling the inner peace aspect of things, but when you reflect and I think everybody has their own moments of

reflection. Yeah. And that's another one of those important things that I think are just really critical for people to do is, is take that time to reflect. Reflect on your day. Reflect on, you know, even if you had a bad experience, reflect on that. Why? And what could you have done differently to make that better? Is that like an end-of-the-day process? Yeah, typically an end-of-the-day process. Or, you know, this comes back from your athletic training.

You know, as athletes, we replay every game, you every game over and over and over in our heads. You have your own eye in the sky, right? That's the replay in your mind. That's a really cool thought. I've never heard it that way. You've got your own eye in the sky. Is that what you said? Your own eye in your mind?

It's in your mind. You just replay stuff in your mind. You've got your own eye in the sky. It's you said your own eye in your mind what did and it's in your mind you're just replay stuff in your hand you you got your own eye in the sky i mean it's just like what you know everybody talks about you got the eye in the sky and it relies right well you have that and if you look at it real and you're you're real honest with yourself i mean that's where growth comes you know that's that's where the real growth growth is growth as a leader growth as a person you know a father i whatever you know and there's been even as a father there have been times when you know you didn't handle something just exactly as you would want but you got to take that moment and you got to say okay i could have done a much better job but but it allows you then

to kind of reset and go forward you know that's one of the great things about a long drive right yeah you know you get in your time that's when you when you get when you get in a car by yourself yeah and you go for a long drive and you can think about a lot of different things and some people would call that meditation now you don't want to go off into a daze and you know crash the car but but you do you think about all kinds of things you think about the day and as you drive home you you kind of roll that through your mind do you have some sort of mindfulness and meditation process or is it the prayer in the morning well it's a little bit of this it's it's i would say it's the prayer piece but you know as i i think driving home in a way you know i don't listen to anything i i just turn everything off and i just kind of go through in my head all the different

things out probably not a great thing as you're driving the car but but it could be just a non-judgmental awareness of your thoughts yeah it's but you're yeah i i i find that really helpful okay all right what is the thing that challenges you the most you know i think the thing that challenged you know from a work perspective, it's when you feel as though you can't connect to, people are, my motivations of that servant, when I see people that are motivated more by their personal agenda or they're, you know, trying to do their, you know, create their own personal advancements. And they're not doing necessarily for the right thing. One of the most important things in my mind is,

do you have the courage to be accountable? How do you suss that out for people? Oh, you can find that one really fast. When things go, when things aren't going right and you're the, in, in the, this is the leader when they are standing tall and they are taking the heat for what has gone wrong. It's like when you watch a coach and look, they don't throw anybody in the bus. They stand up. They take the – So you can't learn that in an interview.

You have to watch that for some time. You got to watch that. So the DNA I'm looking for and the DNA that I think has built this company to be a great company is courage. Courage is the courage to go do great things, to take those kinds of risks, to be able to really be out there sometimes when others may think that that might be a little bit crazy. But also the courage to take responsibility and to be accountable to be able you know i'll give you an example so we grounded an airplane because of

this battery now battery was built by a supplier okay i could have stood up there and said well it's a supplier's fault and it was and i but i never did. I said, this is our, it's our airplane. It's our responsibility. You know, we're going to get it fixed. And then the integrity to be accountable, the integrity to be able to, to do the right thing, always do the right thing. You know, sometimes doing the right thing is the toughest thing. And that's what I look for in a leader. And then do you prepare yourself in some kind of way when you've got to go to the podium and you know it's going to be a brutal press interview or you've got to make a statement and you know that there's going to be some backlash? Do you do something to get yourself ready for that? Or are you walking around on a regular basis and practicing courage and integrity and openness, transparency, whatever?

So it's just part of your daily conversations? I would hope that I am doing that. I think when you go into a situation like that, I remind myself that it's important to just to take responsibility. So you take a quick moment. Yeah. And just, and just remind yourself, this is what we're about.

This is what this company is about. And I represent this company. And so I'm going to do this. This is the way I'm going to do it. Okay. So last kind of little segment of questions for you. You travel more than I travel a lot and you travel more than anyone I know. Okay. So do I have that wrong? I don't know. I mean, you travel a lot, but you know,

but I'm traveling a little bit more, maybe longer distances, a lot longer distances. And let's remember that you're traveling in planes that you build or close to. And so they're awfully lush. Sometimes. Oh, come on. Yeah. Okay. And I'm sure they're fitted up for all the amenities that you need to be productive as well. Sure. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. All right. But that's not my point. My point was really about like, how do you manage home life with your family and the travel and work. How do you manage those three? Well, you know, I can't say that I've done it well all the time, but we've gotten pretty good at this. We're always clear about what's coming up in terms of I wasn't always good about that. You know, I'd show up and say, well, you know, hey, tomorrow I've got to go here.

And it's like, what, you should have told me that. And I thought, well, I good about that. You know, I'd show up and say, well, you know, hey, tomorrow I got to go here. And it's like, what? You should have told me that. And I thought, well, I told you that, you know, but we do a little bit better job now of being clear. I'm going to be here, you know, these times. And so we, you know, we always know exactly where, what's coming up. And there's sometimes there's things that you can't control. You just got to go. But I, you know, I'm in in constant I call home all the time you know the most important thing is my

home life and and my wife and my children and I think they've always known that I've prioritized that when I am home I don't have the I don't have a huge set of outside friends. I try to be with my family as much as I can be. I don't play golf unless it's work because it just takes too much of the day. I work out very early in the morning. What time? 5 a.m. So I don't miss any time with the family wow and uh and i did that i kind of did that as we as we grew up so i mean the last

30 years i've been on the road and i'm proud of the way our kids came out my wife did a wonderful job and i'm proud of our hers and my relationship and we've got great two great kids but we lived a very humble life to be honest with you we uh we didn't overload ourselves with material things we still we live in the same house our very first house that we bought back in 1985 and we just felt like yeah why did you do that that's. Or it's different. Well, I know it's different. But, you know, there was a couple things that went with that. One, you know, I don't know. It was kind of just kind of the way I was brought up.

But I lived in the same house my whole life growing up. But there was another reason. So as we became more successful and were able to earn more money and such. And I said to, and my wife's great because she's never, she didn't care about all those, you know, fancy house or anything like that. What she cared about was, you know, the love inside the place and how it felt and all those kinds of things in the neighborhood and how it felt and all those kinds of things in the neighborhood and how that felt. And we had a great neighborhood and still do,

great people in that neighborhood. But what I really wanted to make sure was our kids didn't think that that was important to make them happy. So I always worried, like for my daughter, that if we made this beautiful home, that would be the standard at which she would have to measure her future husband by. Can you provide me that? Well, that shouldn't be what you should be measuring it by.

So I told Katie, my wife, I said, I don't want our kids to ever think that they have to live in a million dollar house in order to be happy. And I don't want to ever put that kind of pressure on Molly to think that she has to, she has to marry somebody that can provide that kind of thing in order for her to be happy. We didn't need it to be happy. And certainly my parents didn't need that to be happy. And same thing with my son. And it's funny how I watch them live their lives today. They kind of take a very humble approach to things. Good job, dad. What do you say to people that are leveraging their income to buy big houses, big cars, big watches? Like, what are your thoughts about that? Because that's a real common problem that I see on a regular basis. I was brought up by two parents that went through the Depression. And so it created a much different mindset for us.

And I guess I was always brought up that it can go away at any moment, too. Lives can change pretty quick. And financial security was a big thing for us growing up. And I always wanted to make sure that that we could go without for quite a while if we needed to at what point did you reach financial security is there a way to kind of understand how you did that well i mean i you know we reached it quite a while ago and it's a cool thought i mean but you didn't spend much no so i mean we we didn't and we yeah i mean i don't know it was quite a while ago is it do you did you think about it like if i if i lost my job i would

want x number of months or years to be able to yes it'd be okay okay my the ground rule that my parents drilled into us was that you had to have at least one year's worth of savings. Because it might take you a year to find another job. That you needed to be able to live. So you set your standard in terms of what you expend versus what you have in the savings. That you could last an entire year on your savings account cool yeah i think that also gives uh adults the ability to risk yeah um oh let me say it differently to not risk integrity yeah so you know it gives you a completely different sense of

it allows you to be a servant leader it allows allows you to sometimes be, to take more, to be more, like you said, risk or be more courageous. Right? Courageous in your, courageous in the things that you want to do or courageous in how you want to be accountable. Right? And take responsibility. Okay. So hit me on just a couple of these quick hits. Take as long as you want to unpack them, but of all the mental skills,

confidence, calm, goal setting, imagery, regulating kind of your, or I'm sorry, doing pre-performance routines. What,

what is the most important? If there's one that you would say, gotta get this one, right? I think it's the imagery, the imagery, imagery is because if you're doing imagery correctly, you are seeing and you're feeling, and that's the movie you're got to get yourself in the right frame of mind to do that and you and you got to be able to put yourself into the scenario that you're going to that that's going to come into

play so it takes some creativity yeah well that's why imagination and you know imagery is a root of imagination and i and i want to make sure i just say this out loud to see if we're on the same page yeah because just if you see it doesn't mean it's going to happen like the idea if i see a red bicycle in my garage it's going to you know no no no it's like you're it's practice and it's familiarity and it's getting clear on what you would like the future to be like so that you're prepared better for when it does take place but then you gotta you gotta unpack that a little bit more and say to get that here's the more and say, to get that, here are the things that are going to be required to do that. And then you see yourself accomplishing those.

You've got to break these things down a bit and be able to do that. Love that. Imagery of training. And that's what's so important about when you run a big organization. You know, it's one thing to say, you know, our ultimate objective here is to know, for everybody to walk out of this facility knowing that we create the most value for our customers than anybody in the industry. Okay, now what's that mean to you? And how do you contribute to that? Let's break that down a bit.

And what do you do every day that makes that happen? And that's how you coach. That's how I coach. That's how you coach people. Do you ask your people that you're coaching to do imagery? I give them different things potentially that they can deal with but i i kind of bring come back to that yeah yeah you got to see yourself doing that see that you know uh you got a difficult task i want you to you know if i'm coaching somebody to go in front of the board

play the movie where you're relaxed up there you feel feel, you feel the interchange of, you know, the, the discussion between the two and feel that confidence that you can go five questions deep. You can answer any question they're looking for. What do you have to do to be in that position? You got to prepare. You got to kind of anticipate the questions, prepare for those, have those in your mind, but don't be a robot you know and certainly don't be scared no yeah we smell that quickly yeah that's right okay do you take a lot of risks or the ones that have nobility and like well i'm driven by well i like to believe i'm driven by doing the right thing and sometimes that means taking risk yeah because it that happens a lot in corporate america it does yeah and when you sometimes you in order to do the your look we're going to do

the right thing here and that and you know sometimes that means you're taking you're taking on some financial risk sometimes that means that you're you're actually going to hurt your business plan but you're going to you're going to do with the right thing for your customers so that you're actually going to hurt your business plan, but you're going to do the right thing for your customers. So you've got to be willing to take the heat for that. And then when I talk about the statement, I am, how do you fill that in? I think I'm a courageous leader that has tremendous passion and integrity. And then all of this being said, is there one phrase or word that guides your life that's like really important to you? I think it's courage.

Courage. That's the one. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Because you've been tested, haven't you? Sometimes. Yeah.

A few times but but you know i've seen courage i've seen when there when there's a lack of courage and then i've seen real courage and uh you know and it's on different levels on everything and what the reason why I say courage, because today's day and age, it's so easy to, you know, well, it's somebody else's. And it could be, you could say accountability too, but I think it takes courage to be accountable. And what do you hope the next generation gets? Are you a baby boomer? Yeah. Yeah. And so what do you hope the next generation gets are you a baby boomer yeah yeah and so what do you hope this next generation of millennials what do you hope they get right they've got to find that tremendous passion to do things that are going to be for the better good of of people you know and it doesn't mean that building an airplane is not doing something for the better good.

That's creating a lot of value to a lot of different people. It's opening the world. You know, I just was at an event the other day with Orbis, and this is the flying hospital that provides sight to, of people over the years. And 80% of all... What is a war bus? I don't know what this is. It's a flying hospital. It's a flying eye hospital.

And they fly all around the world providing surgery for cataracts and some of these other kinds of things because 80% of all blindness is curable. Really? 80%? 80%. And so they fly around and they give the gift of sight to thousands upon thousands of people. Are you involved with this organization? Well, we were, as a company, we're involved in terms of

we provide all the work in terms of the airplanes and keeping the airplanes flying and those kinds of things. But I think there's, I'm just saying that there's a lot of value in the things that we do. You know, being able to, you know, build airplanes that provide jobs for people, that provide better lives for people. I always used to like to say when I was the head of sales, you know, if we do our job really well, we're going to provide a better life for thousands of people here and around all the United States and around the world. That's what you should think about.

That's what you should think about. That's the way we should approach our job. I hope the millennials can get that. I hope they can, you know, you hear them, you know, moving around, getting, you know, working in all these different places. I hope they're doing it because they want to help make this a better place. And then what do you see your industry in the next five to ten years? Well, I mean, that's going to be what we're at a very interesting time. This competitive mindset, we have to accelerate that and really take off in terms of getting everyone on the same page around what it means for us to compete and to win, because we're going to be going up against, you know, more competitors than we've ever faced before. We're going to be going

up against a lot of competitors that are subsidized by their governments. And we're going to have to be better than we've ever been before, ever. And it's going to be different for us, and we all got to get ready for it. We've spent a lot of time now talking about the urgency required. Now it's time to play. It's time to go. Yeah, because you guys have a massive eco-structure and a system in place. Yeah, we do, and one of the challenges for us is obviously our history and our culture, which is also a strength as well.

But it can also be a hindrance too, because it, it's ingrained over a hundred years and we were the very, we've been the very best for a long time, but everybody's catching up and we've got to, you know, when you, and you know, it's like being that longstanding champion for over and over and over again, you start to think, well, you know, I just got being that longstanding champion for over and over and over again. You start to think, well, you know, I just got to keep doing what I'm doing. No, you got to be better today than you were yesterday. And we got to be better every day. Every airplane's got to be, you know, better.

And that's the challenge because, you know, when you've been, you've done so well, you know, to be able to keep pushing yourself to be better. Sometimes it's hard to do. I think it's really tough, you know, and so human capital, it sounds like it's going to be one of the big opportunities, right? No question. Yeah. A thousand percent. Okay.

So how do you think about mastery? Like what, what, what are some ways that you think about mastery? Cause you've been on the path of mastery, continually improving over and over again and maximizing every opportunity you've had at in the workforce and at home so how do you think about mastery oh all i have to do is ask my wife because i'm not there she'll let you know quickly yeah you know humility is a big part of mastery i think you have to be humble enough to know that it's a, you know, it's a constant trial. And so it's a constant, you're never at mastery. That's the, that's the neat part about it. You can always be better. When you, if you, when you start to think that,

that you're, you've got it, watch out. Because something's going to happen that's going to remind you that you don't. Yeah, that's good. And Ray, I'm grateful to know you. Grateful to spend this time with you as well. Yeah, no, it's fun. That's always fun. Yeah, so thank you for spending your time.

Thank you. Thank you, Mike. All right. Thank you so much for diving into another episode of Finding Mastery with us. Our team loves creating this podcast and sharing these conversations with you. We really appreciate you being part of this community. Thank you. If you're looking for even more insights, we have a newsletter we send out every Wednesday. Punch over to findingmastery.com slash newsletter to sign up. The show wouldn't be possible without our sponsors and we take our recommendations seriously. And the team is very thoughtful about making sure we love and endorse every product you hear on the show.

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