Striving Towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I’ve been reading this incredible book called “21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader” by John Maxwell. If you read one chapter a day and actually apply it, it’ll seriously turn you into a better leader.

The first chapter is all about character, and he tells this amazing story that really drives it home.

There was this guy who built and sold small planes—like, he’d sold over 50 of them to different companies. Everything was going great until a couple of those planes crashed.

So what did he do? He told every single customer to ground their planes immediately until he could figure out what went wrong. No flights. Period.

For two years—TWO YEARS—he did zero business while investigating the problem. Finally, he figured out the exact conditions that could cause a crash. But here’s where it gets crazy: to test his theory, he flew the plane himself.

He literally put his own life on the line, and he almost died—barely managed to land the plane safely.

That’s real character.

The guy risked everything, including his life, to make sure his customers were safe. Maxwell uses this as the perfect example of what true character looks like. Not just talking about doing the right thing, but actually doing it even when it costs you everything.