Page 90 - Midas Touch

of 3,000 applicants. In the two years it takes to graduate from the program,
many of those get washed out before receiving their Navy or Marine Corps
wings because they don’t have the right focus.

Robert’s story of his transition from pilot to combat pilot took even
greater focus. The day he climbed into his aircraft, now equipped with

guns and rockets, was the day he realized he had to change. Here’s a little
more of his story:

After I adjusted to flying a gunship on live-fire missions, my instructor
increased the pressure. On the second-to-the-last training flight, he snuck a
child’s plastic baseball bat into the cockpit. As I rolled the aircraft on the
targets in the desert, the instructor began hitting me with his plastic bat on
my helmet, on my arms and legs, and across my face. Turning to him, I

shouted, “What the hell are you doing?”

“You’re dead,” sneered my instructor. “You killed us all.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I said, pulling the aircraft out of its
dive without firing a shot.

“You lost your focus,” said my instructor. “Anyone can fire machine guns
and rockets on targets in the desert. In a month, when you are in Vietnam,
your targets will be firing back. This plastic bat simulates what it feels

like to have bullets ripping through the aircraft. The moment I hit your
helmet and face shield with the bat, you lost your focus. You killed us all.”

Lesson learned. On my final flight with the same instructor, no matter how
hard he hit me with his plastic bat, I held my focus all the way to the
target, destroying the target with four rockets and machine-gun fire before
pulling out of the dive.

The game had changed, just as changing quadrants changes the game for

entrepreneurs. It’s not easy. It’s uncomfortable. Each quadrant requires
different skills and teams, more experience, and greater focus. When you
leave the safety and security of the E quadrant, keep your focus, no matter
what is thrown at you. If you can survive, keep your focus, and eventually
thrive in worlds of the B and I quadrants, you will enter worlds of wealth,
success, and power that very few entrepreneurs ever achieve. It takes time,
it is not easy, and not everyone makes it, but if you are truly an

entrepreneur, what else would you want to do with your life?