Certain things stay in your mind. One such is from the Arthur Hailey Classic 'Airport'. Joe Patroni, the maverick Head of Maintanance of Transworld Airlines, is tasked with removing an Aircraft stalled on the runway three zero, stuck in ice. Time was running out for him, as another aircraft, which has had a mid air explosion of bomb wants the runway desperately. Joe has been told that if he is unable to extract the Aircraft by a specified time, he has to quit when the Tower tells him to do so, and the Snow movers and Ploughs will take over and push the Aircraft aside, thus damaging it beyond repair. Joe, who loves Aircrafts, and looks upon them as Engineering marvels, just couldn't digest that an Aircraft could be pushed aside using Snow movers and Bulldozers.
Joe knew he was running out of time. Three previous attempts to get the Aircraft unstuck has come to nought. He would have loved another hour of shovelling around the tyres. This time, he gets into the cockpit, with an Assistant named Ingram. He starts the Engine and gives full power, trying to shake loose the Aircraft, to no avail. He had almost reached 70% power, and with the Aircraft still stuck, the vibration was unbearable. Then the Tower tells him to quit and evacuate the Aircraft, meaning the Ploughs will move in. Joe disregards the instruction. The Tower is frantic, and Ingram reminds him of the Towers instructions. Joe looks at him, chewing an unlit Cigar, and grins telling him ' Son, can't hear a thing. Let us go for broke", and as an aside to himself says "When those **** s in the Tower tells you that you have run out of time, there is always one minute extra". He goes on to give full power, and the Aircraft gets unstuck, making him a hero, despite the Tower and the Airport Manager Mel Bakersfield seething with rage at his disobedience. But as Mel thinks to himself 'I can get Joe into trouble for disobeying Tower's orders, but no one in his right mind will question such success'. And one more legend is added to Joe Patroni ( I am quoting the lines from memory, having read these a couple of decades back).
Though the one minute extra available has been in the back of my mind all these years, I realized its value only when I restarted playing Tennis after a quarter century. I have a Coach who is a good task master and with his help I have reconstructed both my backhand and forehand, no mean achievement. And he always asks me to wait a bit and not to rush the shot. I went back to the one minute extra of Joe, and decided that I will wait 3 seconds extra before hitting the shot. The results were remarkable. I cut down on unforced errors and have really added sting to my shots.
Is it like that at work and life too? Are we rushing things? Should we just take a step back, reflect on issues impartially and then take a decision? I have always been a spontaneous decision maker and have not regreted it. But I am just wondering whether I should take that one minute extra! At least, I want to give it a try. So should you.
