Episode 688 - Engineering Your Legacy

In this episode, Phil tells the story of James, an Alaskan aviation pioneer who combined his flying passion with engineering skills to advance aviation. James began his aviation career in 1917 where he served as a flight instructor during WWI and later helped develop important aircraft instruments and engines. Phil highlights how specialized knowledge, unique experiences, and passion create success, emphasizing that continuous learning leads to lasting impact.

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Transcript 

Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I'm Phil Buchanan, Executive Chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push, and motivational insight to live your best life.

Thanks for joining. Good Monday morning. It is Phil here with episode 688 of Monday Morning Mojo. James was born in 1896. He grew up in Alaska. He was a outdoorsman, a very passionate enthusiast, but he understood the value of education. He earned multiple degrees, first earning a degree in engineering.

James was bitten by the flying bug very early in life. He started flying in 1917, only 14 years after Orville Wright first took flight in North Carolina. James was not only hooked on flying himself, he became so proficient that he actually served as an instructor for other pilots during World War I.

After the Great War, James assisted corporations in creating and perfecting instruments for aircrafts that would enhance safety and proficiency. Today, modern variations of his very work still serve as key instruments in today's modern airplanes. James laid the foundation for instrument flying rules that pilots throughout the world still follow today.

He was also instrumental in helping develop aircraft engines and the fuels that powered them. It was his passion for flight combined with his engineering education that allowed him to succeed. But make no mistake, his real passion was always flying. Air racing, which basically pitted Different pilots and planes racing around was incredibly popular during the 1920s and 30s, and James was very successful.

He set numerous records for certain course racings and for cross country flights. In 1929, James conducted the very first blind flight. A blind flight means that you take off, you fly, and you land a plane without being able to see outside the plane, relying on nothing but the instruments. Some call James foolish, but James was an educated, proficient pioneer.

And it was that education, that proficiency, and that pioneering spirit that served him throughout his life. In fact, after he was done with later military service, he wound up serving on several boards, including the chairmanship of the forerunner, He was also a senior executive of the Shell Oil Corporation.

Throughout his life, he used his brain, he used his experiences, and he used his passion to advance aviation and advance his career. And so as a result, he lived an engaged life, he was compensated appropriately, and he left the world a better place. So it begs the question, does specialized education, unique experience, and a passion for your industry guarantee success?

Well, the answer of course is no, but the likelihood of success is much higher with specialized education, unique experiences, and passion when compared to those who don't possess them or it. You know, as a kid, I never considered. not going to college. My family had always placed great emphasis on education.

But when I think back, it wasn't really the things that I learned in my undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia that propelled me forward in my career. Rather, it was the advanced and specialized training and education that I received. It was becoming a graduate of the Cannon Trust School. It was attaining my Certified Financial Planner designation, attaining the CHFC, attaining the CLU, completing my Master's.

And then that combined with other more unique and specialized education events like, well, cooking schools or forestry based prescribed fire school. And of course, many of you know, Uh, my flight training and education. You know, it's the amalgamation of all of these experiences that have offered lessons that not only were unique and specialized, but together gave me perspectives and insights that I could apply in multiple, multiple areas of my life.

It just seemed that the more I learned, the more I found that opportunities would present themselves and those opportunities. Well, they continue to fuel my passion for growth today. Now, back when I first got started in the financial services industry, all you really needed on the security side was a license.

Today, clients expect much more. They expect diverse, well credentialed professionals, not simply individuals who have a license to sell. Going forward, I think the stakes will continue to rise. I think expectations will continue to increase. But for those who ascribe to lifelong learning and lifelong education, the opportunities will be vast.

And those individuals, well, they'll leave a mark on the industry and they will leave the world much better off. Just like James did. James died in 1993. He died as an all American hero for all of his accomplishments, the one that he valued most. As did most historians in a very grateful nation. Occurred in April of 1942, when James Harold Jimmy Doolittle led a raid on the mainland of Japan that boosted the morale of the U.

S. nation, one that had suffered so greatly. from the attacks of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Doolittle's Raiders will always stand as a testament to American courage and resolve. And Jimmy Doolittle was right there. He was in the fight. He was leading with his knowledge, with his skill, and with his passion.

You know, the world needs more Jimmy Doolittles. Monday Morning Mojo is a production of Cannon Financial Institute. Executive Producer of Monday Morning Mojo is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. our new production manager is Daniela Delgado. Our unsung hero this week is our former production manager, McCall Chamberlain.

McCall brought an incredible level of high energy, passion, and super engagement to the role of production management of our podcast. But McCall is not going far. McCall is simply taking a new role within the company. She is Our new client experience coordinator for the Cannon school. So those of you that will see us, uh, both on the road, as well as online through our school programs, you'll have an opportunity to engage with McCall.

So this is Phil Buchanan reminding each of you to be a force for good in this world, and I want to thank each of you for being part of the Mojo community.