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I earned my pilot’s license in college. It wasn’t something I planned — it started as an elective I took out of curiosity and ended up shaping how I approach just about everything in life, including running a business.
Flying teaches you things that no textbook on leadership ever will. It teaches you how to think under pressure, how to prepare for the unexpected and how to make decisions that balance speed, precision and safety.
Over the years, I’ve logged hundreds of hours in the air and built a business from the ground up. Running a company — especially during periods of growth or crisis — is a lot like flying an aircraft. The stakes are different, but the mindset is remarkably similar.
Whether you’re cruising at altitude or trying to scale a business without spinning out, the best thing you can do is think like a pilot.
Plan for the unplanned
In aviation, there’s a rule drilled into your head early: always have an alternate. You never take off assuming the original plan will work out perfectly. Weather changes, air traffic shifts and mechanical issues happen. The plan is there to guide you, not to trap you.
It’s the same in business. Your roadmap should be disciplined, but not rigid. Things break. Markets shift. Teams stumble. A good CEO doesn’t just plan for success — they prepare for setbacks. The quality of your fallback plans says more about your leadership than your first strategy.
When scaling 46 Labs, every system we implemented had redundancy. From telecom infrastructure to internal processes, we designed with failure in mind — not because we were pessimistic but because we were pragmatic. Just like flying, business is a high-speed, high-stakes environment. You don’t wait for something to go wrong before you prepare for it.
Related: 12 Ways to Quickly Get Moving Again After a Major Setback
Be decisive under pressure
Pilots are trained to keep flying the plane, no matter what. You lose an engine — you fly. You hit turbulence — you fly.
That lesson applies perfectly to business. In tough moments — when you lose a major customer, when funding dries up, when your product fails — you stay focused. Panic is natural. Action is necessary.
You won’t always have perfect information. But indecision is often more dangerous than the wrong decision. That’s not an excuse to act recklessly; it’s a reminder that momentum matters. The worst thing you can do in a crisis is freeze. Make the best call you can with the data you have, and course-correct as needed.
Rely on systems, not just instinct
Instinct is helpful. But in aviation, you fly by instruments. Your instincts can lie to you. That’s why cockpits are full of gauges and checklists. They keep you grounded in what’s real.
Business is no different. Your intuition might say everything’s fine — but the data may say otherwise. That’s why I’m a believer in processes and metrics. You don’t manage a company on gut feeling. You manage it by building systems that show you what’s actually happening.
That applies to everything — from customer satisfaction to employee engagement. Without systems in place, your decision-making is just educated guessing. And guessing doesn’t scale.
Trust the crew and know when to take the yoke
In a cockpit, the pilot is in charge — but they don’t fly alone. Good pilots trust their copilots, instruments and systems. They delegate. They communicate. And they know flying solo isn’t how you fly best.
As a CEO, the same rules apply. Build a crew you can trust. Hire people smarter than you. Give them ownership and let them do their jobs. Micromanagement feels like control, but it slows you down and erodes trust.
But also know when to take the yoke. When something mission-critical is on the line, step in, take control and lead from the front. The key is knowing when to zoom out and when to jump in.
Related: How to Close the Trust Gap Between You and Your Team
Monitor and adjust
In aviation, you constantly monitor speed, fuel and weather. You never “set it and forget it.” Conditions change fast, and if you’re not adjusting, you’re off course.
Running a business is the same. You don’t build a plan in Q1 and hope it holds in Q4. You monitor performance — revenue, churn, margins — and adjust proactively. If you’re only reacting after hitting a wall, you’ve already lost time.
At 46 Labs, we track everything we can and never assume the current path is the best one. Course corrections don’t mean you were wrong — they mean you’re paying attention.
Stay calm
The best pilots don’t panic. They communicate, follow the checklist and get the job done.
Every company hits turbulence. The ones that survive focus on process, not noise.
I’ve had moments where it felt like everything was unraveling. What got us through wasn’t genius — it was calm execution. Turbulence is inevitable. How you respond to it isn’t.
Final approach
Flying taught me that you don’t grow by pushing the throttle — you grow by managing lift, drag, weight and thrust. You grow by balancing forces.
It taught me to trust systems, stay cool under pressure and always have an alternate.
You don’t have to be a pilot to think like one. But if you want to scale a business, survive turbulence and arrive where you intended, adopt the mindset of someone trained for it.
Whether you’re flying at 30,000 feet or managing a team of 30, the principles are the same: Plan ahead. Monitor constantly. Communicate clearly. Stay calm. And fly the plane.
