September 12, 2022
Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way:
Short Stories on Leadership from a Montanan and Aviation Executive
John Craig
Aviva Publishing (2022)
ISBN: 978-1-63618-153
New Book Offers Leadership Lessons Based on Aviation Executive’s Life Experiences
John Craig, a former Boeing executive, has had numerous meaningful life experiences from growing up in Montana to being a father and husband and working at Boeing. Now in his new book Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way: Short Stories on Leadership from a Montanan and Aviation Executive, he shares those lessons with readers so they can benefit from his wisdom and hopefully save themselves from some hard lessons themselves. While the book covers a wide range of stories, each one provides both entertainment and some simple education about the topic that any reader will find interesting and helpful.
At the heart of the book is the topic of leadership, although it might be simplified to “how to get along with others.” Craig has experience traveling the world and getting to know people from different cultures. He has met with government leaders and spoken at industry forums. He has managed employees, and he has raised children. Through it all, he has learned that simple things like listening and showing respect to people will help you get along with them and get them to be open to your own perspective.
Some of what Craig has learned has truly been learned the hard way, as is common for many young people. In his early years of driving, he liked to speed and got pulled over more than once. He shares some entertaining stories about those moments, what he said wrong to the cops, what he should have said, and ultimately how he learned to show respect and always tell the truth. He also shares his stories of drinking as a youth and being in a fraternity and some of the high jinks he and his fraternity brothers engaged in. Ultimately, some of those antics led to trouble, and he discusses how he and his frat brothers learned to make peace with other fraternities, including stopping them from stealing all of their furniture.
One of my favorite points that Craig makes is how important it is to get along in the workplace. People who rise to management positions need to learn how to treat their employees properly because you never know when your employee may become your boss.
Of course, in the workplace a hierarchy exists so it can in some ways be easier to get along with people at work because most of them will understand and respect that hierarchy and their place within the company. The same is not true in other, less formal settings, such as organizations you may belong to. One of the book’s highlights is Craig’s stories about how he was involved in a homeowner’s association. While most of the members got along, trouble ensued from the moment the organization was founded because of one couple. Once Craig was elected to the board, he explained what the board was going to do, only to have the husband in this couple say, “We’ll have to see about that.” This man was implying he was in charge, even though he wasn’t even on the board. What ensued were years of difficulties, and Craig tells the story well of how he managed to deal with this difficult couple he couldn’t easily get rid of like he could an employee by firing them. Every chapter in the book ends with lessons learned from the stories told. In this situation, some of the lessons included “Do not engage hostility with hostility” and “Do not back down when bullied.” Those may seem contradictory, but Craig explains the difference and how you can do both.
Aviation fans will especially enjoy Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way, and Craig’s stories of thirty-five years at Boeing, first as an engineer and then an executive will thrill anyone interested in flight. Craig truly enjoyed his work and maintained his wonder over the magic of flight. He agrees with comedian Louis CK who once said that today some people “act as if their flight was a cattle car in the ’40s in Germany…[the flight] was the worst day of my life…. Everyone on a flight should say, ‘Oh, my God, wow’…you’re sitting in a chair in the sky!”
Craig’s stories include how innovations were developed for various planes, and his role in them, including a mistake he made that he had to own up to or it could have resulted in accidents—and plane accidents tend to equal fatalities. He also shares how he developed good relationships with people at work, resulting in everything from preventing having his department moved from building to building to finding ways to get employees to want to go above and beyond. He relates how his mother-in-law told him to watch an episode of Dr. Phil to learn how to get his kids to do something without yelling at them. He then applied the same strategy at work. Rather than giving orders, he started asking employees to do something and would explain that he could find someone else, but they were really the best person for the job. This simple strategy caused the employee to feel appreciated and led to a win-win for both.
Ultimately, the common theme in Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way is the importance of showing respect to others, acknowledging their perspectives, and engaging them in positive ways. Craig illustrates this importance with a simple story former US Secretary of State Colin Powell told in an interview about his interaction with the parking garage attendants where he worked:
“In the parking garage, cars were parked two, three, or four deep. Being inquisitive, he asked the parking lot attendant one day how they decided where to park the cars. The attendant said it was easy—if you say hi, and you are pleasant, your car gets parked in front; if not, it ends up behind others. The attendant told Secretary Powell, ‘You always say, “Good morning,” so your car is always in front.’
Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way is full of other insightful stories Craig shares to show how we can all get along better. The exercises at the end of each chapter help readers to apply these lessons to their own lives. The result is a mixture of memoir, self-help book, and an overall enjoyable reading experience that will leave you flying high about the possibilities for your own relationships.
For more information about John Craig and Life Lessons Learned the Hard Way, visit Amazon.
— Tyler R. Tichelaar, PhD and award-winning author of Narrow Lives and The Best Place
