Today on an appointment I met a retired Delta Captain.
This gentlemen retired at 60 years in 2007. Following his retirement, he went to work for Kit Darby's AIR Inc. outfit. This gentlemen has a son who is now #13 from the bottom at ASA.
This gentlemen, during his time at Kit Darby's outfit, managed to provide career consultations to a number of his peers at the various other major/legacy companies within this country.
The reason I bring this up is that I had no expectation of meeting a retired Delta Captain today. I only planned to meet with a potential customer, find out their needs, and try to exceed them.
What he ended up telling me was that he would encounter on a regular basis fellow 58-59 year old heavy jet captains who didn't want to retire at Age 60 and were hoping and praying that they'd be able to stay on for another 5 years.
Now, he didn't seem to really subscribe to this thought much because he realized why he himself was able to achieve such success flying jets around. Because people left, retired, and/or died. If it wasn't for those who came before him leaving at their appropriate time, he wouldn't have achieved his own career goals.
He made it a habit of challenging those seeking to fly past 60. He informed them of the damage they have done to their body, and how it will get increasingly worse over the next five years. He informed them that it was their ill-fated financial decisions that have put the stress on their careers and their families.
He also asked them a simple question:
How did you get to your current seat?
The answer was simple and obvious. Because someone left.
It seemed that at the end of the conversation all he wanted to do was reaffirm the fact that these guys were able to reach the pinnacle of their careers because guys before them left, retired, got on that boat on the lake, and enjoyed the rest of their lives.
His end goal was to remind these individuals he provided consultations to that it wasn't the younger guy's/gal's fault that he/she had a second or third marriage, or bought the bigger house, or sent their son or daughter to that ivy league school they really couldn't afford. But, because of the nature of our business they were able to move on and get to where they were.
I left that conversation being very surprised. I've encountered perhaps one other Captain who joyously left his seat at 60 years old, without a complaint. What meant more to me than anything was that this guy knew where all of us are coming from - at least those of us who don't plan on sticking it out at our crap regional. He understood, and was willing to go to bat for us younger folks just trying to make a living doing what we love.
I sure as hell hope there are more guys like him out there.