We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mitch “Taco”. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mitch “Taco” below.

Mitch “Taco”, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Imagine leaving your family behind, your secure and safe job to strap on body armor and fly 6 thousand miles from home to serve your country…either active duty or as a reservist/Guard. The first day you land, it’s 140 degrees F and eight 122mm rockets impact next to you. The shock wave crushes your breath as it slams against you. This goes on for 8 months straight, wash, rinse and repeat. The explosion from the IED kills your good friend, a man you just had dinner with the night before. Your unit loads his body on an “Angel” flight home to Dover for processing. These are the things I experienced while serving in Iraq in 2005 to 2006. It’s not just my story, this was played out for hundreds of thousands of our service men and women throughout the country.

Because I came home whole when at anytime, it could have been me on the Angel flight, I feel it’s my duty to assist my fellow vets secure a job at home when they get out. As my buddy Erik Sabiston says “after fighting for your country, you should’n’t have to come home and fight for a job” which makes sense.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

At 6 years old, I flew on the Jumpseat of an American Airlines 727 from DCA to Knoxville TN back in 1971. It was raining when we took off and sunny at altitude, a view that was seared into my memory. It was a small gesture that set me on a path to becoming a pilot and eventually an airline pilot for the same airline.

Realizing that my parents didn’t have the money to send me to a private aviation school, I looked to the military to pay for my training. You sign up and give about 10 years of your life for the equivalent of a masters in aviation. Flying the KC-130 around the world was incredible. Watching the Northern lights dance across the sky in Iceland to running with the bulls in the Azores. We had adventures every month flying a transport plane in and out of some great and some not so awesome places.

After 10 years on active duty, I was hired by American Airlines, my dream airline and I felt my life was complete. I had made it to the end of my dream. My first flight as a flight engineer on the panel of the 727 was from DCA to DFW. It was surreal to say the least. Along the way, my journey wasn’t always smooth, from the death of my sister in college to failing a check ride in flight school, there were many obstacles that could have easily prevented me from achieving my goal but I was always able to steer myself back on course.

Becoming a professional aviator is a career where you make mistakes, small ones, but they are all learning points that are avoided on the next flight. Constantly striving to for that perfect flight and the last 30 seconds of your time in the air is judged by 180 paying passengers in the back who either love your smooth landing or make a snarky remark about their watch stopping when the plane hits the deck.

Since I don’t fly boxes for a cargo carrier, I always come back to first class and thank my passengers for their business, I appreciate it and my family does as well. While AA signs my check, it’s those passenger who travel with us who pay the bills.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Part of growing up is dealing with people in a calm and rational way. As a young Lt, I once found myself on a 30 day trip with someone I didn’t like very much. It was a painful experience and as this person was a Captain and senior to me, very difficult to deal with. I could have used a copy of “How to win Friends and Influence people” back then for sure. Let’s just say that this person was drunk and started a fight with a sober person and it didn’t end well for him. That is a God point in my life. God points to me are events that cause you to go left or right of your true course. At the time, you think this detour is life ending as this person does everything in his power to gently put a velvet dagger in your back, to destroy your career and cause you to transfer half way around the world to put distance in between you and not be the focus of his dismay.

Then you come to realize that even though you are are in another squadron so far away from this person, you can’t outrun a telephone. What is crushing is to find out that he was there a year before and perhaps friends with the Executive officer who proceeds to make your year there a living hell through one of his henchmen.

I left after a year to take a set of orders that no one wanted, to be on recruiting duty. I left my community packed up and moved to Kansas City MO. It was the best three years ever and my last six months there. I ran into a couple great pilots at American who took a shine to me and helped get my application into HR and on top of 25 thousand apps. I was hired right away and literally stepped out of my green USMC uniform to put on a Blue one.

it’s funny though, I held a massive amount of bitterness towards those three guys over my perceived slights and how my career went left and right and not straight as I wanted it to go. One day, after flying my 1929 Fleet biplane around an absolutely crisp beautiful Texas day, I looked at my plane sitting in the sun next to the hanger, my wife who just pulled up in my car to fetch me, my good friend Reb who helped me get a job and it hit me right square in the forehead, the greatest epiphany followed by a settling peace that went through my soul. It was God telling me that those obstacles were placed in front of me to test me and my resolve. Had any of those events not happened, I would have gone right instead of left and down the end of the path, I wouldn’t be here where I am now. A family, a dream job and a life that is akin to a lifetime movie. So the lesson learned, while at the time, your roadblock may feel like the end of the world, it’s just a G.P. Placed there to test how well you recover the football after getting tackled.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

While attending the Xerox professional selling skills course in Leesburg VA. We were required to read “How to win friends and influence people “ by Dale Carnegie. It stands the test of time as one of the greatest books ever written as it comes to dealing with people. I wish I had read this in Jr. High, the lessons would have assisted me in dealing with girls, friends and enemies. The short stories are powerful. I read this book once a year and carry it on my IPad and phone as well.

The second piece is “Who’s got the Monkey” by William Oncken, Jr. while stationed in Japan I was the assistant operations officer of the group HQ dealing with six hundred Marines between two different Squadrons. It was long days as I felt it was my job to help my peers at the squadron level get things done. One day, my boss called me into his office and handed me a worn out copy of this article from Harvard Business Journal. He said, go make a copy of this, bring me back mine, read it twice and then come back and we’ll talk.

The piece spoke of problems as monkeys, your subordinates will do a drive by the boss with a problem and if you feel inclined to help because you know the source of their issue or whatever, that monkey jumps from his back to yours. You are now the owner of that monkey and they require constant care and feeding. Before you know it, your person down the hall stops buy to check on it you were able to sort out the issues with his problem? You now are the subordinate and a few of these monkeys can be a time sniper. I realized I was no longer the manager running these two units but working for them. Over night, that short article put me back into the manager seat again as I never let a conversion transpire with me being in possession of their “Monkey”

I would give them the option what day by close of business they would come back back with three proposals on how to deal with their issue and I would choose which course of action we would pursue based off of my insight at the higher level. It’s a great way to have your subordinates grow and learn how to deal with the difficult roadblocks put in front of them. Highly recommend that article!

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Image Credits
Rick Irving, his name is on the photo