Today’s competitive landscape is changing. Fast. Being in the right place at the right time is more important than ever. Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and self-made billionaire, believes it made a huge difference in his ability to grow his companies. “You will never see eye-to-eye if you never meet face-to-face,” he said in a campaign called No Plane No Gain.
I find interesting that both of our 2016 presidential candidates agree with Warren Buffett in the power of face-to-face meetings.
In a 2012 Conde Naste article highlighting a 19,000-mile, round-the-world trip as US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said, “People actually expect you to show up…to make the effort and demonstrate the respect, to sit across the table and look eye-to-eye. It reflects a commitment to the relationship that you cannot get from sending an email or doing a videoconference.”
In the same timeframe, Donald Trump was interviewed about the benefits of business travel. He answered, “Nothing beats personal interaction. It’s the best way to build a rapport, and that can only enhance business performance.”
Trump’s use of private aviation may have been the key to his successful presidential election. I met his Boeing 757 flight crew when they came to Austin a few months before votes were cast. One of the pilots had a counter on his phone. It was 77 days to the election. 77 more days of the crazy flying schedule that crisscrossed the country, landing in an average of 3 cities a day.
A number of experts have observed that those trips provided the face-to-face interaction with hundreds of thousands of Americans whose vote swung the election in the favor of the tenacious underdog.
You may not have presidential aspirations or want to build one of the largest companies in the world. You may not want a Boeing 757 with your name emblazoned on the side. But if you have any desire to break a record, break a glass ceiling, or breakdown a competitor, you should look to the skies.
There are hundreds of other stories of companies growing, expanding geographically, or increasing profits with the use of private aviation. They all started with one flight on one plane.
And thanks to some innovative marketers with a little inspiration from Uber, there are now more choices than ever. Some of which are surprisingly affordable.
You can learn more in my free 40,000-Foot Game-Changer Workshop, a three-part video series aimed at equipping you with a private aviation plan that won’t burn through your profits like jet fuel. In fact, it’s been proven to increase all sorts of financial statistics. Register at www.wepushtin.com/trump.