After reading about the recent JetBlue incident and the passengers who were stuck on the tarmac for 8 hours, I got to thinking about all the hours I’ve spent on airplanes.

When you build a national or international business over a 25 year period, you travel a lot. Millions of frequent flyer miles, thousands of flights, hundreds of lost bags and endless hours of delays are part of the story – and your life.

But the bright side of that experience for me was sitting beside such well-known people as Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, John Unitas, Mickey Mantle, Muhammad Ali, professional wrestlers, bull riders and everything in between. Music, film and other related celebrities were there too – Paul Newman, Red Buttons, Loretta Swit, Rod Steiger, Dave Robertson, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Patti LaBelle – the list goes on and on.

What did I learn? People are people – no matter who they are. The best way to have someone be interested in you is for you to be interested in them. Period.

The real lesson? If you do something often enough (like fly), you’ll see lots and lots of things if you keep your eyes open. Here’s the real story. Stay the course and build a business requiring travel you need to have:

• Physical stamina
• An understanding spouse or significant other
• Resiliency to rebound from setbacks, delays and problems
• Patience to deal with travel problems
• A tactical mind that enables you to switch plans, planes and priorities on a dime
• The capacity to deal with stress (and time zones)

Plus…the ability to identify the rich and famous without bothering them. It’s kind of like dealing with high level prospects, isn’t it?

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