“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
"Once you jump, you're already dead. Now change the outcome," said my jumpmaster when I completed my first skydiving solo jump. That moment, I discovered the enlightened thrill of putting your life in your own hands, leaving no one else responsible for your survival. I learned two things that day: (1) Religious tolerance, as I, a Christian, uttered a thousand quick prayers to God, Allah, Buddha, Zeus, who ever was possibly responsible for my safe landing, and (2) that growth comes from facing challenges with a leap of faith. Ever since I landed, I catch myself, once a day, looking up at the sky for higher levels to reach.
Each day of my career will be spent as if I was earning my position after being fired. I will run a business as if I was pulling it out of bankruptcy. Most importantly, I will treat my wife and my family as a divorced man trying to earn his way back into his family's heart and home. I will live every day trying to change outcomes, putting ego and fear of failing aside, always finding somewhere to jump just so that I can land and jump again.
Each day of my career will be spent as if I was earning my position after being fired. I will run a business as if I was pulling it out of bankruptcy. Most importantly, I will treat my wife and my family as a divorced man trying to earn his way back into his family's heart and home. I will live every day trying to change outcomes, putting ego and fear of failing aside, always finding somewhere to jump just so that I can land and jump again.
— Michael Holt