The ASG

We reach today number six at our list of aircrafts that surprise you with the Goodyear GA-468 "Inflatoplane". As you could imagine from its name it was an inflatable aircraft designed for rescue operations, which could be folded into a little container of 1 cubic meter.

Incredible as it may seem, this aircraft was able to fly and it just had to be inflated with a pressure of 25 psi. In flight the pressure was assured with a pressure intake from the engine in order to maintain the structural integrity.

The first versions were equipped with a 40 HP engine and flew at a speed of 116 km/h with a range of 630 km. Its maximum takeoff weight was 110 kg and it needed only 90 meter runway.

It was designed and built in only 12 weeks in 1956 with the idea that it could be launched behind the enemy’s lines in a container to serve as a rescue vehicle to crashed pilots.

The project did not catch on because, as a military said:  “there was no military use for an aircraft which can be shot down with a bow and arrow”.

Only twelve units were built, but Goodyear continued the development until 1973. There are still two units, one of them in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.

This is a YouTube video showing this curious aircraft.

Our number 6 on the list of the weirdest aircrafts in history is for the Goodyear "Inflatoplane".

In our last entry we left a short test with some simple questions that should help you to know if you have the basic qualities that are required to reach the highest professional aims in your company. Now, let’s take your answers and go through them.

First of all, we will ignore all positive or negative answers, as these are irrelevant. The only answer that we will consider is “indifferent”.

Before we go on, I want to apologize because the test is a kind of joke and its questions are also irrelevant. We could have asked you about your musical preferences or your literary likes and the test result would still be valid.

If the number of “indifferent” answers is higher than five, congratulations! With this level you are clearly gifted with the first required quality to be a winner, this is adaptability.

Being adaptable does not mean that you do not have your own opinion about certain topics. It means that you keep it for you. You never buck the trend. You never bother your bosses. You are not a problematic person. Within five minutes you are able to defend a thought or the contrary without any problem and with the same conviction in both cases. Under these conditions nobody sees you as a potential rival and you will be able to silently make yourself a place in the organization, silently and in a natural way.

Or, in words of the sublime Groucho Marx, you could say:

“These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others”

If you answered ‘indifferent’ at least eight times, then you have a good chance to be successful, because you also have the second and more important condition. You are subtle. If you are subtle you have no roots or attachments. You do not owe anything to anyone. You have no compromises that ballast you. It does not mean that you always sail with the wind; it means that you can walk on water. What at the end of the day means that wherever you step, you will never sink.

An example will make all these much clearer to you.

In a certain company there is a deputy director vacancy. The director of the division has collected the information about the possible candidates for the position. He has on his desk some curricula that he is going to examine.

The first one is the candidate “A” who is in charge of the software department. He has an excellent record and he is a person deeply committed to work. His professional career is excellent and he seems to be the perfect candidate. But, after thinking about it for some minutes, the director pushes his curriculum aside because he remembered a basic principle of management:

“Never solve a problem with a solution that generates another bigger problem”

His reasoning is irrefutable: if he promotes candidate “A” the software team will be left leaderless and the company will not be able to deliver in the next six months a very important project in which tens of thousands of  Euros are at stake. Therefore the candidate “A” has to be left at his current position. “A” has been discarded.

Then the candidate “B” is evaluated. He is in charge of the hardware department. Also candidate “C”, that is in charge of the mechanics department. Then, he has the candidate “D”, in charge of the quality management. Then he has candidate “E”, and so on. All of them have in one way or another, the same problem as “A”.

After half an hour on the director’s desk only one record is left. Feeling a bit depressed he takes it and goes through it. It’s the candidate “P”. All managers he has had, have noted that he is a very willing person that never has made any troubles. He has always done his work efficiently although he has not achieved any successes but he did not fail in anything (in fact it is hard to tell what has he exactly done up to the date). He is now in charge of the Lost and Found department where he has been efficiently taking out the trash in a period of 24 hours after the reception of any object received in his warehouse. So he has been able to make a great use of the available space in his warehouse and at the same time he has had a perfect control over all objects in his custody. He has strictly fulfilled the guidelines and standards of the company in terms of quality management and pollution control.

The director doubts for some seconds, but soon he realizes that he has found the perfect candidate. Leaving his position will not harm any interests of the company and it will prevent quarrels among the other candidates. In addition, he has done such a good job at his actual department that the company will close this department since it is no longer needed. So, candidate “P” is the chosen one and the director will also be congratulated by his boss for reducing the costs by closing the Lost and Found department.

I guess that by now you get it…

Obviously the two previous conditions are necessary but not enough. You have to add the capability to show a frenetic activity (even if you have no idea of what you are doing), your ability to be in contact with others, your capacity to be charming with people from who you could get something, etc.

And finally, at the top of all the previous, you will need to have the luck to be in the right place at the right time. But that’s another thing.

Now you know that a ASG is a “Adaptable And Subtle Guy”. And beware because, may be, one of those is your next manager.

If you did not reach the required levels in the test, do not worry. You are like all of us and this is no reason to feel bothered (at least I hope so). It could happen that you do not climb much in your company’s ladder, but if you like what you do, then enjoy every single moment. Focus in your work, learn from the errors, enjoy your successes and over all, share your experience with all your colleagues since, even if you do not know, they are an important part of your life.

And of course, smile when you get a 121 key keyboard. Because when the person that gives you this keyboard sees you smiling, he will think, correctly, that you know something that he ignores.

Now a short reflexion.

Joking apart, if  you consider yourselves capable and prepared to reach the highest, you have to be very aware that from all steps in the winner’s ladder, the only one that you will be able to climb by yourselves is the first one.

It does not matter how much you climb, because in all the rest of the steps you go up the people under you will be decisive. If you can group people around you that support you unconditionally you will find an easy way because their enthusiasm will lead you all to success and that will be your launch pad.

This is the reason why you always should remember the help that indirectly granted you these people and do not become absorbed when looking at you in the mirror, telling yourselves “God, I’m so good!”, because a big part of your success you owe it to this people. If you forget it, you could keep climbing with the inertia, but you will feel very lonely up there.

But do not listen to me too much, I am often wrong in my suppositions.

A thought:

You may have forgotten where you go. It could also be possible, at a time, that you forget where you are. But never forget from where you came.

See you

Be brave!

Visit www.dip-solutions.com if you are curious of what we do.