Air Force Featured Stories

What kind of shoe salesman are you?

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Bud Erickson
  • 338th Combat Training Squadron
An American shoe salesman was sent to the outback of Australia to sell shoes to the Aborigines. He sent a telegram back to his headquarters: "They don't wear shoes here. There is no opportunity for sales."

A second salesman was sent to the same area. He saw the opportunities, and wired, "They don't wear shoes here. What a fantastic sales opportunity!"

As the commander of Offutt's formal training unit, I'm in the unique position to meet all of the more than 100 new aircrew members assigned to the 55th Wing each year. Airman or lieutenant, airborne systems engineer or navigator, they all arrive with eager expectations of becoming qualified in what they see as an exciting, high-profile mission.

While this interview helps me learn about the students, I take time to encourage them to take advantage of the opportunities before them. I feel it's important, as this is their first operational assignment and the beginning of their careers.

Whether your new assignment is your first or your seventh, unique opportunities abound with each. How you approach new situations and whether or not you take advantage of the opportunities presented is entirely up to you. We can't make you view a challenge as an opportunity instead of a setback.

Today's military is challenging at best and difficult at worst. How you view and react to situations determines what impact you will make and what you will gain from it. You're missing out if you don't take advantage of the opportunities.

It's been said the G.I. Bill educational benefits given to World War II veterans provided the key training and higher education that eventually produced the technological advances that landed man on the moon. What an opportunity.

Consider these fantastic educational benefits or opportunities that get better each year. Consider the "opportunity" of tuition assistance -- going to 100 percent in October -- and the opportunity of working in an environment that encourages higher education. Don't pass up the opportunity to earn your Community College of the Air Force degree or other advanced degrees.

Military people and their families experience incredible sights, sounds and customs of other cultures as they deploy around the world.

We have the opportunity to travel to places most people only see on the Discovery Channel. Not all the time is spent with feet in the sand of Southwest Asian deserts. Many times it's the sand of beaches with views many people pay dearly to enjoy. But we often go while on the job.

Regardless of our high operations tempo, temporary duty rates, and hectic deployment schedules, there are continued opportunities afforded to each airman, sailor, soldier and Marine.

If you view each situation with a positive eye toward opportunity, then that opportunity will most assuredly present itself.

So decide now. What kind of shoe salesman are you?

(Courtesy of Air Combat Command News Service)