There are pilots and there are pilots; with the good ones, it is inborn. You can't teach it. If you are a fighter pilot, you have to be willing to take risks.
Interpretation
Not all pilots are the same; the best are born with innate qualities that can't be taught and must embrace risk.
In this quote, Robin Olds emphasizes that while anyone can learn the technical skills needed to be a pilot, exceptional pilots possess inherent traits that set them apart. He highlights the necessity of taking risks, especially in high-stakes environments like combat flying, where courage and instinct are just as essential as training.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about leadership and decision-making in high-pressure situations.
The best way to defend the bombers is to catch the enemy before it his in position to attack. Catch them when they are taking off, or when they are climbing, or when they are forming up. Don't think you can defend the bomber by circling around him. It's good for the bombers morale, and bad for tactics.
Fighter pilot is an attitude. It is cockiness. It is aggressiveness. It is self-confidence. It is a streak of rebelliousness, and it is competitiveness. But there's something else - there's a spark. There's a desire to be good. To do well; in the eyes of your peers, and in your own mind.
What makes climbing great for me, strangely enough, is this life-and-death aspect. It sounds trite to say, I know, but climbing isn't just another game. It isn't just another sport. It's life itself. Which is what makes it so compelling and also what makes it so impossible to justify when things go bad.
I am the voice of the voiceless; Through me the dumb shall speak. Till the deaf world's ears be made to hear. The wrongs of the wordless weak. And I am my brothers keeper, And I will fight his fights; And speak the words for beast and bird. Till the world shall set things right.
It isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for that long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security.
Sometimes, people call my way of speaking ranting. Why are you always ranting and screaming, they ask. But here’s the thing…the reason why I rant is because I am a voice for many women that cannot speak out to heads of state, UN officials, and those that influence systems of oppression. And so I rant. And I will not stop ranting until my mission of equality of all girls is achieved.
Ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!
Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before.
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