My Father is one of my heroes. Not only is he an amazing businessman and entrepreneur, he's also a well experience pilot. Not a big commercial airline type, but a small Cessna, hear about a crash on the news, type of pilot. It was his child-hood dream to fly, and for over 18 years he’s done it without a scratch. He has however had one really close call.

On Nov. 5th 2003, he was flying back from Williamsburg, VA with his wife, in what was considered not optimal conditions. He had zero visibility and had to rely 100% on his instruments to navigate through thick cloud cover over the mountains. He says it was like flying in a giant ping pong ball. A total whiteout.

The flight was going on as planned when suddenly a very strong up/down draft violently flipped the tiny four seater over, like a flapjack, completely upside down. In an instant, he was in trouble. He quickly regained control and orientation of the plane. Then the terrifying sound of a pilot's worst nightmare started to squeal in his ear, it was the stall warning. If you've ever heard this alarm, its like the "Code Red" siren from a WWII sub being shot at and preparing for impact. It screams "Something bad is about to go down". The plane stalled out, and my Dad was faced with the eerie silence of the killed engine and rushing wind of the plummeting aircraft. He restarted the engine and pulled out of the dive. Confused and still surrounded with zero visibility, he didn't understand why the plane stalled. As he pulled up, the stall warning screamed again and the engine died… again. This cycle of stalling out and restarting lasted what seemed like an eternity (in actuality about 20 seconds), until he looked down and realized one of his instruments he was relying on, the Attitude indicator, was broken and giving false readings. It is a gyro based instrument that instantly malfunctions if the plane breeches a 180˚ orientation. Deeming it “Divine Intervention”, for a split second he got a true bearing from the broken instrument and realized what was happening. Without that reading he surely would have ended his spotless flying record on that day.

Two things saved my Dad and his wife that day (and the moral of the story).

1. His Instruments- In everything, especially branding, you have to have objective tools to help navigate the subjective and zero visibility terrain.

2. His Training- Only an experienced pilot could have survived. There are no absolutes, especially in branding, and only knowledge and practice can produce the right results to an ever-changing landscape.

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