I, very generally speaking, try to do two things in everything I write: 1) write like I speak and 2) relatable segues. I’ve always felt that writing in that way helps make me more relatable and, by extension, make the company and product more relatable. Not in some snake oil salesman way, but in a “this is a translation of the nonsense rattling around between my ears” kinda way. I haven’t seen any literature that supports this thesis, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming.
Anyway, I’ve been making an effort to do more “stuff” in person over the last few months. Groceries, clothes shopping, that kind of thing. I don’t entirely know why, I just know I’m tired of shit being shipped to me constantly and feeling disconnected from the process and, subsequently, the results. My house ends up looking like an Amazon/Whole Foods/Walmart/Target warehouse, and I’m tired of the 5,000 boxes that have to be cut up as a result.
This is not to say that shopping for groceries in the store is the pinnacle of our humanity, but there is something undeniably human about doing the things that directly, or indirectly, support yourself and your family.
And that is what this is really about. Friction. Humanity. There’s something inherently human about friction and the prerequisite lack of perfect efficiency. There’s something that happens when you go do a thing. You touch it. You physically see it. You (sometimes) get to talk to someone that knows something about it before you buy it and get real feedback rather than assumed to be real feedback in the form of online reviews.
All that to say, delayed gratification is the texture to fruitful relationships. Without it, anything and everything is a commodity. And about nothing other than maximizing efficiency. Don’t get me wrong, efficiency matters, but it’s not all that matters. I refuse to be commoditized in anything I do. Because I’m human, this is human, and your experience with us will (and should) be human.
Private aviation is, at its core, a human business. The line you call to book trips is, and always will be, answered by a real person who works at Silverhawk, the pilots that fly you will be local, they’ll know your name, they’ll know your pets, and they’ll all learn what makes your travel yours.
I refuse to participate in a race to the bottom, which a ruthless drive for efficiency necessitates. In a way, and in that way, the push for efficiency in everything we do has made simply being human the biggest differentiator. And we’ve got that in spades. Just try me.
Mark
