Escape from the Box

The Wonder of Human Potential

By Col. Edward L. Hubbard, USAF (Retired)

When you wake up in the morning and things don’t go the way you planned them, or things start falling apart early on (like you forget your rants or worse, your plane got shot down), or later in the day, when things don’t go as advertised, the attitude that you take at that point in time is going to be critical to the outcome of the day, and determines whether the day is going to be a success or a failure, whether you are going to have a good day or a bad day.

(Hubbard 1994, 32)

Two or three days after my release in 1973, I made some very amazing discoveries in connection with reentering society. One of the first was that all that I had taken to prison with me, the things that truly became valuable, simple things like faith, pride, courage, hope and lots of intangibles – intangibles you think about and talk about all of your life but never ever fully understand – were what this country lost during the Vietnam War. During the time we were in captivity in north Vietnam, this country lost its sense of direction. This country lost confidence in its ability to do anything right.

(Hubbard 1994, 35)

One of the great advantages of being in the military is that any time somebody places a hurdle out there that is a little tough to climb over, we all rally around and somebody thinks up a clever little cliche. We all grab onto it and run out and conquer whatever it is we are after. We learned to be very creative. Several years ago, I attended a meeting which the leader started by showing a slide entitled, “Problems to Solve Today.” The slide listed about 20 items. As always, in any crowd, there is at least one person with a better idea. As it turned out, in this case, the individual really did have a better idea. In fact, it was one of the best I have ever heard. He suggested we change the title of the slide from “Problems to Solve Today”, to “Opportunities to Excel Today.” With that simple change we moved from a negative mood to a positive mood. What had originally appeared doable, and later proved to be relatively simple. Not only that, we left the meeting with a new concept of operations called “opportunity to excel.” I was going to carry that new cliche with me for the rest of my life.

(Hubbard 1994, 38)

One example of why I believe as I do comes from the prisons in Vietnam. With a large club or a rubber hose, or a set of ropes, the Vietnamese could change our behavior anytime they wanted. However, they could not change our attitude. Therefore, if they wanted us to do something again, a few days later, they had to come back and change our behavior again. If you want truly lasting changes, you must change people’s attitudes.

I hope I can convince you that you cannot change people’s behavior and make that a permanent fix. You can only make a permanent fix if you change people’s attitude, the way they view the world, and what they are willing to do. But, you cannot force a change in attitude. People who think you can force attitude changes are the same people who think you can mandate quality.

(Hubbard 1994, 101-102)

Mr. [Zig] Ziglar tells an interesting story about a week he had spent in Kansas City, where I grew up. He had been speaking all week and on Friday afternoon he was on his way home to Dallas. Like all of us who travel regularly, he arrived late at the airport and stood at the end of the line. That particular day, Zig arrived at the airport and there was a long line and he was all the way in the back. It looked like he was probably going to miss his flight. He noticed the ticket agent at the next counter getting ready to open and there was no line. When she opened, Zig dashed up and when he got to the counter, the ticket agent looked up at him and said, “The three o’clock flight to Dallas has been canceled.”

Ever happen to you? Happens to me all the time. I always bang on the desk, call them dirty names and demand my money back. After I get through screaming and shouting, the flight is still canceled. My behavior doesn’t change anything.

Ziglar had already been through that, obviously, and when the ticket agent said the flight had been canceled, he said “Fantastic!” She looked at him like he was out of his mind, the sort of look that says, “What’s your problem, fella?” And he said, “Ma’am, there are only three reasons why anybody would cancel a flight to Dallas, Texas. Number one, something must be wrong with that airplane; number two, something must be wrong with the person who is going to fly that airplane; number three, something must be wrong with the weather they’re going to fly that air-plane in. Now ma’am, if any one of those three situations exists, I don’t want to be up there. I want to be right down here! Fantastic!”

Interesting thought! A positive view of what you and I always see as a bad situation. One hundred people waiting for the airplane were now listening for whatever surprise was coming next. The flight to Dallas wasn’t really canceled, it was merely delayed for three hours. Besides, Zig told the ticket agent that he was pleased to find himself in an excellent facility – a warm, comfortable, modern and free building – for the duration and planned to make good use of the next three hours.

Ziglar was convinced that he received a good deal that day and I suspect the fellow passengers overhearing his exchange with the ticket agent shared his feeling.