Tail End Charlie

Besides learning a lot about military aviation – a subject that unashamedly excites me – Jeff is always fun to read; clear, concise and informative … that’s not a recomendation, just an acknowledgement

The ‘obvious’ seems to be: start a flying school … but, Jeff – and, you – may have other ideas. Also, work backwards: how big must a flying school be in order to generate Jeff’s required annual compound growth rate? My suspicion is that Jeff – or we – would need to come up with another angle entirely … a lot of capital … or, a unique twist: anything to make Jeff’s ‘small’ business grow BIG …

… quick!

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I have to start with an explanation, give a couple of excuses, then get down to business.  You’re probably wondering “What the heck does Tail End Charlie mean?”  It’s a term relevant to military aviation and applicable to my situation of bringing up the rear on the growth engine exercise.

As best I can determine, the term has it’s origins during World War II and was used to refer to the poor sap who was the rear gunner in a bomber or the man guarding the rear of a patrol.  It has parallels in Naval Aviation where I’ve used it in reference to the last aircraft in formation or the last aircraft to land on the aircraft carrier.

The term meshes nicely with the seaboard landing scenario on an aircraft carrier.  For Naval Aviators, the term “Charlie” means that Mom (the boat) is ready to recover airplanes.  In Naval Aviation slang “Charlie” stems from the fact that Mom usually has to make a big sweeping turn into the wind so she can recover aircraft.  From the sky, the boat’s wake looks like a big letter “C,” or “Charlie” in the military phonetic alphabet.  If you’re “Tail End Charlie,” you’re the last to land.

So how did I end up as Tail End Charlie on the growth engine exercise, guarding the rear of the formation, paying homage to my fellow MITs and learning from their experiences?  A bunch of excuses is how.  I’ll save you the explanation only to say that everything else I’ve devoted my attention to this past month promises to increase my Net Worth.  So my heart was in the right place.  But I’m Tail End Charlie nonetheless.

Here’s my Diane’s Table…

When I step back and look at my table, several things jump out at me.  Flying, Teaching, Family and Leading/Team Building seem to be very prominent items.  Also heavily weighted are Reading/Writing, Financial Matters, Home Improvements and Making Money Online.

I’ll save you the time counting columns on my Diane’s Table.

The following items are consistent across four columns:

• Flying and Airplanes
• Teaching / Instructing / Learning / Mentoring
• Family

The following items are consistent across three columns:

• Leading / Team Building / Working with People
• Reading / Writing
• Financial Planning / Money Management / Investing
• Home Improvements
• Making Money Online

The Following items are consistent across two columns:

• Cars
• Boating
• Computers

I have some ideas as to what all this tells me but I’ll save that for later in the dialogue that will hopefully follow below.  I don’t want to influence the discussion before the brainstorming and feedback that I hope will come from the rest of the MIT team.  Just remember my RCGR is 38% and I plan to stretch a bit and use Real Estate, Stocks, and a Small Business to overshoot my Number.

Until then, Tail End Charlie is “rollin in the groove” with the hook down, flaps full, three down and locked, ready to come aboard.