Who packed your parachute?
As I was doing some research to write this column, I was taken back to a time many years ago — one that demonstrates, as much as our industry has changed, it somehow remains the same.
It seems that the big-box era of retail has been around forever, with the likes of Home Depot and Lowe’s, Kmart, Walmart and Target changing the market for the locally owned garden centers, introducing new technologies and innovations (remember pay-by-scan?).
They had the economy of scale to dictate to growers and suppliers, focusing on price. With their sheer size, it seems like they’ve been around forever. But the reality is that they really haven’t been around that long. Target, Walmart and Kmart were all incorporated in 1962, and it took years for these chains to develop the critical mass to impact the marketplace. Home Depot wasn’t founded until 1978, and while Lowe’s has been around since the late 1940s, it didn’t ramp up its lawn and garden programs until the late ‘70s, as did some regional building supply chains such as Builders Emporium and Builders Square.
But even before the big boxes as we know them were on the scene, there were three national chains that dominated the mass market in lawn and garden from the 1940s to ‘70s — Sears, JCPenney and Montgomery Ward (who woulda thunk it?). All of these general-merchandise retailers operated year-round garden centers in the Sun Belt and seasonal garden centers in the other markets. They were the dominant competitors for the locally owned garden center and controlled a significant share of the lawn and garden market.
Some of these retailers no longer exist; others have made strategic decisions to discontinue their garden center presence. The beat goes on and the evolution of retail continues.
In the mid-to-late ’70s, I led the national live goods programs for JCPenney, until management made the strategic decision to get out of the lawn and garden, home improvement, automotive/auto service, and other male-dominated businesses to focus their marketing and merchandising efforts on home/home décor and fashion categories, as they wanted to change their positioning to almost exclusively female-friendly.
In the retail industry, JCPenney was known to have an outstanding management development program. In addition to formal training programs that were offered, the Key Management Group (KMG, of which I was a member) — made up of the top 100 leaders in corporate management — went offsite monthly for a day of strategic updates and a motivational speaker. The speakers were all excellent, a few exceptional, and one or two had the power not only to motivate, but to inspire. One message, which I heard in 1978 from a Navy officer, had a message so incredibly powerful I still use it today as a personal life guidepost. I’d like to share it with you.
Teamwork on Deck
First, a little background. An aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy has one purpose — to serve as a moving platform from which to catapult and recover the 70-plus aircraft it carries on board. Every one of the 5,000-plus crew’s sole mission is to — in one way, shape or form — support this effort, whether you’re a cook, a mechanic, a deckhand, an electrician, a janitor, a helmsman or the captain. And being on a self-contained island in the middle of the ocean requires absolute trust from each other, even those whose path you’ll never cross. Without teamwork from people you’ll never know or meet, you limit your potential for success.
The story that was told took place over North Vietnam on May 19, 1967. A junior officer, ensign Charles Plumb, was on his 75th mission (that’s a lot of flying!), taking his F4 Phantom fighter/bomber over Vietnam off the carrier U.S.S. Kitty Hawk when a surface-to-air missile chased his aircraft down and exploded when it hit his tail. He fought to get his plane right side up, hitting his ejection handle when he did, sending his seat away from his dying aircraft. After just seconds, he separated from his seat, his parachute opened and he floated down to the ground. He was quickly captured by North Vietnamese troops and, being just 50 miles from the enemy capital, Hanoi, he was sent to a prisoner of war camp for six years in North Vietnam. Plumb was one of the first POWs repatriated to the U.S., where he became somewhat of a celebrity to the media, and the Navy sent him on a speaking tour around the country to talk about his experience where he attributed his survival to his faith in God, self-discipline and love of country.
One night after a speaking gig, Charles and his wife were having dinner at their hotel when he noticed a young man staring at him from across the dining room. Finally, the excited young man came up to Charles’ table and asked if he was Charles Plumb; Charles said yes, but couldn’t place the young man. The young man then related that he knew Charles had flown off the Kitty Hawk, been shot down and captured, and spent 2,103 days in captivity. Charles was impressed by the young guy’s knowledge and asked how he knew all that. The young man said excitedly, “I was the one who packed your parachute!”
Charles was incredulous and expressed tremendous gratitude, saying “If the chute you packed didn’t work, I wouldn’t be here today!”
Charles thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at the long table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know, with the understanding that, most likely, the parachute would never be used, yet there was always the chance. This gave the sailor the incentive to continue doing his job, and doing it well; some random pilot’s life may someday depend on him.
Recognizing Others
As Charles relates it, everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through each day, most of whom you’ll never know or see. Charles said he needed many kinds of parachute the day he was shot down and throughout his POW captivity — he needed his physical parachute, his emotional parachute, his mental parachute and his spiritual parachute.
Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say a simple hello, please or thank you, congratulate someone on something significant in their lives, or give them a compliment. Make it a habit and take the time to recognize people — you never know who packed your parachute, who is packing your parachute today or who may pack it tomorrow.
And as I thought more about Charles’s message and making it a guidepost in my own life, I started asking myself a second, equally important question: Whose parachute am I packing? Because our service and support to others is our true mission in this life, whether it be business or personal.
No one can be successful on their own or make it through life by their individual efforts alone; it takes a whole bunch of folks — you’ll know some, but most will be complete strangers. I hope you’ll never have to go through anything as tragic or dramatic as what Charles Plumb experienced to start you thinking about these two questions that can change your approach to life.
Consider these questions: Who packed your parachute? Whose parachute are you packing?
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