Jon was staring out the window. Thinking. Reflecting.

“Excuse me, sir.”

Buddy and Jon both looked up at the young man standing next to them. It was the third flight attendant, Collin.

“I am sorry to bother you,” the young man continued, “but are you Buddy?”

“He most definitely is,” Jon said before Buddy could answer.

They all smiled.

“What can I do for you, young man? Is that Miss Sofia driving you like a rented mule?” Buddy asked, still smiling.

“What?! Umm. Oh . . . no. No, sir. Sofia's great.”

“You're darn tootin' she is.”

Collin regained his composure. “Actually, it was Sofia that said I should speak with you. Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Anything for Miss Sofia, young man. But you have to do something for me first.”

Collin was taken back but pensively said, “Okay.”

“You gotta tell us your name. You know I'm Buddy and this here's my good friend, Jon. And you are?”

“Uhh, Collin. My name's Collin. Sorry. All of the bantering confused me.”

“Welcome to my planet, son. So, Collin, pleasure to meet you. Now fire away, figuratively, of course.”

Collin took a breath and regained his composure.

“I'd like to ask you the same question I asked her. You see, I am fresh out of flight attendant training and—”

“A foal just getting his legs! I'd never have guessed.”

“Buddy,” Jon butted in, sternly, “You need to stop interrupting the poor guy.”

Everything froze.

For a second.

“Just thought I'd give you a little critical feedback,” Jon grinned.

“And I needed it,” Buddy managed to get out through the laughter. “I was whacking this young man all over the place with my backpack!”

“Well, I've definitely found the fun row—and the confusing row,” Collin said.

“That you have, young man, that you have. Now, fire it up. What question can we help you with?”

There was that we again.

“It's the same one I've been asking everybody I fly with. Even though you don't work for the airline—though I think it would be fun if you did—Sofia thought your opinion would be well worth my time.”

Buddy nodded.

“So here it is: What's the best piece of advice you can give me for achieving long‐term success in this job? I mean, I think I'm going to really enjoy the work. And I know I can meet all of the physical demands. Now I want to know how to fully succeed.”

“Well, Collin, I think Sofia thought it would be good to ask folks outside of the airline industry, too, for one simple reason. Those things you just listed notwithstanding, the keys to success are the same in every job, from doctor to farmer, banker to teacher, rancher to whatever this guy here, does,” Buddy nodded toward Jon. “And everybody else around and in between.”

Buddy looked over at Jon. “I think you should answer this one.”

“What?! Why should . . .” Jon started to protest, wondering how on earth he was going to boil down what he thought was the key to success in a job, any job, and worrying about how he was going to defend his answer in front of Buddy.

Then he looked at the ever‐grinning Buddy . . . and he knew the answer.

“Collin,” Jon began, “That is a great question. And the answer all starts with your backpack.”

“Huh? I'm not sure . . .”

“I wasn't either,” Jon continued, “but there are a few things about your backpack that you need to know and a few other things that you need to do. And as you work on those, you will be successful, in the right sense of the word, no matter where you go or what you try.”

Jon spent the next 200 miles or so explaining the importance of knowing and owning your backpack. He explained how, first of all, you need to know which backpack is yours, and that included understanding your personality, your history, your strengths, your gaps, and all of the things that make you, you.

“Does that make sense, Collin?”

“It sure does. I love the backpack illustration. Believe me, I see it lived out every single flight of every single day.”

“Especially the whacking, huh?” Buddy added.

“Especially the whacking,” Collin agreed with a smile.

Jon went on to share that next in the backpack process was deciding what you were intentionally going to put in your backpack: your well‐defined core values. Who you were going to be everywhere you went. With integrity.

“And to wrap up part one,” Jon continued, and he went on to detail the importance of learning to accept the things about you and your life that you cannot change, even sharing that he finally had to accept that he had not, as he previously had thought, been the perfect teammate and employee.

He gave Buddy a wink.

“Ringer!” was all Buddy said.

Jon seamlessly moved on to the second backpack point: taking responsibility for it. Collin and Jon went back and forth with questions and answers until Collin—and a couple of surrounding passengers who had now joined in the conversation—had a grasp of the falsity of the phrase, “You make me so angry!” Then, Jon turned to the truth that “everything that comes out of my backpack is my responsibility, even if it dumped out when someone ran into me.”

“And, Buddy?” Jon looked back at his friend. “You said at the beginning of our conversation that there were four things we needed to know about our backpacks. I just went over the first two: Know your backpack and take responsibility for your backpack. I believe that we've been talking about the third part of what we need to know: awareness of how our backpacks are impacting all of the people around us. Our discussion on the power of choice, making mistakes, apologizing, and getting good, honest feedback has all been about growing in the self‐awareness of how my life, my backpack, is impacting others, correct?”

“Bull's‐eye!” Buddy enthusiastically replied.

“Wow,” Collin said. “That's all pretty amazing advice. I asked for one thing and got so much more! I need to go write it down before I forget it all.”

“Yes and no,” Buddy said.

Collin looked confused but waited.

“Yes, there were a lot of pieces, but it is still that one piece of advice you asked for. And that one piece of advice is . . .?”

Collin thought for a few seconds. “Own my backpack!”