We recently received this email from a young Air Force lieutenant named Jordan Healy, who serves as Maintenance Flight Commander at a base in Dover, Delaware. We asked if we could post it here in the scrapbook, and he readily agreed, and furnished us with these snapshots — one of himself and his longtime friend Nicole, at a military ball, and the other, of Jordan with his team at the Air Force base.
Thank you for writing such a wonderful story. The Go-Giver is full of important life lessons that gets down to the truly important things life: caring and compassion. This book changed my perspective and helped me become a better worker — and more importantly, a better person, even in a highly stressful and demanding career field. It is the sort of material that’s never actually taught in a classroom, even throughout my undergrad and MBA. And that’s sad, because these concepts are the things we should be bringing to people, rather than the flavor-of-the-day management techniques.
I’ve been working in the military for about three years now, in the demanding aircraft maintenance career field. (You’d be suprised how much pressure we get to ensure aircraft get off the ground.) Nonetheless, this book flipped my world upside-down. At first I thought it was simply too simple and I thought I had people figured out — I was sure everyone was selfish and greedy and would take my advantage of any kindness offered. But after I read your book and tried to apply these very simple yet profound principles, I was pleasantly suprised. As I started to take the initiative to go the extra mile, people truly and genuinely took notice.
I found a little poem that summarizes my experience:
“When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn’t change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn’t change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.
“Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation … and I could indeed have changed the world.”
Now, I am not an old man (in fact, I am only 25), but I found this poem to be spot on. This kindness has spread like wildfire, and I am happy to see these results.
I manage about 240 people and directly supervise eight individuals. But now, as the military world goes, I’ve been reassigned to a new job across base and soon I will be departing to my next duty station. As I was thinking of something to give my team as a sort of going-away present, I could not think of a better gift than The Go Giver. Even though I live in a very disciplined workforce, I have found charisma has gone a long way. What better way to say thank you, than to pass this book along to my team here at Dover Air Force Base.
I’m sure you get things like this all the time, but I just thought I would write you this quick story (which has turned out to be a bit longer than expected) so you can see the impact that this has had on my life.
Very respectfully,
Jordan P. Healy, 1LT, USAF
Executive Officer, 436th Maintenance Group