Dick and Jay sat on the ground outside the shed. The rain pelted down on them. They stared in disbelief at the lake of mud all around them. The Piper Cub slumped in the mud a few feet in front of them. Neither a wet bird nor muddy squirrel could be seen.
“It’s going to be like this for some time,” said Jay, gloomily, “according to the weather report.”
Dick feebly told the joke about the weatherman who left town because the weather didn’t agree with him–but neither of them laughed. The rain fell without remorse.
“Boy, boys, boys,” said a beautiful woman with auburn hair. She had a fresh complexion. She wore a wet, slightly muddy, mauve dress. She sat down between them, covering them with her pink umbrella.
Dick kissed his wife on the cheek. He reached down into the vanilla box for his sandwich. The box tumbled out of his hands and landed in a puddle. It floated.
“That’s it,” shouted Jay. He grabbed Dick’s elbow. “Don’t you see that’s it!”
It only took a day to add the inflated pontoon boats to the Piper Cub. Now instead of wheels, it had floats. Now, instead of the muddy runway, they used the river.
But another calamity awaited: a lightning storm. A bolt of lightning struck the hut, shattering it.
Without an office, it was hard to run operations.
Dick, however, found a solution. He bought a chicken coop from the farmer down the road for $25.
“One last yard,” said Dick, talking to the old mare. The mare grunted as it dragged along the chicken coop.
After propping up the chicken coop, Dick began whitewashing it.
“There,” said Dick, slapping on the last coat.
He stepped back to join his wife, Doreen, and his partner, Jay. All of them admired the bright chicken coop. It proudly bore the blue legend “Wolverine Air Service.”
“Soon,” said Dick, “Millions will be flying their own planes. They’ll come to us and we’ll teach them.”
“And it only cost us $200 to get this Piper Cub,” added Jay.
“Airplanes will swarm the air, the way cars do the ground,” predicted Dick.
Just then a freckled-faced young man came up to them.
“Is this your school?” he asked, squinting at Dick.
“Have you come for lessons?” asked Dick.
“Darn right!”
“We’d love to teach you, but we don’t know how to fly!” confessed Dick.
A few days later, however, they found a flight instructor. Dick straightened out the sheaf of papers on his ramshackle desk as the last interviewee walked out of the shack. He looked over at Jay. “Well?” Jay nodded. “I like him.”
“Then we have a new flight instructor,” said Dick, smiling broadly.
The next day, Dick and the new flight instructor stood outside the chicken coop office.
“How are you going to pay me?” asked the flight instructor, a tall man with thick dark hair and brilliant blue eyes.
“Cash,” said Dick, unruffled.
“But you said a moment ago that you don’t have any money?”
“I don’t,” confirmed Dick, “but they do.”
The flight instructor turned around to follow Dick’s finger. He had to chuckle. On the edge of the field was Jay whooping in a group of three eager students, all trussed up in flight gear. They were wet to their thighs from wading across the river.
“They’ll be the first to graduate,” affirmed Bob, the new flight instructor.
This is the story of Richard M. DeVos and his high-school buddy, Jay Van Andel, who came home after the Second World War convinced that the aviation business would be the trend of the future.
The Success Principle
The only limits are those that you set up for yourself. Limited thoughts create limited people.
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Saleem Rana got his Masters degree in psychotherapy from California Lutheran University. His articles on the internet have inspired over ten thousand people from around the world. Discover how to create a remarkable life
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