A Tragedy in Texas | The Mistakes Series
4/23/202630 min
General David Goldfein, former Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, and Dr. Heather Wilson, former Secretary of the Air Force, tell the story of the worst day in their professional careers and what it taught them about leadership.
You can find their book, Get Back up: Lessons in Servant Leadership, here.
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First 90 secondsMalcolm Gladwell· Host0:00
[gentle music] Pushkin. Many years ago, I was on the board of a think tank called the RAND Corporation out in Los Angeles. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. [upbeat music] RAND does all kinds of work on healthcare and energy and the environment, and most of all, they consult with the Air Force, which meant from time to time, various Air Force dignitaries would come and brief us, and there were two I've never forgotten. The first was a four-star general named David Goldfein. From 2016 to 2020, he was chief of staff, the highest military post in the Air Force. Here's a Dave Goldfein story that sums him up. I was once in an elevator with him at some conference, and we were all locked in conversation with the conference host, and there was a man in the corner of the elevator who clearly worked for the hotel, older guy in a maintenance uniform, who, I'm ashamed to say, we all treated like he was invisible, except for General Goldfein, who stopped the conversation, reached over, shook the man's hand. "Hi, I'm Dave Goldfein. How was your day?" In my experience, most powerful people do not notice the anonymous maintenance guy in the corner. Second memorable person who came to RAND when I was there, the Secretary of the Air Force, Heather Wilson,