What is mastery?
Hey, MZeroA Nation, Jason Schappert here of MZeroA.com.
And, you are listening to the Commercial Pilot Podcast,
brought to you by our brand spanking new LMS,
that I'm sure you've heard of.
I'm super proud of it.
I'm super proud of what our team has worked to accomplish,
and even better, things coming soon.
You can check all that out at MZeroATrial.com to learn more.
And, a big principle, a big proponent behind all of this,
and a question I've been asking and we get asked is,
what is mastery?
We talk about this idea, this notion, of aviation mastery.
And, I want to share with you all a little bit on what that really means,
what it means to us,
what it should mean to you in your flying.
And, I imagine, by the way, if you are listening to this,
you probably also listen to the CFI Podcast,
which will come out after this, you probably listen to, maybe,
even the Private, the Instrument Pilot Podcast.
You know we produce four podcasts in total.
And, you know you've heard me talk about the Aviation Mastery Method.
And, I just did a great Inflight Coffee on that not too terribly long ago.
It would have been the--
Gosh, it would have been the 20th.
Go look at August 20th on Facebook,
August 20th, 2021 on Facebook.
I talked about the ideal flight lesson, the ideal ground lesson,
shared some of the science of learning.
But, today, I want to just dive a little bit further into this topic
of what is mastery,
because there's one of two reasons you're perhaps becoming a commercial pilot.
One, and perhaps the most common, is you're becoming a commercial pilot
because, well, you want to treat aviation as your career,
and this is the stepping stone to become the flight instructor you want to be,
the airline captain you desire to be,
the charter captain you desire to be, whatever that is.
Some of you, and many ground school members come to mind when I say this as well,
are just becoming a commercial pilot because a good pilot is always learning.
And, it's just one little feather in your cap.
It's another way to take it a step further and continue the learning process.
Whatever it is for you, it's important to understand what is mastery.
And, we have a lot of catchy ways to say mastery.
You've heard me say this before.
I want to break it down
because it comes off as a catchy marketing slogan.
But, it's not meant to be that.
I've been saying so often that mastery is a quest, not a score on a test.
And, I realize it rhymes and that's why I say it sounds like
a cute little marketing slogan and everything else.
But, mastery is a quest, not a score on a test is so true
because something else you hear me say often is
I am not in the business of just you all passing your written test
and going about your day,
passing your check ride and just moving on.
I am about the journey.
And, I am about, and MZeroA is about you and your spouse going on a flight together
and you having the utmost confidence
and your spouse the utmost confidence in you and your education, your skills,
or you with 300 revenue-paying passengers sitting behind you
when you've got that dream job.
That's the journey I'm after.
Congratulations, you'll pass your written test.
Let me tell you something: you're going to pass your written test.
You're going to pass your commercial pilot written test here relatively soon,
if you haven't already.
And, I will also tell you,
the average ground school members score six points higher,
the average MZeroA ground school member.
I've got the data to back this up.
Scores six points higher on their knowledge test than the national average.
By now, you've also heard the saying and there's some truth to it,
that the higher the score on the knowledge test,
typically, the easier the checkride can be.
Typically.
Result is not typical, right?
That happens sometimes.
But, we want to do better on these.
And, you are going to do phenomenal in your written test.
You're going to pass your checkride first time very, very easily
because you're not prepping for the checkride.
One thing I'm trying to get better at is I'm trying to remove the saying
that I used to say so often is,
"You need to remember this for your checkride.
You need to know this for your checkride."
And, I get it.
There are some things you just need to know for your checkride.
And, I'm trying to interrupt that pattern and get away from primacy and recency
of saying such a statement, because I worry when I say the statement,
"You need to know this for your checkride,"
you just queue into rote memorization.
"I'm just going to memorize this for my checkride."
And, that's not what I want.
I don't want you to just memorize things for your checkride.
I want you to learn beyond the checkride,
beyond the ACS, beyond what any book has to say,
beyond what the FAA has to say.
There's no secret about it.
I read every comment, every review, every little ticket that comes in.
I know we are the most expensive course on the market.
I know we are the longest course time-wise, though.
Our private pilot course alone, maybe, you remember it,
is 27 hours.
That's a monster--
That's video only.
It doesn't include your quizzes and everything else.
It's a monster course.
And, it's a funny story many years ago now.
So, this is even a private pilot course version
before the current 27-hour version is out.
A gentleman reached out.
And, I see all the nice people.
I see the mean people, too,
when the support tickets and the comments come in.
It's okay.
A gentleman reached out and said
he wanted his money back.
He was very, very upset.
He said--
I'm trying to think and put it in nicer terms than he did.
Basically, to summarize it, he said,
"The test was way easier than you made it to be.
And, you made me study way more than I should have."
And, I thought and said, "Wait a second.
He's got to be sarcastic."
And, we had some back-and-forth.
And, he was genuinely asking for a refund because we overprepared.
I thought he was joking,
he is pulling our leg, he's being sarcastic.
He was genuinely upset that we taught him too much.
I will issue that refund all day.
That's an individual who doesn't get this idea of mastery.
That's an individual who is just looking to pass the test.
Mastery is a quest.
It is a never-ending journey.
There is always more to know.
There is always more to learn.
I am always learning something.
I am always diving in the books.
I am opening up the FAR/AIM
and seeing things like it's the first time I've seen it.
And, you all look at me like I know so much.
Let me tell you something: I don't know as much as I wish I did.
I am always learning.
I am always trying to go above and beyond.
And, I hope you all--
And I'm not bragging on myself.
I'm just telling you that so you understand that a good pilot is truly always learning.
Mastery is a quest, not a score on a test.
I am very proud of you for the 90-something percent
you're going to get.
Maybe, even 100.
We have a few aces as ground school members and alumni.
But, you're going to score in the 90s.
I have no doubt in my mind.
Pat yourself on the back.
Celebrate a day.
And then, it's on to the next thing.
It's on to learning the next thing.
You see, you cannot afford to plateau.
You are studying right now, or currently are a commercial pilot.
You're held to the highest standard,
unless you pursue ATP and go on further from there.
But, you see, learning, unfortunately, if you can picture this,
and I talk about this in "Aviation Mastery," the book,
learning looks like a lowercase "n,"
where time is on the bottom, scale.
And, on the vertical scale, we have new knowledge acquired.
So, as soon as we go, new knowledge, new knowledge,
this is awesome, this is awesome, we get to the top of the "n," and we peak.
And then, from there, as time continues, we stop learning new material.
Better yet, you'd plateau.
A plateau would be better than just to stop learning,
at least, be stagnant in your learning.
If you're on a Zoom--
I've done quite a few big public Zoom events,
especially with COVID and all the craziness and such,
just to be back out face-to-face with some of you all.
And, I was sharing a lot about
these ideas of plateaus and just peaking,
only learning to your CFI's capacity.
If you become stagnant, if you hit these plateaus,
you're going to drop into a valley.
Turn your plateaus into peaks.
That's what we spoke about on Inflight Coffee not too terribly long ago.
And, that's what I need you working towards.
Mastery means you are operating at a higher level.
And, I don't mean just in aviation.
I mean your life in general.
I need to be on my soapbox for just a second here.
And, I apologize.
This is very much aviation-related.
And, I share this.
I don't think any other instructors ever talk about such a thing,
at least, publicly.
But, I want to share this with you because it's truly so important.
When I say mastery, I mean mastery in your life as well.
When I say mastery in your life, I mean, I saw friend after friend--
When I was in aviation college, and I went to--
had a few stints around a few aviation colleges.
When I was in any of those aviation colleges,
I watched friend after friend wash out of the program
or get politely asked to leave the program
because of poor choices that some college kids make.
I'm talking underage drinking, drinking under the influence, racing cars.
I had a--I'll call him an acquaintance.
I wouldn't dare call him a buddy--
all politely asked to leave the aviation program.
And, these guys and gals were, and they were ladies, too,
were working on commercial.
Some were even CFIs, already had a job at the flight school,
the collegiate flight school there.
And, I just thought, you've invested so much money.
And, here they are walking away with the debt
and walking away with a few certificates
and really kissing their aviation dreams goodbye
because of poor decisions.
I don't know what season of life you're in,
but if you are thinking of a career in aviation,
you have to think mastery in all things.
Your aircraft insurance also looks--
And, this is whether you just want to just buy an SR22 one day
or go on to fly for some Part 91 Subchapter K,
a wealthy family or something like that, fly their family jet around.
Insurance, aviation insurance, also looks at your driving record,
because they look and say, if you can be reckless in a car,
why wouldn't you be reckless also in a plane?
So, they're going to look for things like speeding.
They're going to look for things like under the influence.
They're going to look at all these things.
You have to live your life above bar.
I'm not a teetotaler here, condoning alcohol or anything like that.
That's not what I'm saying.
I am just saying here,
you need to add mastery not just to your aviation life,
but to your life in general as well if this is something you choose to pursue.
And, even if it's not a career for you,
hopefully, just the fact that being a bad driver
can shoot up the cost of your airplane insurance
would be enough to make you just reel it in a little bit with that.
You must live your life at that higher level.
So, I want to ask you a question now.
Why are you--
And, let me know in the comments below.
If you're watching this on YouTube or Facebook, there's comments.
If you're listening on Audible or iTunes, hey, throw us a five-star review.
Thank you for that.
And, leave this answer as a review, because I read all the reviews, too.
Why are you becoming a commercial pilot?
Follow that up, what's your motivation?
Why are you becoming a commercial pilot?
And, what is your motivation?
You see, when you know your why,
why are you doing this.
When you know and understand your why,
when the plateaus come, when the valleys come,
when the friends invite you out for a crazy night or whatever it is,
you're going to remember, why am I doing this?
What is my motivation?
And, I hope that will give you the power to stay in the course with all of this.
Because that's really what it comes down to.
And, maybe, you've already had--
Who's had some of those valleys already in flight training?
I know I have.
I'll never forget.
I'll continue to share this story until the day I retire,
and then, maybe, after that a little bit.
My very first instructor,
she's, unfortunately, since passed away and never got to see what I became.
And, I regret that.
But, when the very first--
She was my best instructor I ever had.
But, she exercised tough love and, one day, said to me,
"Jason, maybe, you're not meant to be a pilot."
Just saying that now still--
Gosh, I can go back to 16-year-old Jason and think back to how that felt.
And, I remember I went home and just cried.
And, it was my parents who told me, "Jason, this is your dream.
You can't give up on your dream
just because someone said something you didn't like.
Because life is tough
and people are always going to say things you don't like.
And, maybe, it was from a place of love
and not from a place of just being rude or angry or from discouragement.
Maybe, it was from a place of motivation, instead.
And, maybe, her way of motivating is different
than how you would have liked it.
But, we still have to turn everything into glory and into good in all we do.
We'd be a light in everything that we really do, and choose to see that good."
So, I'll ask you one more time,
why are you becoming a commercial pilot,
and what's your motivation?
Is it for the kids?
Is it for your kids you don't even have yet,
so they have a great life?
Is it for your family?
Is it for your spouse?
Is it just to make aviation better?
I need--
Maybe, you've read the book,
a very famous book by Simon Sinek, "Start With Why."
The premise of the whole book.
What is the motivation behind it?
He uses it with a business analogy and how many companies,
their why is to make more money.
But, that's not a strong enough why.
Your why--
And then, even why to say to change the world is not a clear enough why.
You have to define it, even that, much more thoroughly.
And, most importantly, your motivation may not make any sense to me
because it's your motivation.
As long as it's what lights you up,
as long as it gets you out of bed on those early mornings
and keeps you going on those late nights,
as long as it's your motivation and does that for you,
who am I to judge what your motivation is?
Right?
My motivation is, every podcast, every video, every webinar,
every Inflight Coffee is to save one life.
And, some people might say,
"That's a silly goal.
How can you ever measure that?"
I can't.
To quote another Simon Sinek book, "It's an infinite game."
It's self-perpetuating.
It never ends.
There's always someone else to help.
Now, I could be naive to say,
"I want to take the NTSB accident statistics to zero."
I think that's an unachievable goal.
It's an audacious goal, but it's an unachievable goal.
Your motivation needs to be plain, simple, and have deep, deep meaning to you.
That's the secret.
Here, we are talking in the commercial pilot setting.
This could be for flight instructors.
I hope there's private pilots listening to this right now.
What's your motivation?
Why are you doing this?
And, when you know that,
the valleys aren't so deep.
The plateaus don't seem so long
when you know who you're doing this for
and why you're doing it.
MZeroA Nation, we do all this for you.
We do this to help make you safer, smarter pilots,
and to save just one life every episode.
And, I don't know who that is.
I may never know who that is.
And, you may never know that either.
And, that is A-okay,
because we just have such a mission just placed on our hearts
to make aviation safer and smarter.
We are a give-first type community, a give-first type business.
We believe, to be blessed, you need to be a blessing.
And, that's true of life.
You want to be loved?
Give love first.
You want to be successful?
Help others find success.
And, all these free podcasts, all these free videos,
giving away the free trials to our ground school,
all that is on that premise of help others find success,
and then success will come back to us.
And, I will just tell you,
it's an incredible full-circle opportunity to be able to serve you all.
I truly mean it.
You all are our family.
And, family takes care of family.
If there's anything at all we can do to better serve you this week,
this month, this year, please, please, please,
don't hesitate to reach out.
Have a blessed, amazing, outstanding rest of your day.
And most importantly, remember,
that a good pilot is always learning.
Have a great day, everybody. I'll see you.