View of the Week: On Thinking Young & Overcoming Failure

As we bid farewell to October throughout the #outsiders network, for this "View of the Week"  understanding a sense of winning and a recognition of the Art of the Possible through staying curious was quite on point (Courtesy of the Team @ Success Magazine & Give More):

9 Ways to Think Young

Youth is wasted on the young, or at least that’s what they say, but it would be a travesty if it were true. Youth is not only a time of life; it’s also a state of mind. Harvey Mackay, best-selling author and business speaker, says he stopped counting after his 39th birthday. He still considers himself young—and he intends to stay that way. You can have a youthful outlook and attitude at an old age, or an old-fogey attitude at a young age. The choice is yours. Want to stay young at heart and mind? Here are Mackay’s ideas to help you: 1. Keep only cheerful, positive friends. You can pick your friends, and I like to choose those who are positive and those who challenge me. They make me feel good. They don’t drag me down or make me angry at the world. Negative people see the difficulty in every opportunity, while positive people see the opportunity in every difficulty. 2. Keep learning. I think Henry Ford put it best when he said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” I’ve always said that you should be in school all your life—never stop learning. Don’t be an old grump. Check out 7 more ideas to help you stay youthful.

“ A winner is somebody who goes out there every day and exhausts himself trying to get something accomplished.”  Joe Torre (1940- )  American baseball player and manager Major League Baseball executive  4 points to the most important skill of all (see below) And: 8 minutes from Honda on the value of failure

The Love Your People Video  Real people talking real about how to Love Your People (based on the bestselling booklet by Sam Parker). Watch The Video |   _____ Outside the money hours or on a well-earned break... Click here for Honda's 8 minutes on how failure is a part of success (on the track and in business).

A "View of the Week" As We Bid Farewell to October 2014: Remembering the Doolittle Raiders

For this edition of the "View of the week",   this is ever so telling and fitting in line with the mission of this Channel to reflect upon Education.  A friend of the "outsiders" network shared this and it was fitting to end October with this:

What selfless men, to give their lives for the United States of America!

A Final Toast…

 

 
Because of these heroes, and others, we are free today!

God Bless them All....

They once were among the most universally admired and revered men in the United States . There were 80 of the Raiders in April 1942, when they carried out one of the most courageous and heart-stirring military operations in this nation's history. The mere mention of their unit's name, in those years, would bring tears to the eyes of grateful Americans.

Now only four survive. 


After Japan 's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor , with the United States reeling and wounded, something dramatic was needed to turn the war effort around.

Even though there were no friendly airfields close enough to Japan for the United States to launch a retaliation, a daring plan was devised. Sixteen B-25s were modified so that they could take off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. This had never before been tried -- sending such big, heavy bombers from a carrier. 

The 16 five-man crews, under the command of Lt. Col. James Doolittle, who himself flew the lead plane off the USS Hornet, knew that they would not be able to return to the carrier. They would have to hit Japan and then hope to make it to China for a safe landing. 

But on the day of the raid, the Japanese military caught wind of the plan. The Raiders were told that they would have to take off from much farther out in the Pacific Ocean than they had counted on. They were told that because of this they would not have enough fuel to make it to safety.
And those men went anyway. 

They bombed Tokyo , and then flew as far as they could. Four planes crash-landed; 11 more crews bailed out, and three of the Raiders died. Eight more were captured; three were executed.

Another died of starvation in a Japanese prison camp. One crew made it to Russia . 

The Doolittle Raid sent a message from the United States to its enemies, and to the rest of the world: We will fight. And, no matter what it takes, we will win.

Of the 80 Raiders, 62 survived the war. They were celebrated as national heroes, models of bravery. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a motion picture based on the raid; "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," starring Spencer Tracy and Van Johnson, was a patriotic and emotional box-office hit, and the phrase became part of the national lexicon. In the movie-theater previews for the film, MGM proclaimed that it was presenting the story "with supreme pride."

Beginning in 1946, the surviving Raiders have held a reunion each April, to commemorate the mission. The reunion is in a different city each year. In 1959, the city of Tucson , Arizona , as a gesture of respect and gratitude, presented the Doolittle Raiders with a set of 80 silver goblets. Each goblet was engraved with the name of a Raider. 

Every year, a wooden display case bearing all 80 goblets is transported to the reunion city. Each time a Raider passes away, his goblet is turned upside down in the case at the next reunion, as his old friends bear solemn witness. 

Also in the wooden case is a bottle of 1896 Hennessy Very Special cognac. The year is not happenstance: 1896 was when Jimmy Doolittle was born.

There has always been a plan: When there are only two surviving Raiders, they would open the bottle, at last drink from it, and toast their comrades who preceded them in death.

As 2013 began, there were five living Raiders; then, in February,
Tom Griffin passed away at age 96. 

What a man he was. After bailing out of his plane over a mountainous Chinese forest after the Tokyo raid, he became ill with malaria, and almost died. When he recovered, he was sent to Europe to fly more combat missions. He was shot down, captured, and spent 22 months in a German prisoner of war camp.

The selflessness of these men, the sheer guts ... there was a passage in the Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Mr. Griffin that, on the surface, had nothing to do with the war, but that emblematizes the depth of his sense of duty and devotion:

"When his wife became ill and needed to go into a nursing home, he visited her every day. He walked from his house to the nursing home, fed his wife and at the end of the day brought home her clothes. At night, he washed and ironed her clothes. Then he walked them up to her room the next morning. He did that for three years until her death in 2005."

So now, out of the original 80, only four Raiders remain: Dick Cole (Doolittle's co-pilot on the Tokyo raid), Robert Hite, Edward Saylor and David Thatcher. All are in their 90s. They have decided that there are too few of them for the public reunions to continue.

The events in Fort Walton Beach marked the end. It has come full circle; Florida 's nearby Eglin Field was where the Raiders trained in secrecy for the Tokyo mission. The town planned to do all it can to honor the men: a six-day celebration of their valor, including luncheons, a dinner and a parade.

Do the men ever wonder if those of us for whom they helped save the country have tended to it in a way that is worthy of their sacrifice? They don't talk about that, at least not around other people. But if you find yourself near Fort Walton Beach this week, and if you should encounter any of the Raiders, you might want to offer them a word of thanks. I can tell you from firsthand observation that they appreciate hearing that they are remembered.
The men have decided that after this final public reunion they will wait until a later date -- some time this year -- to get together once more, informally and in absolute privacy. That is when they will open the bottle of brandy. The years are flowing by too swiftly now; they are not going to wait until there are only two of them.

They will fill the four remaining upturned goblets.
And raise them in a toast to those who are gone.

Their 70th Anniversary Photo 

View of the Week: On Pressing Matters Around the Grid......

As part of the on-going research & engaging on the "Grid",  the following "selections" have been released as part of the "View of the Week" For this "outsider" channel:

Mike Pouraryan saw this and thought of you!           Juan Cole@jricole   Top 5 Things More Americans will die of than Ebola this Year, including Gunsdlvr.it/7KG77P       10:36 PM - 25 Oct 14

 

Mike Pouraryan saw this and thought of you!           Fast Company@FastCompany   "Learn to talk in front of people." Must-have skills to bolster your career, from successful founders: f-st.co/tjqx7zT       05:31 AM - 26 Oct 14

Mike Pouraryan saw this and thought of you!           Fast Company@FastCompany   5 weird habits that make people successful:f-st.co/Hq7ITOQ       10:46 PM - 25 Oct 14

Mike Pouraryan saw this and thought of you!           Fernando Salas@FernandoSalasNY   5 Signs You're Not Just an Expert--but Also a Thought Leader | bit.ly/1DJi58n       10:50 PM - 25 Oct 14