"There’s something magical about the experience of taking a blank sheet of paper and being able to make it take flight with just a few careful, strategic folds. The art of paper plane making has been used for generations, not just to prototype big ideas and lofty innovations—without the humble paper plane, there might have been no Wright brothers’ first flight—but also to teach children about engineering, physics, possibility and small miracles. With one or two simple folds, a child learns that her actions can affect her results and that the way she builds something matters. The point of the exercise isn’t to demonstrate the potential of a sheet of paper (although that is pretty cool); it’s to show the planemaker what her efforts make possible. Your business is that blank sheet. The kind of plane you build depends on how and where you make the folds."― Bernadette Jiwa
“Most people get over paper airplanes by the age of 10, I guess, I just never grew out of it,” says John Collins “The Paper Airplane Guy" with a laugh.
John’s interest in paper folding began when his fifth-grade teacher brought an origami book to class.
Since then John got hooked on origami and, eventually, on making paper airplanes.
Spending decades mastering the art of origami and aerodynamics, he was pursuing his dream.
He was making a perfect paper plane.
Most common paper plane designs require nothing more than a single sheet of paper.
The practice of building these small wonders of physics demands a mix of science and strenuous effort.
Paper planes follow the same physics as their bigger, non-paper counterparts.
There's lift, weight, drag, and thrust.
Lift describes the force generated by the plane going upward, while the weight is the earth’s gravitational pull that forces the plane downward.
An airplane’s drag is the backward resistant force obstructing an object from moving forward.
Lastly, the thrust is any force that propels the plane forward.
On regular aircraft, the thrust is provided by propellers, paper planes, of course, get their thrust from a throw.
I’ve spent 16 minutes watching John talking about paper airplanes.
Can't believe I watched the whole damn thing.
This is one of the best video explaining aerodynamics out there.
John spent three long years tweaking and testing his paper plane model ‘Suzanne’, in the hope of claiming the Guinness World Record for the longest indoor paper airplane flight.
Three years.
That’s what I call determination.
While previous record-holders had used a dart-shaped plane, John and his team used a glider with a unique, aerodynamic design.
“That was a three-year process to break the distance process. It was an idea never been done before. It turned out that at The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) they were working on a similar airflow idea (used for ‘Suzanne’) for entirely different reasons. When I met them years after I had broken the record, they said 'we would like to use your model'. I explained my paper plane theory to a NASA guy. It might seem like a childlike question to ask how do paper planes fly but it is not, it is an interesting scientific question.” -John Collins
This is where the story gets really interesting.
Remember the thrust?
John did have the best paper plane in the world, but he recognized that he didn’t have the best throwing arm.
You see, somebody had to throw the plane, and this ’somebody’ had to be great at throwing.
When it came to selecting a thrower, John auditioned three football players before finding 100kg, former U.C. Berkeley quarterback Joe Ayoob.
As it turns out, the act of throwing a paper airplane takes much more than a strong arm.
“At first, it was hard to get someone who wouldn’t crush or rip the plane,” explains Collins.
Joe Ayoob has loved paper airplanes ever since he was a kid and understood the technical aspects of throwing.
Lift, weight and drag mean nothing unless you have the proper thrust, which depends on the proper grip.
Joe had studied the physics, and came up with the perfect way to hold and throw.
On February 26, 2012, in a hangar at McClellan Air Force Base in North Highlands, California, the pair broke the record that had stood since 2003.
‘Suzanne’, named after John's wife, flew a whopping 69.14m smashing the previous record by 5.9m.
I can watch this video forever.
Love the celebration.
You may be a genius at something.
The key is to understand where your greatest talent lies and figure out how to build a business around it.
What if there are certain areas in which you’re maybe not-so-much of a genius?
Admit your weaknesses.
Admitting that you don’t have the skills the business requires is difficult.
The lesson of letting go is clear.
Don’t hire people who are just like you.
Instead, let the specialists into your carefully engineered world.
They'll complement your skills by excelling where you struggle.
That’s my rant, I hope it resonates. Until next time.
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