Million Dollar Flight

Once I sat next to a millionaire during an international flight, but I did not know it. I started to make small talk about life and education. He was intrigued by my views. He told me about his family’s involvement with education and how refreshing it was to see how much heart I had for the children. Every seat on the flight was full, but no one joined in on our conversation. The seats surrounding us were totally silent. We laughed, talked and laughed some more. I told him he was a cool cat if I had ever met one. Next, I asked what he did for a living.

He said, “I am a top executive at a Fortune 500 company,” and began to share his story. Within seconds every seat around us lit up as people joined in on our conversation. I became quiet as everyone started to chat with my airplane buddy. After about 5 minutes he said excuse me to our neighbors and turned back to me.

“Now, where were we? Oh yes, you were saying…”

I could not believe how he dissed them, but I was happy to see that he saw what I saw. They cut me out of the conversation and grasped for his attention after they heard what he did for a living. I was not of any significance to them, but my airplane buddy was no fool.

When the flight ended, he called his assistant over to give him a pen and paper. He wrote his information down and told me to call his company for possible employment. I lost the number somehow in the hustle of the airports and bags, but I learned a valuable lesson that day. You never know who you are sitting next to, so always treat people with love and kindness.