What is your Payload?

Figure out your payload.

I really like this word, Payload. The essence of the description is the key thing that we carry which has a payoff at the end. These days it’s used to describe the satellite on top of a launch vehicle or the revenue generating part of an aircraft i.e. passengers or cargo. Life is full of things that we carry. Some cargo. Some just fat. Some items that we did not know we had (planes get heavier after every flight because of things passengers lose in seats) and of course the payload. The latter is the reason for the mission. What’s your payload? In the first City Slickers movie the crazy Cowboy curly played by Jack Palance says to the city slicker , Mitch, played by Billy Crystal: Curly: Do you know what the secret of Life is? (Holds up one finger ). This. Mitch: Your finger? Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean sh#t Mitch: But what is the “one thing?” (Curly: (Smiles). That’s what you have to figure out. The payload for the Apollo missions was the part that got back to earth. Less than 1 percent of the launch weight Figure out your payload, your one thing, because it’s the one mission that you absolutely cannot fail at. Once you know that, the rest of your life is a lot clearer.

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