RSS FeedNew Heroes: Sully The Pilot and Bailey The Road Warrior
This is a posting about the media attention on the U.S Airways pilot who safely landed the crippled jet into the Hudson River. We desperately need him and others. In fact, as you read on, I introduce you to another hero, another Sully. His name is Bill Bailey and he is trying to, literally, pave a future for our environment and some poor countries.
LAS VEGAS, NV (January 18, 2009) – Don’t be surprised at the extensive media coverage and attention to the successful emergency landing of US Air Flight 1549. It’s not the story’s news value. And it’s not because we have the actual video of the water crash. No, it’s the story’s psychological value.
We desperately need a hero.
Look at the parade of screw-ups and scoundrels we’ve had for the past eight years. The line-up includes many people in the Bush Administration – including the President, Vice President and other elected officials like the now incarcerated Duke Cunningham. Many of these are politically-connected people who didn’t get their jobs through merit but guile, cunning, and deceit.
The results show it: Katrina, the aftermath of the Iraq War, and the lack of policing in the well-connected and special interest spending financial industry.
In addition, we have some of the smartest people in America who used their brain power for self-gain and the destruction of others. As I mentioned in a previous column, Bernie Madoff is only the beginning.
So, we’ve been searching for a new American hero.
Enter Pilot Chesley B Sullenberger III – a.k.a Sully. Call it fate or a Black Swan event. It might be Divine Intervention where a benevolent God says, “OK, you’ve gone through enough. Here’s something I bestow on you. I call him Sully.”
Sully landed that crippled jet into the Hudson River. Reports say Sully was the last man off the floating craft. He wanted to make sure everyone was out safely. Wow, a leader who feels his life is no more important than others.
Sully also made what seemed to be a split-second decision after considering a multitude of options. Wow, a leader who is a certified expert.
Take a look at his bio and his education and you’ll understand how Sully performed flawlessly under pressure. He’s well-educated in his field and he has a deep pride and interest in what he does. It’s no wonder that Sully shrugged off his heroism as just something he does.
Memo to Barack Obama: Sully sits in the gallery and is introduced at your first State of the Union.
Sully fits Obama’s style. The comparison is too rich. Sully safely maneuvering a crippled aircraft is an allegory for Obama’s treacherous journey to a hopefully soft-landing in the economy. In these times, we need something that obvious.
In other words, Barack doesn’t have to go it alone. Sully is there. And the media gets it.
I write a lot about media bias. I try to be balanced by not offering too much opinion, but uncovering the different forms of bias. Some bias is inevitable. The Sponsor Bias goes without saying. Some media outlets will not tell the truth or avoid certain stories about sponsors who help keep them in business. I don’t like the trade-off, but I understand it. And I feel compelled to write about it so folks can make their own assessment.
Another media bias is Entertainment Bias. The extreme is the constant coverage of people like Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. It’s journalism that borders on an uncomfortable voyeurism. I felt it for John Travolta after the untimely death of his son. Please stop the stories and allow them to grieve in private.
But here’s where media bias – or in this case Entertainment Bias — is good. The media understands what we as a people need. And they have presented us with Sully.
He’s not rich; he lives in middle class America with what seems to be the every-American family. He’s not young; he’s 57 with decades of flying experience. And according to reports, he’s humble. All indications are he’s not going to change either. It makes you feel that W and Bernie are in the rear view mirror.
But Sully is not alone. Look around and you will find more Sully’s. I have.
His name is Bill Bailey. Bill may come across as a good old boy. But like Sully, he is well-educated in his field with decades of experience. He also has great pride in his work. He carries around a plastic cup of gray rubber pellets that might be an answer to pulling some countries out of poverty.
Let me explain. Bill works on roads. More precisely, he has created technologies that turn tires into asphalt.
The process is not new. It’s been around for almost 30 years. Simply put, you crush up old tires, treat them, add them to a hot mixture, and then spread it on the roads. Decades of testing show that tire asphalt creates roads that need less maintenance, are quieter, and are safer since cars can stop quicker in the rain.
And environmentally, for every one mile of paved highway with tire asphalt, 2000 tires are removed from landfills. That means less toxicity in nearby drinking water and less chance of those choking tire fires.
The problem is that this technology is expensive and cumbersome. To pave a road you need to bring what seems to be an entire factory to the site. So unless you have miles and miles of road to pave, tire asphalt might be too costly. In other words, if you wanted to pave your driveway or your backyard for your kid’s basketball court, you might need another mortgage.
That is until now.
Bill and his partner Ian Cousins formed the company and clever moniker Billian International. Together, they created a process – that is now patented – that will allow the tire asphalt process to be done on a smaller, less expensive scale. Take a look at this crude but revealing video of their testing.
Primarily, Bill and Ian have created a way to treat the crushed tire so the tire pellets — the ones he carries around as samples — can be used in the field efficiently while maintaining the long-term integrity of the finished road. Now Billian will license that process to paving companies. Billian will also build plants for entrepreneurs who can remove tires from their landfills and turn them into pellets to sell to paving companies. (We’re discussing franchising such plants.)
Yes, there is a business opportunity here for many of you.
And there is a great opportunity for Bill and Ian to make a lot of money. Look at all the infrastructure projects that will be funded through the Obama Economic Stimulus Package. Some of it could be heading indirectly in Bill Bailey’s direction.
But when I sit with Bill and talk about his technology, it’s not about the money. He wants to improve the world. “We can go over to some of those countries and pave roads in between villages and help them create commerce,” he tells me. He has a big smile and says, “We can do some good.”
And that “good” comes in the form of helping to grow an economy while cleaning up the environment rather than the decades of corporate indifference to the health and well-being of foreign people.
Some disclosure here. I’m trying to help Bill Bailey raise money to launch and market Billian. So yes, I have a financial interest in talking about him here.
But if you could sit with Bill and hear him talk about this, you too would be inspired beyond just making money.
Even if you don’t believe me about Bill’s intentions, what’s so cool about his work is that he’s creating something. He’s manufacturing. It’s not a financial instrument with illusionary money that most of us don’t understand.
Getting back to making stuff is what we need.
And Bill Bailey, along with Sully and Barack, have a chance of making a difference for all of us – and with all of us.
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