Steve Fossett Quotes

I love being able to go on local flights when the weather is right. I've popped to the Isle of Wight, Cornwall and been mountain flying in Wales. When I got my licence I was over the moon, it was one of the greatest days of my life - it took two years to get!

Personal and mobile computing, long-distance communications, energy storage, and air travel are just a few of the things that have been democratized by technology, creating new possibilities for billions of people.

Pilots are tricky because there are so many things you have to accomplish.

So the crew fly on with no thought that they are in motion. Like night over the sea, they are very far from the earth, from towns, from trees. The clock ticks on. The dials, the radio lamps, the various hands and needles go though their invisible alchemy. . . . and when the hour is at hand the pilot may glue his forehead to the window with perfect assurance. Out of oblivion the gold has been smelted: there it gleams in the lights of the airport.

I know how to work.

People need to know their role to produce performances and results.

What mattered in the cold war was weight - how big are your missiles? How heavy are your tanks? What matters in globalisation is speed. How fast is your modem? How good are you communications?

Distributed workforces are most likely to succeed if their culture is one that values and prioritizes face-to-face communications.

The emotional side of humans interacting with each other is what makes TaskRabbit what it is.

I think if somebody doesn't have the time to work on a relationship, then they shouldn't get into it.

Being a big guy, I've got to shore up the paint a lot more. It's my job.

What I most hope is that Kelsey and I can improve our communications and truly co-parent our two wonderful children.

Luckily, as a director I can just tell people what I need and I don't need to tell them how to get it.

When I started flying, I realized how enjoyable it was, and flying became my main focus while engineering went on the back burner.

I think my task is to work with my players, to improve my team. This is my task.

It's extremely instructive to realize that you cannot do everything. You need to delegate, to find experts, to consult with them. A big part of the job of directing is knowing when to take something on and when you shouldn't.

There's nothing better than people talking to each other, sharing best practices, and opening up communications.

I had no need of sails to drive me, nor oars nor wheels to push me, nor rails to give me a faster road. Air is what I wanted, that was all. Air surrounds me as water surrounds the submarine boat, and in it my propellers act like the screws of a steamer. That is how I solved the problem of aviation. That is what a balloon will never do, nor will any machine that is lighter than air.

Most personal correspondence of today consists of letters the first half of which are given over to an indexed statement of why the writer hasn't written before, followed by one paragraph of small talk, with the remainder devoted to reasons why it is imperative that the letter be brought to a close.

Nothing someone says before the word 'but' really counts.

While my hand is on the stick, my feet on the rudder, and my eyes on the compass, this consciousness, like a winged messenger, goes out to visit the waves below, testing the warmth of water, the speed of wind, the thickness of intervening clouds. It goes north to the glacial coasts of Greenland, over the horizon to the edge of dawn, ahead to Ireland, England, and the continent of Europe, away through space to the moon and stars, always returning, unwillingly, to the mortal duty of seeing that the limbs and muscles have attended their routine while it was gone.

[In my home workshop,] generally I'm mending things, which is interesting because you learn a lot about why they broke.

The earth has become one big village, with telephones laid on from one end to the other, and air transport, both speedy and safe.

We're at the point now where the challenge isn't how to communicate effectively with e-mail; it's ensuring that you spend your time on the e-mail that matters most.

I may be expediting the attainment of an object that will in time be found of great importance to mankind; so much so, that a new era in society will commence from the moment that aerial navigation is familiarly realised. . . . I feel perfectly confident, however, that this noble art will soon be brought home to man's convenience, and that we shall be able to transport ourselves and our families, and their goods and chattels, more securely by air than by water, and with a velocity of from 20 to 100 miles per hour.