By Jack Houvouras
HQ 77 | SPRING 2012
What do the two men on the cover of this edition of HQ have in common? Well, quite a bit, actually. Both are proud West Virginians, with Bill Noe hailing from Huntington and Chuck Yeager from nearby Hamlin. Both men are pilots who share a love of flying. But perhaps most importantly, both were fortunate enough to discover their passion in life and pursue it as a career. As a result, they have found great success in their respective lives.
Bill Noe parlayed his love of aviation into a career that began with him flying private jets around the world, and that ultimately led to his current role as president and chief operating officer of NetJets North America. NetJets, with 800 private jets worldwide and some 5,000 employees, counts some of the world’s most accomplished people as customers. Billionaire Warren Buffet was a customer for three years and was so impressed with the company that he decided to buy it in 1998. Today NetJets is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and is the leader in its industry.
Meanwhile, Chuck Yeager’s love of flying saw him achieve success as a World War II fighter pilot. His dogfighting skills were so renowned that many call him the greatest combat pilot of all time. He went on to become the best test pilot in the business, his crowning achievement coming in 1947 when he made history by breaking the sound barrier. Today, at age 89, he still enjoys flying, hunting, fishing and traveling around the world.
In my 23 years in the publishing business, I have had the opportunity to profile many highly successful people from all walks of life. In nearly every case, these people share two common traits – a passion for their work and an innate competitive spirit.
Before Noe discovered his passion for aviation, he was a nationally ranked competitive swimmer. He was so dedicated to becoming the best at his sport that he trained every day at 5:30 a.m and again at 4 p.m., logging three hours in the pool while swimming in excess of three miles. His passion and competitive drive paid off in the form of national titles, college scholarship offers and record-breaking performances. He even used his prowess in the water to rescue a teenager who had swum out to sea in an attempt to kill himself.
Before Yeager discovered his passion for flying, he was determined to become the best hunter that Hamlin had ever seen. He took pride in pulling off shots that no one else could, and that competitive fire continued to burn when he entered World War II. Yeager went on to shoot down more enemy aircraft than virtually anyone in the U.S. Air Force. In time he would become a renowned test pilot, the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound and the greatest pilot who ever lived.
Neither Bill Noe nor Chuck Yeager set out to achieve greatness, but it was thrust upon them as a by-product of their passion for their work and a desire to be the best at their craft. Both men count themselves fortunate to have found their passion in life. And that is the challenge that confronts all of us – to find our passion and then pursue it. As the German philosopher Hegel wrote, “Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.”
