I have always seen private jets as a symbol of insane luxury.
It definitely is that, but for me it has always been a little more interesting than just luxury. I have had dreams and goals around it for a long time. Whenever I used to go on vacations with my family, I would see private terminals or private jets on the tarmac. I would see people walking into the airport in suits, purely business guys, and I always wondered, "When am I going to be like that?"
I liked the idea of not having to pack so much for a flight because I was traveling for work. I liked the idea of being so busy, having so much on the go, and needing to be in different places because important things were happening. I saw it as a sign of success.
I still have that mindset where I feel like I "get" to travel for work rather than feeling like I "have" to travel for work.
Coming back to private jets, another reason I have always liked the idea is that I despise economy. I am grateful, obviously, but the thing is that I am 6'5". I am very tall and I just do not fit in basic economy seats. I am really cramped.
I experienced business class recently, I think about a year or two ago, on an international ten-hour flight. Believe me when I say it was insane. It showed me how much of a convenience it actually is. Once you experience business class, you realize, wow, this is another level. This is so amazing compared to economy.
It is not just comfort for the sake of comfort. You save time during the flight, but you also save time afterward because you avoid so much of the jet lag and exhaustion. You save so much time both during and after the flight. It was a great experience, so why wouldn't I do it?
Anyway, coming back to the private jet.
This was on June 4th. It was a small flight, about two hours, probably closer to one and a half hours, from Santa Barbara to San Francisco.
I was flying with my team, Blake, and some of his team. We were going to this podcast launch party event.
The funniest part is that I did not even know I was going until a few hours before. I got the invite a few hours earlier and I was just like, yeah, I'm going.
It almost felt like magic. I obviously knew how private terminals and private jets worked. I had seen videos. I had seen photos. I had thought about it. But actually experiencing it was completely different.
I probably took 10 to 20 videos, 10 photos, and honestly just a bunch of photos and videos because I could not stop. I did not post it anywhere, but it was just fascinating. I was ecstatic. I could not get the smile off my face for the whole day.
The whole thing was insane.
Rolling all the way to the plane in our car. Seeing the actual plane on the tarmac. Our car literally pulling up next to it like ballers. Then just jumping onto the plane, meeting the pilot, and sitting in this simple six-seater PC-12.
Then we just flew.
We landed, our car was waiting, and boom, we went straight to the event we were supposed to go to. That was it.
It legit felt like so much magic that I cannot even explain it properly in words. I think for people who experience it every day, it is probably normal. But for someone who had never experienced it, and who had thought a lot about it, that was me that day.
And the deeper thing is that it made me think about the future in a weird way.
Did it make the goal feel closer? I don't know. But it definitely did one thing for me. It made me believe, wow, God is amazing. It felt like God giving me a preview of what is going to be normal later in my future.
It almost felt like, whoa, this is entirely normal.
And maybe this sounds narcissistic, but I usually think of myself as, "I'm very confident and better than everyone else." But at the same time, I also know I have a lot to learn. Like a lot. I really do not know a lot of things, and I have accepted that there are people way, way smarter than me. I still have a long way to go.
I am never going to stop learning, so it is this duality I carry with myself.
I have a lot of confidence in myself, and I also know I have so much more to learn.
When I sat in that jet, it almost felt like, yeah, this is normal for me.
That kicked in.
Imagine there is no airport shit.
When you take a commercial flight, there is the whole process. You go to the airport. You check in. You check your luggage. You go through security. You wait in the boarding line. Then because it is a commercial flight, you wait again. Your plane waits in line until all the other planes clear.
With a private terminal, it is just a small terminal with a limited number of planes. Everything is crazy simple. There is no security, nothing like that. And when you land, there is nobody. You do not have to wait for your luggage. You just take it out of the plane.
Your car is waiting for you, and boom, you are on the road five minutes after you land.
It is insane.