It’s all about how you respond Published April 3, 2019 By Lt. Col. Nathan R. Hier, commander 660th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- “There are no secrets to success,” said retired U.S. Army General Colin Powell, “It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure.” None of us can go through life without failing at something at some point. Whether it’s at work, at home or anywhere else, you simply aren’t going to succeed at everything you do, every time. Some failures can obviously be far more painful to deal with than others, but regardless of the type of failure, the most important thing is how you respond. Essentially, you can either pick yourself up and get back on the horse or you can walk away and never ride again. The choice you make is what defines you as a person. Between Christmas 2017 and St. Patrick’s Day 2018, our squadron had three folks get arrested for DUIs. Needless to say, it was a very rough couple of months. We had all the same briefings as you’d expect before, during and after – have a plan, call me, call the shirt, call the chief, call production, call Airmen Against Drunk Driving, etc. We all know there are a thousand ways to get home safely and really only one way to do it wrong. Still, as a family, we’d done it wrong —three times in short order. Fast forward to today, and the squadron has now gone more than a full year without a single DUI. What changed is the folks that failed had the courage to own it and the passion to make sure no one else in the squadron had to learn the hard lessons they were now learning. The guys involved in the incidents set up briefings in small groups and shared intimate details of everything they’d each been through since getting their respective DUIs. They talked about the extreme financial impact, the loss of rank, the embarrassment they felt, etc. They did it with the utmost sincerity and sent a message home to the squadron that the shirt, chief and I could have talked ourselves blue in the face and never have gotten through. In short, they took their failure and turned it into a success story for the squadron because they had enough character to do so. I couldn’t be any more thankful for their efforts or any more proud of how they demonstrated the very best way to respond to a bad situation. Everyone looks great while succeeding. Success is easy. You don’t find out what somebody’s truly made out of until they get tested by failure. It takes far more strength of character to accept that you failed, dust yourself off and get back on that horse until you get it right. You simply can’t do that any better than these guys did.