The State of the Union

Back in 2008 I flew a helicopter for a rich guy in Alabama: an entrepreneur who, among other things was the owner of chain of mobile home dealerships. And a four-branch bank. He was (and probably still is) an extremely good investor.  He wasn't "Bill Gates rich," but he had enough money to do anything he wanted. He didn't flaunt his wealth, but he could afford three lavish homes (one of them a hunting camp on 4,000 acres), a helicopter and a jet. He bought a private box in the football stadium of the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!). He hung around with other rich guys like himself, not guys like me.

Although most of my boss's friends used business jets and sometimes helicopters in the course of their business dealings, few of them had personal helicopters, which were kind of a luxurious novelty. So my boss would keep me around, almost like how a guy would show off a "trophy wife." "Here's my pilot!" he'd beam proudly as he introduced me. Demeaning? Perhaps. But I was happy to let my boss act like a Big Dog if that's what he needed to compete with his peers. (As it says in my bio at the top of this page, I do know my place in the universe.)

Now, I am not a college graduate with a degree in business. Neither am I a successful entrepreneur. Nor do I own any big companies where I'm in charge of hundreds of employees. But I'm also not a dummy. And trust me, I know exactly how little to say to make myself seem funny and smart without coming off as someone with an exaggerated sense of self-importance or acting like a poseur. Then, like an obedient child, I'd ease off to the side and let the grownups talk. Thus, I got to hang around on the periphery of some very wealthy men and eavesdrop on what they talked about.

Occasionally during a lull in all of the business-talk, one of my boss's friends would engage me about flying. People are fascinated with aircraft, helicopters in particular. They'd ask the usual questions, and I'd answer them as clearly as I could without resorting to a bunch of aviation jargon that they would never understand. Explaining things can be tough. Really powerful men don't want minutia. They want the Big Picture, with just enough detail to allow them to understand what's going on without actually having to know the rivet pattern and torque specifications on all the nuts and bolts.

Unfortunately, pilots sometimes do fall into that kind of detail, perhaps in an attempt to make themselves seem more important. The old, "I may not be the CEO of a big company, but I know things you don't!"

When my boss and I flew, he always sat up front. We had some long, interesting conversations, mostly about money.

When Obama was elected president, my boss told me that he and his rich-guy buddies were sitting on their money, afraid to invest because they were filled with uncertainty. My boss said he had enough cash on hand to keep the company afloat and pay his people for one year if things got really bad. He sat out the entire Obama presidency, biding his time, saving his money. I suspect that many of his friends did the same.

Donald Trump is the most *un*-presidential president we've ever had. He does not fit the image of what we've come to believe of how a president should look, speak and act. He will probably go down in history as "The Great Exaggerator" because he plays so fast and loose with the truth.

But for all of his perceived faults, Donald Trump is business-friendly. Under his presidency, businesses will thrive. The rich will get richer. But when American businesses do well, all of us do well too. To put it on a scale I can understand and relate to: Maybe more heads of companies will buy helicopters and hire pilots.

Here is a speech our unpresidential President gave soon after his State Of The Union message.  The first five minutes are comedy gold.