I learned this from a retired air force pilot who is now in his 60’s.
If you’re a pilot, you shouldn’t be worried about crashing the plane, that’s not what kills you. You should be worried about crashing the plane out of control.
He and his fellow pilots trained for this: how to crash in control. They practiced every situation imaginable.
He told me this was the most valuable lesson he learned during his 16 years of service.
In his cookie distribution business (look for Grace’s Cookies at a Whole Foods near you) he became successful by applying this lesson: he always assumed the thing would crash, and he did everything he could to ensure that when it did, he would crash in control.
At some point we are all going to crash.
With a little preparation ahead of time, we can make sure we crash gracefully, ready to lick our wounds and fly again.
The Daily Nugget 