The secret reason I left Lufthansa that I never shared before.

In my last week of 11 years at LH Group, I was traveling from Zurich to Frankfurt one last time. Again, the pilots were threatening a strike. Again, once the company was making a few desperate profits, the pilots played their strong hand.

At that moment I smiled to myself:

"now, it is really time to go".

I realized that in Tech Ops, we worked our butts off for 5 years to create savings, also by layoffs. In the crisis, we had laid off good, capable people. 5 years of hard work, sweat, tears, and savings created are annihilated by one single pilot strike. And the meager increase in profitability goes into the pilots' fat pockets. Shareholders nada. Ground Staff nada. Cabin Crew nada.?

It's not the first time, nor will it be the last time. The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC, the pilot's union) has been notorious for blackmailing profits out of the Group to their members, leaving workers on the ground underpaid and overworked. A pilot makes up to 275k a year, way more than a leader of leadership circle 2, who typically oversees an entire function or acts as managing director of one of the group companies.

The repeated pilot strikes are unfair, unreasonable, and unsocial. I love Lufthansa and my coworkers there. Lufthansa is a great company to work for, even in the crisis. The more it hurt that 5% of the workforce took everyone else and our passengers hostage for their personal benefit.?

If Lufthansa Group was a soccer team, it would be like if the goalie was saying: "Pay me more, or I'll let any ball pass." What I find surprising: the rest of the players hardly seemed to react. I remember only one demonstration against the strike ever. The main message was "stop striking".

Complaining does not help. Action helps.

• If you are management, you try to mitigate.
• If you are a unionist, you go on strike yourself.
• If you are a realist, you accept it or quit.
• If you are a Business Alpinist, you understand that you are a company.

You understand that you are standing on a mountain of value.

You understand you don't need to play in a team where few take the profits of all and deteriorate your business.

You understand that everything you have learned is valuable for others; therefore, others will pay for it.

Either your salary or your invoice.

So you decide to change your team.

The tricky part is finding out what you are really good at, packaging that into a service that customers want badly, and getting your name out.

The good news is: until you hit the growth phase, it's like a game of Poker with endless rounds and endless chips.

If you work at a corporate: you have plenty of time & money to try it out.?

Every paycheck on the 27th of the month buys chips to play another round.

Every week, you can make 8-15 hours to work on your business (my last article goes into how to carve out 20% of your workload to work on your business).

This is enough to start.

What's keeping you back?

• Maybe you don't know where to start?
• Maybe you lack confidence that you can make it?
• Maybe you are not sure if you want a side business or go all in?

For every change, you don't only need something you are going away from. You also need an inspirational, motivating, audacious peak you are trying to reach.

For the Business Alpinist, there are many peaks to climb. Employment is the first peak. Your first business your second.

Early this year, I hit the growth phase. I knew I could make it. It took 1 year of hard work and investment in myself.

This development opened new pathways of collaboration that I had never dreamed of. Suddenly, I was not someone looking for new employment. I was a founder looking for powerful partnerships. My identity had changed.

And so can yours.

In ONEDAY, I found a fantastic team, I love working with every day. ?

No matter what your journey is, start today.?

Cheers,

Oliver

Sources: https://www.airliners.de/lufthansa-piloten-beschliessen-streik/66011; https://www.airliners.de/streiks-lufthansa-image-schaden/37455