Many years ago I was working on the client side (i.e. for an airport management company) building the specifications for the systems of a brand new terminal.
It was meant to be passenger-centric, efficient and data driven in decision making and also easy to run from an IT perspective.
It was a good design. Yet, specifications are not enough, the systems you need must be provided by someone. When we went out to buy those systems, nothing from what we wanted was available on the market.
We got the the same old systems that all the other old airport already had. This gave rise to the idea that there is a gap on the market. This idea stuck with me for 2-3 years until I finally decided to take the leap and leave a secure and satisfying job for the unknown.
This was indeed a high risk attempt with plenty of chances to fail - but I considered that it was the kind of endeavour from which I and others will learn a lot, no matter how it would end up.
We planned, we implemented, we iterated and continued to learn. A strong team was formed and gained the trust of our customers and the aviation industry at large. This allowed us to approach more complex problems, develop solutions and make aviation more efficient.
Looking back now I am thankful to the team members present and past and our customers (all still present).
Also - can’t help to look ahead and wonder how many more things we will learn and how we’re going to help aviation to be more efficient, sustainable and accessible by a larger population.