I received the following correspondence from Dr Derwyn and Carolyn Jones – passengers on QF32. In the spirit of the “glass being half full, not half empty”, I echo their thoughts and share them below:

“When written in Chinese the word ‘crisis’ is composed of 2 characters. One represents ‘danger’ and the other represents ‘opportunity’. I have always taken this to mean that, during or after any critical event, there is the possibility of going in one of two directions – or perhaps more accurately – we need to experience true despair prior to achieving a realisation of the opportunity being offered by the experience.”

I have also seen this character associated with the word “Risk”  which resonates with me because it sums the topics of intrepid leadership, decision making, failure and success.