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Built to Soar: Stop Flying Blind. Engineer Your Business For Unstoppable Growth
Is your business lurching through the skies like a DIY plane held together with duct tape and blind hope?Are you tired of constantly battling operational fires, wrestling with chaos, and feeling like you're navigating in thick fog with half your instruments on the fritz?
It's time to stop flying by the seat of your pants. In Built to Soar, Greg Born—a former US Air Force C-5 Galaxy instructor pilot who was a senior executive at Fortune 500 giants like Amazon, Oracle, and GE, plus dynamic mid-sized companies and startups—delivers a radical, battle-tested blueprint. He bridges the unforgiving world of high-stakes aviation, where mission success is paramount and failure is not an option, with the complex realities of modern business. This isn't just theory; it's the flight manual for leaders ready to trade "winging it" for winning.
Built to Soar translates the deliberate design, non-negotiable discipline, and engineering precision that keep a multi-million-dollar aircraft soaring safely into a practical, actionable framework. You'll discover how to transform your organization from an "accidentally designed" collection of parts into a resilient, agile, and high-performing powerhouse, engineered for unstoppable growth.
Inside, you’ll discover how
Forge a Laser-Focused Ditch the vague corporate Mad Libs. Craft a crystal-clear purpose that aligns your entire crew, inspires decisive action, and drives relentlessly measurable results.
Engineer a Battle-Tested Business Move beyond flimsy org charts. Learn to design your company’s core processes, systems, and accountability structures as purposefully as an aircraft's airframe, ensuring every component works in perfect harmony to achieve your strategic objectives and scale effortlessly.
Recruit & Lead Your Crew with Military Every seat on your aircraft matters. Discover why hiring for specific, non-negotiable Core Behaviors is the secret to assembling a high-performance team, and how to fuel accountability, crush silos, and ignite true collaboration.
Implement Scalable Systems that Annihilate Uncover proven methodologies to map your current workflows, integrate the right tools (and ditch the wrong ones), and systematically eliminate the redundancies and friction that bleed your profits and sanity—turning operational chaos into a streamlined machine built for any weather.
Master Continuous Improvement & Navigate Any Learn from the relentless post-flight debriefs of aviation. Implement practical strategies (including the powerful MAT framework for crisis leadership) to build a culture that never settles, turns "Maydays" into mere turbulence, and keeps your business agile, innovative, and always one step ahead.
Drawing on riveting real-life examples from the cockpit, the corner office, and lessons from business titans, Built to Soar offers a refreshingly direct blueprint for transforming everyday operations into mission-critical actions. Forget dry business treatises packed with abstract buzzwords—this is your practical guide, bursting with hard-won insights, actionable frameworks, and a healthy dose of humor to keep you locked in.
It's time to take the controls of your business trajectory.
It's time to stop flying by the seat of your pants. In Built to Soar, Greg Born—a former US Air Force C-5 Galaxy instructor pilot who was a senior executive at Fortune 500 giants like Amazon, Oracle, and GE, plus dynamic mid-sized companies and startups—delivers a radical, battle-tested blueprint. He bridges the unforgiving world of high-stakes aviation, where mission success is paramount and failure is not an option, with the complex realities of modern business. This isn't just theory; it's the flight manual for leaders ready to trade "winging it" for winning.
Built to Soar translates the deliberate design, non-negotiable discipline, and engineering precision that keep a multi-million-dollar aircraft soaring safely into a practical, actionable framework. You'll discover how to transform your organization from an "accidentally designed" collection of parts into a resilient, agile, and high-performing powerhouse, engineered for unstoppable growth.
Inside, you’ll discover how
Forge a Laser-Focused Ditch the vague corporate Mad Libs. Craft a crystal-clear purpose that aligns your entire crew, inspires decisive action, and drives relentlessly measurable results.
Engineer a Battle-Tested Business Move beyond flimsy org charts. Learn to design your company’s core processes, systems, and accountability structures as purposefully as an aircraft's airframe, ensuring every component works in perfect harmony to achieve your strategic objectives and scale effortlessly.
Recruit & Lead Your Crew with Military Every seat on your aircraft matters. Discover why hiring for specific, non-negotiable Core Behaviors is the secret to assembling a high-performance team, and how to fuel accountability, crush silos, and ignite true collaboration.
Implement Scalable Systems that Annihilate Uncover proven methodologies to map your current workflows, integrate the right tools (and ditch the wrong ones), and systematically eliminate the redundancies and friction that bleed your profits and sanity—turning operational chaos into a streamlined machine built for any weather.
Master Continuous Improvement & Navigate Any Learn from the relentless post-flight debriefs of aviation. Implement practical strategies (including the powerful MAT framework for crisis leadership) to build a culture that never settles, turns "Maydays" into mere turbulence, and keeps your business agile, innovative, and always one step ahead.
Drawing on riveting real-life examples from the cockpit, the corner office, and lessons from business titans, Built to Soar offers a refreshingly direct blueprint for transforming everyday operations into mission-critical actions. Forget dry business treatises packed with abstract buzzwords—this is your practical guide, bursting with hard-won insights, actionable frameworks, and a healthy dose of humor to keep you locked in.
It's time to take the controls of your business trajectory.
242 pages, Paperback
Published May 29, 2025
3 people are currently reading
628 people want to read
About the author
Greg Born
4 books12 followersGreg Born translates decades of dynamic leadership experience—from piloting C-5 Galaxy aircraft in the U.S. Air Force to steering strategy as a senior executive in Fortune 500 companies, agile smaller businesses, and innovative startups—into refreshingly practical advice. His books, including "Be A Better Leader: 1 Simple Thing" and the upcoming "Built to Soar: Stop Flying Blind," cut through the usual corporate fog, offering battle-tested, actionable disciplines. Driven by a passion for clarity and achieving real-world results, Greg now dedicates his time to writing, speaking, and helping businesses thrive. His focus is on equipping leaders and high-achieving individuals with simple, high-leverage tools to simplify complexity, drive real impact, and build stronger, more engaged teams. If you're ready to move beyond theory and get to what really works, Greg's insights are for you.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 14, 2025
Loved the book. The aviation apologies aren’t just a gimmick - they’re a brilliant way to make complex business problems feel approachable and solvable. It gives you a whole new language for identifying what’s broken and a practical toolkit for fixing it. The author adds humor throughout to keep it from being boring . Definitely recommended.
June 23, 2025
fun and helpful
If you are looking for business and life advice structured around piloting phrases, than this book is for you. LOL. here is what I mean: Design your aircraft, why your business needs an airframe now, Fueling your flight and focusing your firepower, manning and equipment. Overall the book is fun and helpful.
If you are looking for business and life advice structured around piloting phrases, than this book is for you. LOL. here is what I mean: Design your aircraft, why your business needs an airframe now, Fueling your flight and focusing your firepower, manning and equipment. Overall the book is fun and helpful.
July 17, 2025
Interesting book for Business Growth
So I wasn’t sure what to expect with this business book since it was filled with aviation metaphors and I hate fly :) But I do think the ideas were practical and applicable and I did find that the aviation metaphors made the book easier to understand and the concepts less abstract. I’m glad I read this ok and excited to try some of these principles in my business.
So I wasn’t sure what to expect with this business book since it was filled with aviation metaphors and I hate fly :) But I do think the ideas were practical and applicable and I did find that the aviation metaphors made the book easier to understand and the concepts less abstract. I’m glad I read this ok and excited to try some of these principles in my business.
July 7, 2025
✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽✍🏽
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews