Ep 251 How Your Journey Starts DOES NOT Define How It Ends
Ready 4 Pushback
Nik Fialka
4.8 • 716 Ratings
🗓️ 5 June 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nik Fialka is back and opens up about setbacks, self-doubt, and the long road to success in aviation. Whether you're a student struggling in training, a regional pilot facing turbulence, or someone navigating unexpected career changes, Nik reminds us that your beginning doesn’t define your journey—or your destination. Drawing from his own early struggles in Navy flight school, Nik delivers a personal message about resilience, perspective, and staying in the fight—even after failure. This is the encouragement you didn’t know you needed and a reminder that setbacks don’t make you a failure—they just make you human.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
Why your first flight school experience doesn’t determine your future in aviation
How to reset your mindset after failure, termination, or rejection The importance of embracing adversity as part of your growth
Why personal and professional turbulence can shape your character
How to build a comeback plan when your planned road doesn’t go as expected The value of honesty, accountability, and clarity over excusesÂ
Why success takes time—and why that’s okay
 CONNECT WITH US Are you ready to take your preparation to the next level? Don’t wait until it’s too late. Use the promo code “R4P2025” and save 10% on all our services. Check us out at www.spitfireelite.com! If you want to recommend someone to guest on the show, email Nik at [email protected], and if you need a professional pilot resume, go to www.spitfireelite.com/podcast/ for FREE templates!
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Big Rock - Take the Lead by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, pilot, welcome back to Ready for Pushback. It's Nick Fialca. It's another solo show. |
| 0:09.9 | Today, I want you to know that how your journey starts does not define how your journey is going to be. |
| 0:19.5 | Most pilots don't understand what career opportunities are available in the world of aviation. |
| 0:25.6 | They're making career decisions based on advice from friends or posts on internet forums, |
| 0:31.6 | meaning they are taking huge risk with their livelihood without having all the details. |
| 0:36.6 | This podcast was created to help you understand the aviation industry so you can find your dream |
| 0:42.8 | job. Let's get ready for pushback. Here's your host and my dad, Nick Fialca. |
| 0:50.1 | A lot of what we do in aviation is really difficult. A lot of it requires tests. |
| 0:55.6 | It requires flying. |
| 0:56.8 | It requires knowledge. |
| 0:57.9 | It requires performance. |
| 1:00.0 | Very, very, very few jobs in the world require you to have a ton of knowledge |
| 1:06.4 | and also to be able to perform that knowledge in front of somebody else and be graded on it. |
| 1:13.8 | Probably being a doctor is one of the only things like a surgeon. |
| 1:19.1 | That is something that you could do and you are graded on and you are critiqued about and you can either do properly or not and there's a lot at stake. |
| 1:26.8 | Other than that, even being like a lawyer or something like that, you know, solid quality |
| 1:33.2 | job, but nobody's going to die if you make a mistake. But being a surgeon, being a pilot, |
| 1:39.6 | and probably a few other jobs, those are the things. And it's a lot to handle. And it's a, |
| 1:47.5 | there's a lot of stress and there's a lot of, I don't know, there's a lot of difficulty that |
| 1:51.9 | you come across with that. And I don't take that lightly. And I don't want you to take it |
| 1:57.4 | lightly and know that you have the capabilities within you to make it happen. |
| 2:03.1 | It takes longer for some people. Some people have an easy time with it and they can just knock |
... |
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