Relationships are the real engine of leadership.

The Flight Suit & the Story it Wrote

How a leader's belief helped a kid learn to fly.

by Julia LeFevre

Lacy Gunnoe didn’t come from privilege. He came from a trailer. A divorced home. A life where no one expected him to fly, literally or metaphorically. But someone saw something in him.

It started in ROTC.

Surrounded by peers with perfect resumes and engineering degrees, Lacy, a marketing major, felt out of place. Until one day, a leader started pushing him. Inviting him to step up. And eventually, handed him a flight suit.

These leaders believed in Lacy enough to give him a chance before he believed he deserved it.

That single gesture did more than open a door. It rewrote the story he told himself.

And it’s backed by neuroscience.

Our brains learn belief through experience. You cannot will yourself into self-confidence. But you can borrow it, first from someone who sees your potential when you can’t.

Lacy borrowed that belief. Then he built his own. The experience came full cycle when he started being the one to give it away.

Now, after 23 years in the military, he spends his days empowering veterans to rewrite their stories too—through relationships, resilience, and a new kind of leadership that starts in the brain.

Here’s your challenge:

Be the leader who hands someone else a flight suit.
See the worth in someone before they can see it themselves.
Because belief—given early and given often—is the spark that rewires everything.

Listen to the Full Episode Here: