"Look out!"
The pilot knew they were going to die.
The large, twelve-passenger Silver
Arrow jet plane was being tossed
around in the sky like a toy by the
powerful winds over the Appalachian
Mountains in upstate New York.
The pilot and co-pilot were struggling
hard to keep the nose of the aircraft
up, fighting against the vicious
downdrafts. It was a superb plane,
carefully designed and well built. But
for the last few minutes, the engines
had started to fail.
One of the two passengers in the
luxuriously-appointed rear of the
plane cameforward into the cockpit
and said, "There is something wrong
with the fuel line. The engines are
not getting enough power."
Under ordinary circumstances, the
pilot would have ordered his
passenger to return to his seat.
But these were not ordinary
circumstances. The passenger had
designed and built this plane. He
was Mr. Yoneo Matsumoto,the
founder and chairman of the
board of one of the largest
conglomerates in the world.
The pilot said, "We're losing all our
power."
They understood what that meant.
Visibility was zero and all around them
were the deadly, invisible mountain
peaks, waiting for them. Without
sufficient power the plane could not
climb high enough to get out of danger.
The plane was beginning to lose
altitude. Yoneo Matsumoto studied the
instruments for a moment, then
turned and went back into the cabin to
his wife, Eiko. There was no fear on
her face, only an expression of peace
and acceptance, and he knew that she
was unafraid. He took her hand in
his and she smiled at him, her eyes
filled with love.
Yoneo Matsumoto was ready to
meet death. He had lived a full, rich
life and had accomplished more than
most men.Starting with nothing, he
had created Matsumoto Industries,
a company of which any man could
be proud. He had thousands of
employees working in a dozen
factories around the world, and he
was looked up to and respected.
His mind went back to the beginning,
when he was very young.
He had had a natural gift for
electronics. There had been many job
offers, but he had met and fallen in
love with Eiko, and she had
encouraged him to start his own
company. For the first five years he
had worked day and night, trying to
earn enough money to take care of
Eiko and the young son, Masao, who
was born to them. It was a difficult
path that Yoneo Matsumoto had
chosen, but he was ambitious and
talented, and nothing could stop
him. Slowly, his company began to
grow until it
became a thriving
business. Matsumoto Industries
started to acquire
other companies
and, gradually, the young business
became a giant — a dynasty that
straddled the globe, making
airplanes and computers,
cameras and radios, television sets
and a hundred other products...
His thoughts were interrupted by a
sudden crack of thunder, followed
by a flash of lightning that lit up
the sky like a giant rocket gone
berserk. For one instant, the people
in the airplane could see what was
outside.They were surrounded by
dangerous mountain peaks, and
then the lightning faded away and
everything was plunged into
darkness again. Yoneo Matsumoto
pressed his wife's hand harder. In a
few moments their lives would be
wiped out; but there was their
beloved son, Masao, to carry on.
Masao would inherit the Matsumoto
empire and he would run it well.
There was another quick flash of
lightning, and they looked out on
a scene from hell: Snow-capped
peaks and boiling black clouds and,
directly in front of them, the side
of a mountain that seemed to
be racing toward them. Seconds
later, the world seemed to explode
in a thousand pieces of flame.
Then there was a deep silence,
broken only by the howling of the
wind as it swept across the endless,
lonely landscape.
