Brian JohnsonChairman & Philosopher in Residence at Heroic

The Best Check In Ever: Micro Areté Moments of Heroic Awesome (Heroic +1 #1,831)

17 Dec 2025 · 3 min

Episode

17 Dec 2025 · 3 min

0:00

Brian Johnson gave copies of his book Arete to two Delta agents at Austin airport when his checked bag was 3 pounds overweight. Instead of a hassle, he turned it into what he called the best check-in ever, then challenged himself to find and create small moments of awesome throughout the day.

Questions this episode answers

3:10pm Central Time outside Terminal 8 at the Austin airport (July 26, 2024).

Delta Flight 2725 to New York.

Two cases of 16 copies (32 copies) and the bag was 3 pounds over the weight limit.

Ebony.

Chapters

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. I started typing this at 3:10pm Central Time outside Terminal 8 at the Austin airport. The wifey and kids dropped me off an hour ago and I just watched a sweet we love you daddy video from them a minute ago. I'm waiting to board Delta Flight number 2725 to New York en route to a top secret destination in Europe where I'll be training some of the most elite athletes in the world. It's going to be awesome. I packed my two jumbo huge black duffel bags with three cases of books that I'll be giving to the guys I'll be training. Now I got the bags before I headed to the Red Sea and did the same thing when I flew out to spend some time with the sailors on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Only this time, somehow my first bag with two cases of 16 copies of Arete in it was 3 pounds over the weight limit. Oops. All good. I figured I'd just take a book or two out and put them in my carry on book bag and we'd be good then. Because I'm always looking for micro moments of awesome. Especially when things don't go the way I planned. I asked the woman checking me in if she was a fan of the sport the guys I was going to serve played. She said she wasn't, but her grandpa was. So I said, awesome. Going out to coach these guys on a top secret team and I'm giving them all a copy of my book. I have some extras and I think your grandpa might like it. She was thrilled. Then her friend working next to her overheard our chat and said she was a big fan of the sport. So I gave her a book too. She was thrilled. Then I realized my first friend might like a book too. So I gave her one to go along with the one I gave for her grandpa. Boom. Everybody's feeling it. We're having a party. At the check in, the positivity resonance is bumping. We're all smiles and I tell her, wow, this is the best check in ever. My new friend agrees. I ask her what her name is. She tells me her name is Ebony. I tell her that's a beautiful name and that I really appreciate her. And that's today's PAs, Juan. Here's to setting a clear heroic target to find all the micro moments of awesome we can. And then most importantly, go see how many you can create all day, every day, especially today.