How a Lesson From David Miscavige Saved the Lives of Three Who Were Lost at Sea

A lesson from David Miscavige inspired the captain of The Freewinds to persist when everyone else gave up.

In a video on the David Miscavige website, Captain Mike Napier tells this story:

A lesson from David Miscavige on persistence made all the difference in the rescue of three people who were lost at sea

The ship was called to do a rescue one night and there were people that were lost at sea. And there were military vessels, other cruise ships, private yachts, looking to rescue people. And it was night and the wind was blowing about 25 knots and we knew we only had so much time to get to these people—they were fishermen. We knew they were out there and had not reported in.

We were all doing search patterns. And one by one, different people, different ships, different organizations were giving up. And I remembered something that Mr. Miscavige said to me directly before that. He said: “Never give up. Always push toward your goals. You can do it.”

So I looked at that and I remembered those words and I said, “I’m going to find these guys. We’re going to find these guys. We’re going to not give up.” And so we just sat down, I called a huddle on the bridge and I said, “Guys, you know what we’ve got to do here. We’ve got to find these people because if we don’t they’re gone.”

Three minutes later I was 15 feet from that boat and we saved three lives. But I always remembered what Mr. Miscavige told me. He said “Persist. Get the product. Never give up.”

A man of great compassion

He is a man that has a great passion for what he does. And he has great compassion for those that he works with. And that passion is carried over into working with his crew, his teams. He instills in them an energetic, enthusiastic attitude. And while they’re doing that, he gives them a great passion to lead them forward. He always acknowledges a good job. He sets targets and direction which is demanding, but it has to be demanding. And then he walks you through the process. He works with you through the process and then you get the end product of what you need to do—in my case, a ship that holds the highest standards 100 percent of the time, 24 hours a day for 30 years.

Taking it to a new level

He always has shown me how it can even be better every day and how if it isn’t better, you’re not making it better. He’s taught me and the crew and everybody he works with: let’s take it to a new level. And therefore you’re always being better. And if you don’t operate that way, you’re getting worse.

This is the passion that he has, that he instills in us. And the compassion that he has for everybody he works with makes you want to work with him and for him.

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To learn more, chose from dozens of videos on Mr. Miscavige’s website.