Dear Mr Alan Joyce. . . The letter that earned the attention of the airline boss. Photo / Supplied, Twitter
Dear Mr Alan Joyce. . . The letter that earned the attention of the airline boss. Photo / Supplied, Twitter
A 10-year-old boy has been invited to meet with Alan Joyce after his handwritten letter got the attention of the Qantas CEO.
Alex Jacquot, a young aviation enthusiast and the "self-appointed CEO" of his own "airline", penned a note to Mr Joyce detailing his plans so far, and asked himfor some advice.
"I'm Alex Jacquot, a 10-year-old boy (please take me seriously) and I want to start an airline," the letter, scribbled in pencil, reads.
Alex revealed he has already decided "what type of planes" will be needed, "flight numbers, catering and more".
"I'm the CEO of the airline, which by the way is called Oceania Express," he said, adding that he has "hired a CFO, a Head of IT, a Head of Maintenance, Head of On Board Services and a Head of Legal as well, along with my friend Wold (Vice-CEO) We are both co-founders."
"Seeing as it is the school holidays, I have more time to work. But I don't have anything to do (that I can think of). Do you have any ideas of what I can do?" the letter continued.
"Seeing as you are the CEO of QANTAS, I thought I'd ask you."
Proving he's not kidding about doing his research, Alex also explained that he would specifically like some advice on how to help passengers sleep on a proposed non-stop flight from Sydney or Melbourne to London.
Our competitors don't normally ask us for advice, but when an airline leader reached out, we couldn't ignore it. Naturally, there was only one way to respond: CEO to CEO. pic.twitter.com/JTFpzn5a6Y
To the student's delight, Mr Joyce wrote back to Alex, inviting him to attend a meeting at Qantas headquarters, as well as a tour of the Operations Centre.
"I'm not typically in the business of giving advice to my competitors," Mr Joyce wrote, "but I'm going to make an exception on this occasion, because I too was once a young boy who was so curious about flight and all its possibilities".
Alex's mother told The Australian they are waiting on a date and time for the meeting.
Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce took 10-year-old Jacquot's letter seriously. Photo / James D. Morgan, Getty Images
Cold-contacting powerful people is a strategy recommended by entrepreneurship expert Tim Ferriss, who once challenged a class of college students he was teaching to reach out to their idols via email.
Ferriss incentivised the exercise by offering the student who made contact with the most high-profile person a round-trip plane ticket anywhere in the world.
"I felt that if I could help students overcome the fear of rejection with cold-calling and cold e-mail, it would serve them forever," Ferriss said.
"It's easy to sell yourself short, but when you see classmates getting responses from people like [former president] George Bush, the CEOs of Disney, Comcast, Google, and HP, and dozens of other impossible-to-reach people, it forces you to reconsider your self-set limitations."
