30/10/2026
# PHILOSOPHICAL FRIDAY
# # # Of Sparrows, Cows, Cats… and the Art of Recognising True Friends
**“Not everyone who cheers you on helps you move forward. And not everyone who puts obstacles in your path actually stops you.”**
Years ago, I heard a little fable. Not a particularly elegant one, certainly not something you'd tell over a formal dinner, but surprisingly wise.
It was about a little sparrow that was freezing in the bitter winter cold. Eventually, it fell to the ground, almost frozen to death.
A cow happened to walk past and dropped a steaming pile of manure right on top of it.
Hardly what you'd call a friendly gesture. Especially from the sparrow's point of view.
But the warmth of the cowpat saved its life. The little bird warmed up, recovered its strength and began chirping happily.
A cat heard the chirping.
It approached, gently pulled the sparrow out of the manure, cleaned it off…
And ate it.
The end. No happy ending. The sparrow didn't even get the chance to say thank you. 😉
But the story left behind three lessons, two of which have stayed with me ever since:
**Not everyone who s**ts on you is your enemy.**
**Not everyone who pulls you out of the s**t is your friend.**
When I first heard that story, it simply made me laugh.
Today, after quite a few years of life experience, I see something much deeper in it.
Life has a strange habit of placing both cows and cats in our path. And strangely enough, we don't always recognise which is which.
When we started the RSG Diamond project, we had a dream, a handful of ideas and an enormous desire to create something of our own.
Over time came the first calculations, models, revisions, materials and real structural components.
And when we began sharing our work publicly, people came along too.
Many welcomed us with genuine kindness. They encouraged us, supported us and shared their experience. And I am sincerely grateful for that.
But there were others.
People who questioned our ideas, pointed out mistakes and challenged our assumptions.
Sometimes they did so respectfully and constructively.
And sometimes with all the subtlety of that cow from the story. 😉
I won't pretend I always welcomed it with a smile.
When you've devoted hundreds of hours to something, invested your money, time, ambitions and a piece of your life into a project, it isn't pleasant to hear that you've got something wrong.
Especially when the message arrives with the delicacy of a brick through a window.
My first reaction?
Well… let's just say that some expressions are probably best left out of official aviation documentation. 🤣
But eventually the emotions settle.
You read the comment again. Open the design. Check the calculations.
And suddenly you discover that this rather unpleasant person may actually have noticed something important.
They don't have to be right about everything.
They don't even have to have good intentions.
But if their remark helps you discover a mistake, simplify a solution or improve structural safety, have they really done you harm?
**Sometimes someone throws a log in your path, and you discover it's exactly the piece of timber you needed to build a bridge.**
At RSG Diamond, we've already revisited earlier decisions many times. We've changed solutions that initially seemed perfectly reasonable. We've rechecked things we thought were finished.
Sometimes the criticism proved justified.
Other times, after a thorough analysis, we stood by our original decision.
Because being open to criticism doesn't mean agreeing with whoever shouts the loudest.
It means being willing to admit that you might be wrong.
And that, surprisingly enough, is one of the hardest skills to master.
Especially when your own pride is involved.
**A compliment can make your day. A good question can change your design.**
And please don't misunderstand me.
Kindness matters enormously. Sometimes a single encouraging word gives you more strength than another cup of coffee.
But kindness alone cannot build a safe gyroplane.
You can have thousands of likes, hundreds of flattering comments and an entire crowd assuring you that everything is wonderful.
Unfortunately, gravity, aerodynamics and material strength don't use Facebook.
They have no idea how many followers we have.
And, rather rudely, they have no intention of making exceptions for us. 😉
That's why I'd rather hear an uncomfortable question today than discover the answer to it several hundred metres above the ground tomorrow.
I'm not building RSG Diamond to prove to the world that I've been right from the very beginning.
I'm building it because one day I want to sit at the controls of a machine that once existed only in my imagination.
I want to feel it lift off the ground.
I want to see the world from its cockpit.
And above all, I want to have confidence, supported by calculations, testing and proper verification, that we've done everything reasonably possible to make that flight safe.
**My ego can survive a few painful comments. An aircraft structure may not forgive a single serious mistake.**
And that's precisely why we have no intention of hiding our mistakes or pretending every correction was part of some brilliant master plan.
Sometimes we simply overlooked something.
Sometimes someone else spotted a better solution.
And sometimes, after several hours of analysis, we conclude that whoever designed the previous version should be permanently banned from going anywhere near CAD software.
Unfortunately, that person is usually me. 🤣
But let's return to our little sparrow for a moment.
What fascinates me most about that story is how easily appearances can deceive us.
The cow did something that seemed like the worst thing imaginable for the little bird. Yet it saved its life.
The cat did something that looked like an act of kindness. Yet the story ended tragically.
Of course, in real life, not every critic is a cow unknowingly saving us. And not every kind person is a cat with hidden intentions.
**The lesson isn't that we should stop trusting people. It's that we should learn to look beyond first impressions.**
Sometimes a friend has to tell you something you don't want to hear.
Sometimes a complete stranger can help you more than they ever realise.
And sometimes the greatest obstacle in our path isn't another person at all.
It's our own unwillingness to admit that we might not be right.
There's an old saying that wisdom comes with age.
Unfortunately, for some people, the only thing that arrives with age is the lid of their coffin. 🤣
Because getting older doesn't automatically make us wiser.
**Experience only becomes wisdom when we're willing to learn from it.**
And perhaps that's the greatest lesson our little sparrow never had the chance to discover.
So today, I'd like to thank everyone who has joined us on this journey.
Those who encourage us and give us confidence.
Those who share their knowledge and experience.
And those who ask difficult, uncomfortable and sometimes downright irritating questions.
We won't always agree.
It won't always be pleasant.
But if those conversations help make RSG Diamond a better and safer machine, they're worth having.
Because the goal isn't to win every argument.
**The goal is to take to the skies safely one day — and return to the ground just as safely.**
And the sparrow?
Well… if it had been given a second chance, perhaps it wouldn't have judged the cow by what landed on its head, or the cat by how kindly it extended its paw.
And maybe that's something we should all learn from it.
**Not everyone who criticises you wants you to fail. Not everyone who praises you helps you succeed.**
And sometimes, life's greatest lessons arrive disguised as a steaming pile of cow manure. 😉
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**Now, a question for you:**
Have you ever learnt something genuinely valuable from someone you initially wanted to tell to go straight to hell?
*RSG Diamond Project*
