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PrivateJetBS | Edition 22

What Craftsmanship Can Teach Us About Becoming a Private Jet Broker

There’s a story I’ve always loved from outside our industry, it's one that has nothing to do with engines, LOIs, or runway lengths, yet everything to do with what makes great brokers great.

It’s the story of Waterford Crystal.

For more than 200 years, Waterford has trained craftsmen through apprenticeships that last half a decade or more. A beginner doesn’t walk in and immediately cut the iconic Lismore pattern. They don’t shape a decanter on day one. And they certainly don’t get to call themselves a Master just because they “have an eye for it.”

A Waterford apprenticeship is repetition, heat, precision, and most of all patience.
It’s standing at a 2,300°F furnace learning how to gather molten crystal, failing at symmetry a hundred times, and coming back tomorrow to fail a little less.

It takes years before you’re trusted to cut a complex pattern.
It takes years before you’re expected to consistently get it right.
And it takes years before your hands and your eyes operate with the instinct of a true master.

What does any of that have to do with private jet brokerage?

More than most people realize.

The Brokerage Apprenticeship Nobody Talks About

In our industry, people love the polished side of the job:

• Walking through hangars
• Jet photos on the ramp at sunset
• Shaking hands in lounges
• Sitting in the left seat for a delivery flight

But the part that actually creates a great broker?

That's the apprenticeship.
The years before the title.
The grinding, unglamorous stretch where your job is not to “sell jets,” but to study the craft of selling jets.

And that phase has a name many people underestimate:

Researcher.

Just like Waterford’s apprentices learn tools before technique, researchers learn the building blocks before the deals:

• Market cycles
• Serial number histories
• Maintenance programs
• Residual value behaviors
• Buyer psychology
• Aircraft-specific quirks
• Transaction flow

It’s not glamorous.
No one claps when you find a 10-year inspection buried in logbooks.
No one applauds when you discover a missed damage event or inconsistent engine data.

But they should, because that’s where mastery begins.

The industry’s best brokers—those who protect clients, close clean deals, and build relationships that last decades—are almost always the ones who respected the apprenticeship.

They didn’t skip steps and they didn’t chase shortcuts.

They learned the craft.

Why Patience Is the Hardest, and Most Important, Part

Waterford apprentices take years before they’re allowed to cut the complex patterns. Why? Because cutting too early leads to permanent flaws. Not “fixable” flaws, unrecoverable ones. Crystal is unforgiving.

So are aircraft transactions.

A broker who rushes to “get in the game” without mastering the fundamentals doesn’t just risk making a mistake—they risk making a mistake that becomes part of their reputation forever.

Impatience produces scars:

• Bad comps
• Wrong pricing guidance
• Poorly structured offers
• Missed maintenance traps
• Mishandled client expectations
• Deals that fall apart because something “small” wasn’t seen or understood

Just like you can’t uncut a pattern into crystal, you can’t unsend a bad LOI, and you can’t un-promise something a buyer never should have been promised.

Mastery takes time... because trust takes time.

That is the Waterford lesson.

The Researcher Phase: Where Brokers Are Actually Forged

Great researchers develop two qualities that define great brokers:

1. Precision

Waterford cutters must place thousands of cuts by hand with perfect alignment.
Researchers must interpret thousands of data points the same way - accurately, consistently, and without guessing.

You learn to see what others miss.
You learn what “normal” looks like... and what should make you pause.

And that precision is what saves clients millions of dollars later.

2. Pattern Recognition

Crystal masters memorize classic patterns until they can cut them blindfolded.
Researchers learn the patterns of the market:

• Why one airframe holds better than another
• Why one serial block trades differently
• What a maintenance forecast actually means
• Where the real value lies in a listing
• What sellers rarely disclose but buyers absolutely need to know

Pattern recognition is the difference between a broker who quotes a number and a broker who explains the story behind the number.

This is where trust is created.

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Everyone Wants to Be a Broker. Few Want to Be an Apprentice.

In the Waterford world, apprentices aren’t embarrassed to be called apprentices. It’s an honor, because it means you’re on the path to mastery.

In private aviation, we should adopt the same mindset.

Starting as a Researcher isn’t a stepping stone, it’s the foundation.

It’s how you build:

• credibility
• instincts
• relationships
• judgement
• discipline

Every great broker I know, every single one, can trace their confidence and competence back to the years they spent behind the scenes, studying the craft long before they were the face of anything.

You don’t get to skip the furnace.
You don’t get to skip the repetitions.
You don’t get to skip the patience.

You earn your place in this industry the same way a Waterford apprentice earns the right to carve the Lismore pattern:

By showing up, every day, for a long time, and caring about perfection even when no one is watching.

The Future Broker: What Mastery Actually Looks Like

By the time a Waterford apprentice becomes a master, something interesting happens:

Their work looks effortless.
Their movements are smooth.
Their judgement is instantaneous.
Their corrections are subtle and automatic.

That is exactly how the best brokers operate.

A master broker is calm when everyone else panics.
They diagnose issues in seconds.
They read between the lines effortlessly.
They see risk and opportunity in places others overlook.

And they make it all look easy, not because it is easy, but because they’ve done the hard work long enough to make the hard work invisible.

The Lesson for Anyone Entering the Industry

If you’re a Researcher today, or thinking about becoming one, here is the truth:

You’re not “waiting your turn.”
You’re becoming someone worth turning to.

Patience isn’t passive—it’s preparation.

Every LOI you study, every comp set you build, every SN history you untangle… that is your furnace time. That is where your instincts come from. That is where your name will eventually be made.

And one day, clients will trust you not because you asked them to, but because you’ve become the kind of broker they can trust.

Just like Waterford masters don’t declare themselves masters,
the work declares it for them.

Closing Thought: Trust the Process. Not the Promises.™

The private aviation world moves fast.
Deals move fast.
Expectations move fast.

But mastery has never been fast.

If Waterford can spend eight years teaching someone how to cut crystal, we can spend the proper time required to teach our people how to protect clients, guide transactions, and uphold the standards that make this industry work.

Because the goal should never be to become a broker quickly.

The goal is to become the broker others look to as the standard.

The process is the protection.
The standard is the difference.

— Michael Barber

Trust the Process, Not the Promises.™​
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Michael Barber PrivateJetBS Newsletter Managing Director & VP, Sales Operations at jetAVIVA​ Mobile, WhatsApp, & Signal: +1.919.475.8506 ​​​​

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