Why Did GoFirst Fail?
The Wadia Airline That Ran Out of Sky
📜 What Happened
GoFirst (formerly GoAir) was the Wadia family's airline — a low-cost carrier that flew millions of Indians. Its collapse was fast and dramatic: in May 2023, it stopped flying overnight, blaming Pratt & Whitney engine failures that grounded half its fleet. But the real story was financial: ₹11,000 crore owed to lessors, banks and vendors, mounting losses, and a failed attempt to blame the crisis on engines. Lessors repossessed planes within days; thousands of employees and passengers were stranded. The engine problem was real — the survival plan was not.
☠️ The Fatal Mistake
Building a business with no cushion for its biggest known risk — engine downtime was a known industry risk, and the airline had no reserves to survive it.
🧠 The Lesson (Free for You)
Prepare for your specific known risks, not just generic ones. If one failure mode can kill you, it's not 'unlucky' when it happens — it's unplanned. Buffers aren't optional; they're the difference between a problem and a funeral.
📕 The Antidote Book
Collins's team spent five years studying 1,435 companies to find the few that went from average to sustained greatness (beating the market 3x+ for 15 years) — and what separated them from identical competitors who…
📖 OPEN THE FULL INTERACTIVE BREAKDOWN →Searchable, filterable, free to read — they paid billions; your lesson is free.