SEATTLE -- Moments before Tom Flick took his first NFL snap with the Washington Redskins, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker (and future Hall of Famer) Jack Lambert pointed at Flick and shouted, "Hey! Who are you?" Flick's own linemen turned to Joe Thesimann's backup and said the same thing.

On the charter flight home, Flick, now a motivational speaker, thought not of the two touchdown drives on which he had led the Redskins' offense. He thought instead of Lambert's words -- and in doing so, Flick said during the keynote at the AACE International Annual Meeting, he began the process of redefining himself, of focusing on "go" moments rather than "stop" moments, and on helping others rather than himself.

Sharing stories of his father, his son, Mary Lou Retton and a hotel housekeeper with an inspiring wakeup call, Flick called on conference attendees to seize those "go" moments, to inspire the men, women and children they lead instead of limiting them, and, as Retton did in the 1984 Summer Olympics, to deliver a perfect 10 when it's needed most.

The first step is to ask the same question that Lambert asked of Flick -- and to follow it up with "Where are you going?" and "What are you doing?"

The answers here should reflect that "go" mentality -- an insurance salesman provides families with peace of mind; he doesn't push paper. Throwing up stop signs, or even remaining complacent, allows the competition to surge past. "There's no gear of neutral in the human experience," Flick said, citing the example of Motorola, which failed to foresee the demand for digital cell phones in the 1990s and thus surrendered its market share to Nokia.

This pointed to a key call to arms for today's cost engineers -- to monitor project costs such that their employers, much like effective quarterbacks, can adjust to sudden changes in accordance with their teams' strengths. "Most companies," Flick said, "are winging it." Not coincidentally, so are the Detroit Lions.