…One Giant Leap for Mankind

(Yes, we first published this post a year ago. So what? We think it’s a story that should be repeated every year on this day!)

47 years ago today, the first men walked on the moon (though according to Michael Bay, the Transformers were there earlier). The US manned space program took nearly a decade to go from initial testing, to putting a man into space, to putting one into orbit, to finally landing on the moon.


Those people had guts. And I don’t just mean the astronauts.

Think about what it takes to pursue a dream like that. Think about how committed you have to be to a goal that you would spend a decade trying to do something that had never been done outside of the movies, something that is so incredibly audacious that it is hard to imagine the path to success because so many new things have to occur along the way. One group of scientists, reflecting on the program a few years ago, noted that

It was carried out in a technically brilliant way with risks taken…that would be inconceivable in the risk-averse world of today…The Apollo programme is arguably the greatest technical achievement of mankind to date…nothing since Apollo has come close [to] the excitement that was generated by those astronauts

Do you have that kind of commitment among your employees? Do you feel that kind of excitement in your company?

Probably not.

But it shows you what can happen when you really try, and really believe. It may not be true that ANYTHING is possible, but the Apollo program showed us that the gap between “unlikely, but possible” and “success” can be overcome even when the gap between “impossible” and “success” cannot.

There is a reason we ask “If we can put a man on the moon, then why can’t we (insert desired accomplishment here)?” The moon landing reminds us that persistence can pay off, when it is combined with talent, vision, self confidence, and a willingness to accept the risk of failure. If you are looking for a metaphor for achieving success by focusing on the end goal rather than on quarterly earnings statements, it would be hard to find a better one.