Failure is not an option

Brian Catanella April 30, 2020

my saved content

VIEW AS
A PDF

“If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.”
Proverbs 24:10 (The Message)

April 13, 1970 was a day that was seared into the memories of more than just a few men floating in space. Nine months after the successful Apollo 11 mission that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, these famous words were relayed to NASA Mission Control, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”
 
Eugene Kranz, then thirty-six years old, would take the lead on what would be a most historic rescue of the men whose lives hung in the balance during the fateful Apollo 13 mission.
 
Today we are facing a societal challenge that’s as grave as history may ever remember. My hope is that some of the lessons learned from Kranz might guide you and our global community.
 
Breaking through the pessimism of circumstance

The situation was dire. An explosion had led to the breaking down of half of the ship’s oxygen tanks and two-thirds of their fuel cells. Their life-support systems were crashing around them at a death-defying rate.

As NASA engineer Sy Liebergot described it, “We were on the point of losing everybody and everything.”[1]

Yet rather than allowing his team to enter a vicious cycle of self-fulfilling prophecies, Kranz seized the moment: “Let’s everybody keep cool.”

Panic was not an option for the NASA team in that moment. Every detail of each decision was a matter of life and death. As he later stated, “You do not pass uncertainty down to your team members.”
 
Right now you are likely still feeling fear and anxiety due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Leaders know you can only focus on a problem for so long. Eventually you must shift your attention to solutions. Kranz said, “Once you think of surrendering... that is the path you go down... As soon as you start thinking that way, you really have lost... the mental sharpness, the mental edge that is going to take this survival situation and bring it to a successful conclusion.”
 
Where can you transition energy from negativity toward the positive? Can you turn off the news and call to check on someone you love? Can you stop continuously worrying and through prayer turn over these circumstances to God? Stop focusing on the problem and get working on the solution.
 
“What do you think we’ve got in the spacecraft that’s good?” Rather than harping on what his astronauts didn't have, Kranz drew attention to what was available. By doing so, his engineers unleashed a wave of creative ideas that provided life-sustaining rationing for the astronauts.

Kranz described this approach as “a positive frame of mind that is necessary to work problems in a time-critical and true emergency environment.”
 
As a nation we will need to start thinking this way. Some of my wife’s friends sewed masks for our friends healthcare. We used the time with our kids to teach them valuable life lessons and to draw closer as a family and to our Creator.

Do an evaluation of your own life and find what’s good in your own ship, and begin using it to make a positive difference.
 
[1] The Leadership Moment, Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All, Michael Useem

my saved content

VIEW AS
A PDF

Brian Catanella is passionate about sharing Christian leadership principles through his writing, coaching, volunteering and professional life. While professionally a consultant through UBS Institutional Consulting Group with a finance background, he is fueled daily by sharing God's love and wisdom to help contribute to the future development of coaches, teachers, parents and leaders. He is active in serving his local church in Moorestown, New Jersey where he attends with his wife and two sons. Learn More »

• A multicultural church avoids intracultural leadership (by Bob Whitesel)
• 5 church communication resolutions (by Mark MacDonald)
• Eight unforced errors churches make (by Thom Rainer)
• Do you speak ‘guest’? Learning to speak community lingo (by Mark MacDonald)

Free eBook

Steps to Launching Your Personal Workplace Ministry

Have you ever felt the pull to full-time ministry work as a missionary or pastor? If not, you can still make a Kingdom impact without quitting your current job. In this eBook, you will learn the four essentials that can change your perspective of work, your workplace, and most importantly, your heart.

Download Now