How the Heroes of Apollo 13 Saved Me (They Can Save You Too)
“Houston, I’ve got a problem”
I found my New Way Forward in life and I love it.
But I doubt I would have succeeded without the help of Gene Kranz, the people of mission control, and the three astronauts on Apollo 13.
They saved me from failure and they are there to save you, too.
Surviving and thriving with change
Change is hard. Making a major life change, especially a transformational one, can be hard.
When I began my journey, yes, I was excited. I knew I was on the perfect path for me.
Yet, I still had doubts. There is the fear of the unknown, failure, and even ridicule.
As Homo Sapiens, we’re resistant to change as a defense mechanism because our brain is wired to view change as a threat.
I was experiencing it all when I hit THE (dreaded) DIP.
Every night, my fears and feelings of inadequacy crawled out from under the bed and attacked.
My confidence, energy, and momentum dipped. I was stuck and lost. I knew that this happens to just about anyone doing something ambitious, yet it didn’t matter.
I thought I was screwed, just as everyone thought astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert were screwed.
Time to go Gene Kranz on my life
Somehow and in some way, the story of Apollo 13 started resonating in my head (you gotta love that subconscious when it starts giving you what you need).
I am an aviation/space enthusiast, so I read a lot about the mission and certainly saw the movie.
The astronauts were about 200,000 miles from Earth on their way to the Moon when a cryogenic chamber blew up in their service module. Mission control took about 15 minutes to figure out what had happened, and it was catastrophic.
The explosion destroyed the equipment necessary for power, oxygen, and water for the command module. Out of the 1000s of contingencies that had been figured out and simulated, nothing had even come close to this.
By all appearances, the astronauts were doomed.
You know how the story turned out. It was a “successful failure”. Despite overwhelming odds, the astronauts returned home safely.
How everyone involved made this a success is how you and I can overcome great odds and succeed ourselves.
Yes, these people had the smarts, skills, and training necessary. But it was their attitude, mindset, and determination that made the difference between success and having three astronauts lost in space for eternity.
They had to have a singular focus and belief in success.
So did I and so do you.
“Failure is not an option.”
Like everyone involved in the rescue of Apollo 13, we also have a high level of knowledge, talent, skills, and experience from which to draw for our lives and our future.
For them, it was landing on the moon. For us, it’s living, doing what we do, and making a giant leap to something right for us.
We can fall short because we lack determination, belief, and steadfastness.
Yes, we will hit speedbumps, detours, fender benders, and potholes.
Yes, these can be momentum killers, breeding doubt and fear. We can start feeling doubtful and desperate, just as most of the Apollo team did in the moments after the explosion.
That’s when Flight Director Gene Kranz turned things around.
“Let’s work the problem, people. Let’s not make it worse by guessing.” -Gene Kranz
That quote popped up in my head and turned me around, too.
“Calm down, Paul. Quit guessing and work the problem”, I heard Gene say in my head.
This is MY LIFE, dammit! I am at an age where the clock is ticking, and I am not leaving this life as a failure. Therefore…
FAILURE…IS…NOT…AN…OPTION.
This drove me, reinvigorated me and calmed me down.
I wasn’t going out of this life without a fight. Better yet, I was going to put up a good fight and succeed.
“To recognize that the greatest error is not have tried and failed, but that in trying, we did not give our best effort.” — Gene Kranz
You’ll see it when you believe it
I needed to add one more critical thing to my reinvigorated mindset: I had to BELIEVE in my ultimate success.
Kranz was in charge of the team that figured out solutions for all of the problems they faced. When he assigned each team member a task, he told them…
“When you leave this room, you will pass no uncertainty to our people. They must become believers if we are to succeed.” — Gene Kranz
You and I must believe we will succeed.
Ambiguity is the death of progress
As Kranz and his team saved the astronauts on Apollo 13, they also saved me.
I realized that the mindset of calming down, fixing the problem, and making “Failure is not an option” a mantra no longer allowed uncertainty and doubt to spread like cancer through my soul.
They became drivers of my success.
I coined the phrase “tough and competent” to describe his team and said it was the ‘human factor” that won the day.
I am determined to be tough and competent to have the life I want because I am the human factor.
I call it all “FINO,” and if I ever were to get a tattoo, it would be inked on my forehead.
Thank you, Gene, and thank you to the men and women who saved Apollo 13 and me.
They are here for you, too.
By example, they have shown us how to overcome, persevere, and, most importantly, have the mindset of absolute determination and belief that is required for success.
Learn from this and embrace it because your “life” also depends on it.
Postscript:
Gene Krantz went on to be an inspirational speaker and author, relaying what I have written about (and much more) to people and businesses. He was voted the second most popular space hero after Neil Armstrong.
I met Gene on a flight to Houston. I told him that, after interviewing many famous and successful people in my careers, I was more excited than ever to meet him. I had just finished his book Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. He gave me an autograph to stick in it.
It’s the only autograph I have held onto.
Looking for a New Way Forward in your life? You can get my free “Launch Yourself Get Started Guide” at www.NewWayFWD.com.
