I’m watching a NOVA special about NASA’s Apollo program.
On the first mission, during a test, there was a horrible fire. Virgil Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee are incinerated inside the capsule.
(is this an official Sparky Firepants post? What the hell?)
It was a combination of factors that caused the tragedy, no one person or thing was to blame.
There are two powerful lessons here. (Brought to you by the letters N, A, S, and a documentarily-absorbed artist.)
Immediately after burying his son, Roger Caffee’s father was asked by a reporter if he was angry.
He said no, he wasn’t angry, that “Sometimes progress comes at a high price.”
Wow. That answer stunned me.
I think about how that relates to my life and my business.
For example, if I lament over the fact that my salary is lower than it was when I worked for someone else, it could make me angry.
Soon it will be back up there again, but for a relatively young biz like mine, it takes time. Progress.
I don’t have stellar benefits as an entrepreneur. I could shake my fist at the government, but I would lose sight of the incredible freedom I have to make my own benefits package, to get creative about it. Progress.
It’s amazing how nowadays the impulse tends to be achieving retribution for losses or criminalizing the people who messed up.
Feeling self-righteous is short term.
The other lesson is even simpler. When you screw up so bad that it feels like you got punched in the gut, that’s exactly when you need to stop and think about how to make it right next time. Progress.
I wish these guys didn’t have to die, but as Gene Krantz said, “We wouldn’t have made it to the moon without that incident.”
