No pain no gain. That’s how the saying goes and that was on full display on Wednesday as Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched and flew the unmanned Starship SN8 for over 6 minutes before it exploded during its attempt to land at SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas.
The rocket flew to 40,000 feet, reaching the prototype’s highest altitude to date before flipping over and returning to the launchpad with precision before the ill-fated conclusion. The prototype is the 8th of 10 that SpaceX has built to day in their attempt to reach Mars
Despite the explosion, Musk was extremely upbeat, tweeting “Fuel header tank pressure was low during landing burn, causing touchdown velocity to be high & RUD [Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly], Musk said. “Congrats SpaceX team hell yeah!!”
Musk’s reaction shows us something that isn’t always accepted in society today and which is failure is not just acceptable, but often a necessary exercise if progress is to be achieved. This is especially true in science, and as a meteorologist, I can tell you from experience that it can be a humbling experience when mother nature decides to show us how quickly a forecast can go off the rails.
Today’s society and social media can give us the feeling that everyone else is doing it right all the time. There is also the vulnerable feeling that failure can bring the wrath of judgement from the masses and unrecoverable shame.
As a result, we do nothing.
The internal problem we have is that the body craves comfort and safety. When we are putting ourselves out there or risking something to try something new, the natural reaction is to pump the breaks because the mind perceives that there is a threat of danger ahead.
If we step back and survey the scene through unbiased eyes, what we find is that “failure” is happening around us all the time and is actually a very necessary step towards progress. People may not be publicizing their failures as much as their successes, but it doesn’t mean they aren’t happening.
Aside from Musk, many other brand name entrepreneurs have failed their way to the top. Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and others have all faced innumerable hardships on their way to tremendous success.
Athletes are no different. Even some of the best athletes that have risen to the top of their sports multiple times have lost much more than they have won.
Swiss men’s tennis player, Stan Wawrinka (you definitely thought I was going Federer here!) has a tattoo on his forearm that is a Samuel Beckett quote and reads “Ever tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.”
Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better. -Samuel Beckett (tattooed to Stan Wawrinka’s forearm)
The point here is that our own mind gets in the way when we have something we are trying to achieve but the fight or flight response we feel holds us back. We rehearse what would happen if we fail and how people would think about us instead of letting visions of success propel us forward.
The reality is we are a very self-interested society. At the end of the day we spend way more time thinking about ourselves then others do thinking about us. Which means people aren’t going home at night thinking about what didn’t go well for you today. That’s good news because it means that if you can get past letting yourself fail, then you can go further than you ever thought possible.
For more on decision making see our post “Get Off The Fence.”
