SpaceX and the Power of Failure

I was watching a documentary this past week when I came across a perfect illustration of a principle of leadership I believe in firmly. Let me break it out for you.

The documentary is a Netflix special called Return to Space. It tells the story of the rise of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. It is rather slow-moving but you get great insight into the challenges of space and how the geniuses at SpaceX worked to overcome them.

Here is the leadership truth I saw so brilliantly illustrated for us. You see, after the Columbia and Challenger disasters, NASA became—somewhat understandably—severely risk-adverse. They wanted no more public failures. So, they became exceedingly cautious—according to many experts, too cautious.

They tested every facet of their creations over and over again. They put nothing into play they weren’t 100% certain about. This prevented new disasters but it also limited innovation and caused progress to move at a snail’s pace.

By contrast, SpaceX was built on the idea that greatness requires mistakes. This was largely Elon Musk’s urging. SpaceX had a number of public and embarrassing mistakes in the early days and many of their managers thought that Elon would be incensed and heads would roll.

Not so. Musk—whose money was being burned up with each explosion and misfire—took a different approach from NASA. He understood that space exploration can only advance with innovation and that innovation is risky. Failure will happen, but viewed in the right light, failures teach invaluable lessons. So, he created a culture at SpaceX in which you worked hard for perfection but weren’t terrorized by falling short. You examined. You learned. You innovated further. Finally, you achieved magnificently—fueled in part by the “power of failure.”

Now, you likely read these Leading Thoughts because you are a high driver who values success. You work hard. You ask others for the same. You set high goals. You push, you coach, you cajole, and you try to inspire. Good for you. Yet an added tool in your tool box also has to be how you view failure.

I know leaders who set such high standards and then who respond so horribly to failure that those who work for them are nearly immobilized by fear of failure. They’d rather underperform than risk striving for high goals. You don’t want this. This attitude will cause a company to stagnate.

Instead, you want to teach your team how to think about failure—how to learn from it and make it the fuel of advancement.

These aren’t just motivational thoughts. Every great performer from Michael Jordan to Thomas Edison, Elon Musk to Steve Jobs, failed boldly and often. But excellence came in time, because they studied their failures, did not fear them, and became better through them. This is what you want in your firm. This is the culture you want to create.

You know what I’m about to say. Examine your culture. In fact, examine yourself when it comes to your approach to failure. Ask for outside opinions. Make the changes you need to make to build an aggressive culture that does not welcome mistakes but is also not stifled by them, that learns from them and makes them the fuel of greatness.

In short, be SpaceX on this matter, not NASA.