Launching Rockets and Why It's Time to Fail Happy

A few weeks ago SpaceX conducted a test launch of its Starship rocket, which was reported in media around the world. And it blew up… in more ways than one.

Everyone seemed to have an opinion. The different reactions to this event were very helpful in putting a spotlight on an important aspect of following our calling. You had people mocking the explosion of this rocket as an expensive failure, while Elon Musk himself and the team at SpaceX praised it as a success, saying “this is a classical SpaceX successful failure”.

These reactions made it clear that there are two completely different mindsets at work here. And, unfortunately, I saw myself in the mockers.

You see, it just so happened that I had heard from an old friend earlier that week, who got in touch with a very encouraging message. He was saying that I reminded him of this uber cool YouTuber known as Struthless. (He’s awesome, you should check him out by the way). Very flattered, I said that I had been considering starting a YouTube channel myself, but that the high quality of output of other channels makes this a bit too intimidating.

In his gentle reply he said: “Sounds like you're comparing yourself to others, which I could argue is a form of perfectionism (or at least similar to it).”

😳😳😳 Well I didn’t expect that!

Of course he is absolutely right. My attitude is like that of the rocket launch observers. Looking on at what they think is this colossal and embarrassing failure, with absolutely no comprehension that there is another game being played altogether. A much more successful game in fact. I was like those students who say to themselves: “I want an A* or nothing.”

This mindset is so binary. It’s a game with either winners or losers. And this single rocket launch is seen as the whole goal and game. But this is clearly wrong, and at the very least it’s a deeply inflexible, pacifying and creativity killing mindset.

Perfectionism is a worldview that doesn’t leave any room for failure and happiness to go together. But of course they do! In fact what doesn’t go together is perfectionism and happiness.

On the other hand, the mindset of those at SpaceX is very different. Their attitude is one of ‘how can we fail faster and safer?’ Garrett Reisman, senior advisor at SpaceX, said to Reuters that their success comes by taking more risks in the development process rather than keeping “a large team working for years and years and years trying to get it perfect before you even try it.” For them, failure is not an accident on the path to success, it actually is the path to success. And, as people who are thinking about finding purpose, we can go one step further to recognise that failure and fulfillment can actually make pretty good friends. When we are doing what we love, it’s entirely possible to fail, happy.

And when you think about it, that’s not really failing at all, is it?

Something clicked into place for me when watching this compilation of thoughts from Jim Carey.

He spoke about witnessing his Dad make compromises on pursuing a career that he was passionate about in order to support his family. And then, when he even lost that job which he hated, he learned an important lesson:

“You can fail at what you don’t love, so you might as well do what you love.”

This leaves us with two things to keep in mind on our journey of following our calling, and finding a life of purpose.

First, if we are feeling lost, we can look to those things that we would enjoy even if we never found success in it. This is an indication that we love the process. And while we can’t afford to “fail” on everything, we can still ask which failures could I really enjoy? What is it that I could fail, happy?

And secondly, if we allow perfectionism to take hold, it will rob us of all the joy in the journey even if we do “win” in the end.

So what are you so afraid of? It’s time to fail, happy!

Godspeed,

T Mo.