Failure is Not and Option

“Failure is not an option” This was the famous quote from the movie “Apollo 13”; the story of the nearly tragic Apollo mission where an explosion on board the command module not only derailed the landing on the moon but threatened the lives of the 3 American astronauts on board the spaceship. In 1970, when Gene Kranz, the NASA flight director uttered these words, they had an entirely different meaning that they do today. In 1970, these were words of great resolve. We were not going to let these astronauts die in space, we were going to work around the clock using every resource at hand to ensure the safe return home of the entire Apollo 13 crew. The book by Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 describes in great detail how the “13” mission was a successful failure in that the mission to land on the moon was a failure, yet the NASA team overcame great odds to bring the astronauts home. This is a story of tremendous American ingenuity, of doing the impossible, of grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat. Failure was, in fact, not an option.

In 2007, this phrase has an entirely different meaning. “failure is not an option” in today’s world seems less about overcoming obstacles than it does about making sure that no one fails. Today, “failure is not an option” means that no one is allowed to fail. Everyone must be at least slightly above average. No one can get below a “C”. No one can have the stress of losing a job. No one can go without health insurance. No one can lose their home because they made a bad loan decision and no one should have to cut their own wake, when someone else can do it for them. No one should have to pay for their own prescriptions. The more I hear proposals from our leaders, especially in recent years, the more I think that we are afraid to let anyone fail. We are working so hard to make sure that everyone, in spite of themselves, is guaranteed some level of accommodation, of success, and standard of living. I think this flies in the face of our heritage and who we are as Americans. I think it is representative of a softening of the American spirit and our will to achieve. I understand sentiment and share the feeling that ideally no one should suffer. It would be fabulous if everyone were bright and responsible, if they took care of their own lives and helped out their neighbors. No one in their right mind revels in another’s suffering or rejoices in their failure. However, failure happens. It is part of life. The plan to invade Normandy was a failure within the first 30 minutes of H-hour. Paratroopers were scattered all over Normandy, no one was in their drop zone. Softening of the beaches for the landing forces had failed and intelligence had failed to properly gauge the strength of the German resistance. American soldiers were being sent to slaughter, they were drowning before they go to the beaches, they were failing miserably. However, while the plan, over two years in the making, was a dismal failure, the invasion of Europe was not. The Allied forces were in a tenuous position early in the invasion, ready to be crushed, pushed back into the sea. However, this failure was not to be the final story, and brilliant leadership from non-coms on the beach, good old Yankee know-how, and sheer resolve turned this failure into the first step to emancipate Europe. No one was guaranteeing Allied success, no one could venture to try. Yet success was born of dismal failure. Similarly, hard as we try, no one can guarantee any base line of success for any individual life, nor should they try. Failure has spurned great success. While no one likes to fail, and no one plans to fail, failure happens to everyone on some level and the keys to eventual success is what do we learn, how do we respond, what can be gained? Our government leaders have become addicted to winning our votes by trying to guarantee some minimal outcome for all of us, with terrible results. Diminishing marginal returns and increased marginal costs make the desired outcome impossible. Government cannot guarantee success, it can only mandate mediocrity. If failure is not an option, it is not because the government passed a bill outlawing failure, it is because individuals determine for themselves that failure is not an option, and work to make it so. Gene Kranz knew that failure was not an option for Apollo 13, but he also knew that no one was else besides he and his NASA team was going get those astronauts home safely, failure was not an option, because they worked to make sure it was not. NASA didn’t call congress to ask for help, they helped themselves, and indeed, failure was not an option.