You fail in order to succeed...who's with me

Did anyone see this explosion!

The good news: SpaceX launched on its first integrated test and became the most powerful rocket in history

Bad news: It crashed right after lift off

That sounds like a horrible and catastrophic failure right? Or was it a failure at all?

Here is what Kate Tice, an Engineering Manager at SpaceX has to say, in her quote from the USA Today article on, April 20th. "From a milestone standpoint, our main goal is to clear the pad, (meaning ascend past the 500-foot launch tower without a failure),"?said Kate Tice, an engineering manager at SpaceX, in the launch webcast. "Every milestone beyond that is a bonus. The farther we fly, the more data we collect."

Even NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson from the same article was quoted in saying, "Every great achievement throughout history has demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward. Looking forward to all that SpaceX learns, to the next flight test — and beyond."

It is this particular quote that I want to key on. Read his words again and let them sink in.

"Every great achievement throughout history had demanded some level of calculated risk, because with great risk comes great reward." This line is a line that most of us have heard or lived by all of our lives. At that single moment of failure like this one or like others that you have made personally in your live, you have a choice. That choice will determine the next course of your attitudes and actions for how you bounce back and move forward.

At that moment when the rock exploded, similar to when you feel things in your relationship, work, family, business are figuratively exploding around you, what choices are you going to make? Many of us, me included at certain times of my life retreat, slam the door and never let ourselves be put through that situation again for fear of being judged, fear of failure, fear of getting fired, feeling of not being loved or ridiculed by a loved one or your corporate family because of your mistakes. Unfortunately, this what many of us do when we have events in our lives that feel like we are exploding inside.

Let's look at another way of looking at a situation like what happened with the SpaceX Rocket. If you notice by hearing what Elon's reaction was, and what all of the internal people were saying within SpaceX. Their attitude was this was just another step in the process. This was just part of the process in helping us learn more for the next time. They learned from the data, they will make adjustments and they will launch again. Why? Two words:

BIG PICTURE!

All the teams and administrators at SpaceX see the big picture and know that in order to do things that has never been done before, there has to be failures in order to achieve what they want to achieve for space exploration and eventual testing and surviving on other planets.

That is their mission. What is yours? Do you have a big picture?

My lesson from observing the attitudes of the team at SpaceX and seeing this explosion not as a failure but as a step in the right direction was a huge lesson and wake up call for me as I hope it was for many of you.

Good news: Nothing you will ever do in your life will cause $60Million of damage that blows up seconds after you test your idea.

Bad News: It is hard to see failure as just another step toward your big picture goal. It is up to you to realize that you can only control two things regarding failures in your life and those those two things are your actions and your attitudes. Learn and move on, learn and move on, learn and move on. Keep that big picture in your life and at your work as your vision. Let each failure or setback be your teacher to help keep you focused on your big picture!