What an Astronaut can Teach us about Businesses
Nov 10, 2021
(Part 7 of the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference)
Scott Kelly is a NASA retired astronaut. He's a veteran of four space flights, he commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on three expeditions and was a member of the yearlong mission to the ISS. It's a matter of fact, in October of 2015, he set the record for the total accumulated number of days spent in space.
The Multi-Unit Franchising Conference invited him to give one of the keynote sessions, and on this post, I’m sharing the main takeaways he gave as part of his lecture.
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- Never be afraid of doing hard things
If we are always choosing to do things that are easy, then the likelihood of us accomplishing extraordinary things goes down dramatically because easy is normally not exceptional. Scott knows what he’s talking about because becoming an astronaut takes a lot of preparation, stamina, and knowledge.
Living like this may imply taking some level of risk and testing the status quo to build our future and make our dreams come true. Sometimes we choose easy not because it's more manageable, but because we think that what we really want, we cannot do. But we must at least try it. We deserve to give ourselves a chance!
Review here 5 steps to make the impossible, possible.
- Focus on what you can control
Scott talked about his life and how having this accomplishment wasn’t something that you would have expected of him as a child. As a young person, he had really bad grades, and yet he became an astronaut because he focused on the things that he could change to, eventually, make the shift.
We all have that capability. We cannot control other people's opinions, thoughts, and what they say, but we can control what we think, what we do today, tomorrow, and the day after. That's what we should focus on every day.
One of my favorite sayings, that’s a part of the serenity prayer, says “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference”.
That is the focus we should have. Instead of thinking about all the reasons why you can't do something, focus on the reasons why you can do it. If you do that, you’ll be able to get where you want.
- Have a learning mindset
Things are always ongoing and nothing stays the same because people and generation changes, technology irrupts, innovations happen, information transforms processes... Everything is constantly changing and to keep pace with the evolution, we have to get better by learning and improving ourselves.
That will allow us to stay at the forefront of what's happening and to get the information and the knowledge that we need to apply so we can continuously become better persons and better professionals.
- Correct the path
Sometimes we go one way thinking it’s the right direction and then we realize we were mistaken. It’s better to change our paths than to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and then, all the effort was for nothing.
When things aren’t smooth, we have to make corrections, even though it might take a little longer or it might be a little bit harder. We’ll eventually get to where we want to go. But redirect our activities takes courage and focus.
- Trust your team
If you're not the expert at something, then trust the crew members and the people in your team that are better or that know things that you don't.
We cannot all possibly be the best at everything or have all the necessary skills, knowledge, experience, and information to accomplish extraordinary goals. There's a reason why in outer space, and in most teams, there is a diversity of people with different skills so that they can complement each other.
If you want to do amazing things you must assemble a team of people with expertise in the different areas. And trust them when you have to make decisions on those matters that you are not fully competent in. Scott even said that having a diversity of thought is like a superpower and it can make you invincible because you can be stronger than any other group.
Do you have exceptional people on your team? View this video to learn how to develop your leadership bench.
Scott also mentioned how leadership is situational. In outer space, sometimes you have to make a decision and others you need to be collaborative with the team to come up with the best possible solution. As a leader, you have to be able to discern between these situations so that you can take care of the team and accomplish the goal that you set for yourselves.
- Be patient
How good we are at the beginning of anything is not related to how good we can become once we learn, we work hard and dedicate ourselves to the outcome. We all start not knowing a lot and with very little skills, but along the way, we can make a difference to get where we want to get.
Just think about where you were five or 10 years ago! You would have never thought that you would be where you are today. And yet here you are. If that was possible, you are able of so much more!
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Reflections:
- How many aspirations you haven't done because people around you told discourage you?
- How diverse and invincible is your team?
- How you can get the knowledge and information you need to accomplish your dreams?
- What can you do to become extraordinary?
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