While most kids wanted to be astronauts growing up, I dreamed of being one of the boring guys in a white shirt and black tie sitting safely on Earth - enjoying space from the comfort of Mission Control. I didn't make into the space program (probably because I never tried), and I gave up on wearing a white button down shirt in exchange for a black polo; though I still look up to the early pioneers of the space program.
A personal hero of mine has always been Gene Krantz, flight director for the Apollo missions. Why? Because before Krantz was given the position of flight director, he was handed charge of creating “Mission Control.” Essentially, Krantz had to develop the process and invent the equipment that he would later use to lead his team. In the early years, there was no mission control: no procedures and no CAPCOM checks. I have a huge respect for all the people involved in forging our space program ... they created something bigger than themselves, and I'm sure they met adversity along the way. One of Krantz's more famous quotes, one which has been attributed to that early era of space exploration is, “Failure is not an option.” I have always held tightly to that idea, and used it as a motivator - a mantra in my ministry as a production guy. Except after years of telling myself not to fail, I became so afraid of “failing” that I could no longer see the benefits of it. Something that caused me, by the age of 23, to have four ulcers brewing in my gut.
“Without failure there can be no innovation.”
Dr. Brene Brown
Failure is a component of the fear I wrote about in Part One of this series (). I think a lot of technical people take on the feeling that failure is a negative --- rather than recognizing it for the innovation and learning it can bring. For example, a few years ago, my church asked every person in the congregation to get plugged into a small group. To support the idea, I had the bright idea to rig up a GoPro camera to a helmet and have our Small Groups pastor wear it on stage while he walked the congregation through the process of filling out the small group information card. It was a great plan, and worked beautifully during rehearsal. When the Saturday evening service came, the pastor got on stage and put the helmet on. The congregation saw his information card displayed around the auditorium, and then the screens went black. The camera begin to beep, and minor chaos ensued as a production volunteer and another staff member raced for the stage. The incredibly forgiving Small Groups Pastor just stood on stage asking if he could remove the helmet. After service my senior pastor came up to the team and said, “You tried it, now move on.” No one was upset or blaming me, and I can laugh about it now, but at the time I looked at this experience as a horribly negative failure that just happened to pan out in front of 2,000 people.
The topic of failing as a leader came up multiple times at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit. Former Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell explains, “In spite of the saying 'failure is not an option,' it is an option. But leaders understand that, and are always ready to deal with it.” Powell's thought was continued and expanded by Dr. Brene Brown, “Without failure there can be no innovation.” I came away from the Summit rethinking my long held stance about “failure is not an option,” and whether or not it is something to be afraid of.
As I've grown into a role of leadership, I am learning what these great leaders are talking about: failure truly is an option, and we can either embrace and learn from it, or we can let the fear of it consume us. In the past, I have taken the fear of failure to an extreme, refusing to try anything new because it might make me look incompetent. This fear caused me to remain stagnant in my personal life, career, and ministry. Now, I strive to remind myself of Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
We have a choice to embrace failure and use it to our advantage, or to allow that same failure to crush us into a state of inactivity. The decision we choose can make a difference not only for ourselves, but for our ministry.
