This blog post is a snippet from my book, The Open Water.
My book allowed me to document a moment in my life where I experienced (in real-time) hurt, pain, and doubt. Without knowing, the journal-turned manuscript, evolved into pages of my soul speaking into the existence of faith in things “unseen.” As your eyes walk through the words of my journey, begin to assess your surroundings and grapple with the day-to-day hidden traps while leading organizations. As I mentioned in earlier chapters of my book, standing on the water’s edge will cause apprehension. Perseverance through leadership allows for the deterioration of doubt, uncertainty, and the impossible. The title of this section (Moonshot Leadership) speaks about persevering by faith and trusting in a higher power—no matter how many times we fail at achieving our initial goal.
In the moments we feel stagnant, faith in our purpose should carry us through all challenging moments. During these moments, leaders grapple with fully understanding the moment’s impact, being a first-year building principal during the COVID-19 pandemic, and experiencing the choppy waves of politics, relational trust issues, and diverging agendas. I find the motivation and inspiration to “do hard things” by knowing the sun will rise in the morning and “this too shall pass.” Every problem or issue can be an opportunity for triumphant success if we do not allow our minds and feelings to become barriers.
Many influential people, family members, and colleagues ignited the faith that propelled me forward in my leadership. In my introduction into the principalship as an Assistant Principal at the high school level, I leaned on influential speakers like Les Brown, Will Smith, and Eric Thomas. In my first position as Head Principal, the words from President John F. Kennedy, challenged America’s participation in the Apollo space program; his words spoke and lit a fire under me. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy said, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” This bold faith in America’s unending pursuit of excellence—what he called “this new ocean”—awakened the curiosity within me. For me, the “new ocean” was the open water of leadership.
These words by the late President Kennedy have always set my eyes on my most outstanding untold achievements.
“. . . for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, even though this nation’s own scientific manpower is doubling every 12 years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.” – President JFK
President Kennedy’s speech highlights that the goals we create and the steps we dictate to achieve those goals are only bound by the limitations of our minds. I am constantly grappling with my faith and doubt whispering in my ear. Faith drives me to press harder, while fear can cripple us from moving further towards our purpose.
At the writing of my book and this blog post, another visionary leader, entrepreneur, and engineer named Elon Musk decided to take the challenge laid by President Kennedy and extend his words to spark the imagination of young people and inspire the best in each of us. While Elon has experienced multiple failures, explosions, divorce, and on the brink of bankruptcy, he continued to believe that the work he was involved in meant something. His perseverance in doing hard things is contagious. He thought that it mattered. Elon started SpaceX in 2002 to develop technologies to enable people to live on other planets, not just research them. Elon’s “moon shot” with his employees has challenged them and us not to be imprisoned by our mental limitations but instead catapult ourselves above them.
| To do this work, we must be master thinkers, communicators, barnstormers, reliant creative beings, and warriors. |
To this day, SpaceX continues to inspire young people who dream big dreams and to think beyond traditional restraints. Think about it; visionary leaders will endeavor to do things and have uncommon ideas. Uncommon thoughts bread unconventional ideas. Leaders are leading in times that require unconventional guidance and stewardship.
“These types of complicated missions require large teams of differently skilled people to work together to accomplish something. You need people with skills in a lot of different areas. But, if you have these big teams of experts, the impossible really becomes possible.”
– Jennifer Trosper (Project Systems Engineer Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
I want my book and blog to serve as your rocket ship through whatever challenge you face today. These words will empower you to challenge yourself to push beyond traditional boundaries. You can achieve what no one thought possible if you think outside the box, question the boxes built around you—and challenge even your thinking!
When our leadership is inclusive of all the people, we can formulate solutions that are better than anything that anyone can conceive. With President Kennedy sparking the challenge and Elon Musk extending the mission, where will you land in pursuing your Moonshot?
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
– President John F. Kennedy
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