Is Failure an Option?

One of my favorite books is called "Failure is Not an Option" by Gene Kranz. He was one of the flight directors for the famous Apollo 13 mission that nearly cost three men their lives. It is a heroic story of courage, tenacity, and spirit. I love it.

But the truth is that Gene Kranz probably never uttered that exact line during Apollo 13. In fact I'm questioning the validity of that line in some ways.

If failure is not an option, I will never try anything that could possibly fail. That will limit what I'm willing to try quite a bit.

If failure is not an option, I will never learn the valuable lessons that only failure can teach.

I get it, when you have three guys lives hanging on the line and you have to bring them home that philosophy is vital. But when you are leading a group of people and trying new things, failure must be an option. If not, you are stuck!

I heard Craig Groeschel say, "Some people think everything we’ve tried at my church has worked. Nope. In fact, most of what we’ve tried hasn’t worked. We’ve only been able to pioneer so many successful ministry innovations because we’ve learned from dozens—even hundreds—of failures.

Don't be afraid of failure. Use it to move ahead and find what will work! If you have two minutes more, check out the great video of Apollo 13 hero, flight director Gene Kranz.