24:infinity

Mike Massimino had plenty of opportunities to give up on becoming an astronaut: he’s afraid of heights, he was rejected by NASA — not once, not twice, but three times, and he had poor vision that medically disqualified him.

When asked about how he dealt with rejection while remaining patient and persistent, Massimino’s response was “I gave myself 24 hours to reflect and then allowed myself to move forward”.

24:Infinity

At least 24 hours because you are human and pausing to process is sometimes what it takes to get back up. Infinity because when you are ready, the ability to move forward, to try (again and again until you get there), is always available to you.

Infinity for Massimo was months of training to attain 20/20 vision (apparently it’s possible), a 4th application to NASA that would end up getting him across the chasm, learning to deal with his fear of heights, two Hubble Telescope missions, and over 500 hours spent in space.

24:Infinity is about recognizing the human condition, empathy and building space for what is needed to do our best, and potentiating the future we endeavor to create.

*From a talk Massimino gave a work meeting, unfortunately no recordings are available.

Abraham Kim

The phrase deal with rejection illuminates a lot to the meaning of rejection/failure. The fact that it's something that must be dealt with I think shows how tough we are on ourselves over this thing that in an ideal world -- the kind that Seth Godin imagines lol -- would be treated no different than most people treat their dinner. Something to do. Enjoyable. But not something to deal with... of course unless you're really low on Maslow's pyramid and it is something to deal with in terms of money/time/energy.

I hope one day you and I can get to a stage of life where we do not have to deal with failure/rejection... though are lives will still be filled with them.

2021-02-17 13:24:30

William Liao

I think your assessment is interesting, but I'm a bit divided on it. On the one hand I agree that seeing failure as something that is expected in life and embracing it is important. On the other hand, I think there's a such thing as bad dinners. Maybe these things aren't even mutually exclusive.

2021-02-18 16:34:09

Abraham Kim

oh yeah

brianball

and have debated this a lot. I'm more with you that there are totally bad things and totally things one should regret for messing up on. The idealized picture I shared above is not one where people don't have to 'deal' with failure because they see everything as just happening for a reason but rather they are simply so antifragile to failure that it doesn't feel like 'dealing with' anymore.

interestingly

dealingwith

's username in everything is dealingwith lol

Btw Will would you wanna maybe clubhouse together with Brian this Friday?

2021-02-18 16:42:31

William Liao

Ah, I see your point

abrahamKim

. The nuanced experience of 'dealing with' something is probably worth unpacking further... perhaps in a conversation with

dealingwith

:P.

I'm open to a Club House chat - I've been wanting to spin up a room on there! What timing are you thinking? If Friday does not work I'm open to scheduling for another time next week.

2021-02-18 17:14:50

Abraham Kim

I was thinking our already scheduled time ( Friday 2:15-3:15 eastern)

That way if

brianball

can't join then you and I can have our chat anyways.

2021-02-18 18:01:17