Great stuff this month! Do you remember where you were when Apollo 11 lifted off four decades years ago? (those under 45 youngsters probably won’t). I was privileged to be at Cape Canaveral to witness liftoff of our first manned lunar landing, The guest article chronicles this youthful adventure and how my interactions with Dr. Wernher von Braun and Walter Cronkite inspired a life-long love of technology and my career.
Our project of the month features an emerging superstar actor, and the self-mastery article on Emotional Nutrients is authored by Dr. Hendrie Weisinger.
Lifelong learning gives you the competitive edge, and I’m pleased to invite you to two dynamic programs I’m teaching in September.
Join me and other outstanding faculty at the 78h edition of UCLA Extensions noted Technical Management Program for a week of invigorating learning...
Learn MoreYou can also join me at the University of Wisconsin Sept 21-23 for an intensive program Turning Strategy Into Action for Engineering Managers and Leaders
Learn More
Blast off for the Moon: My Apollo 11 Adventure
by Terry Schmidt
When Neil Armstrong landed Apollo 11 on the moon, not only was it "One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind," it was one great adventure for me because I was the youngest accredited press member covering the fiery lift off, representing one of Seattle’s liveliest publications newspaper of the 60’s – The Seattle Helix. The Helix held the distinct honor of being the only underground hippie newspaper with an accredited reporter covering this historic event from Cape Canaveral.
My love of rockets began 22 years earlier in 1957 when the Soviet Union shocked the world by launching Sputnik 1 into earth orbit. I was in fifth grade and remember watching a black and white television with my family in the kitchen as a young Walter Cronkite announced this would begin a new era – The Space Age. That inspired me to be a rocket pioneer and do something great with my life!
My rocket career began as a high school freshman in 1962 when I built a small rocket and launched a one-foot rocket containing two small gray guppies that had no idea of their coming adventure. The colorful story about "GUPPIES INTO INNER SPACE" was picked up by science publications and gained national attention.
This convinced me I had what it takes to be a rocket scientist; and a few years later I pursued an aerospace engineering degree at University of Washington.
My hero during college was Dr. Werner von Braun, the German rocket scientist who built the V-2 Missile, and who brought his team to the United States after World War II. At that time, Dr. von Braun was director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where America would build the massive Saturn V Moon Rocket.
With youthful ideas and admittedly naïve ideas, I started sending von Braun ideas for how to build better rockets. The dozens of letters sent in my freshman and sophomore year received cordial replies and got their attention.
After giving NASA all this free advice, I applied for a summer job during my junior year. I landed an engineering student’s dream job – a summer internship at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight where would do wind tunnel research on the Saturn V Moon Rocket.
The highlight of the summer was a private meeting with Dr. von Braun. I was so excited that I bought a brand new white shirt and the very best clip-on tie that J.C. Penney carried!
His huge office was full of models of rockets and spacecraft and pictures of the moon. But what I remember most from that day helped shape my leadership style forever.
Dr. von Braun greeted me like an old friend and shared that his dream of putting man-on-the-moon began as a young boy. He believed that with a strong enough vision and a good enough team, you can make anything happen—lessons I’ve never forgotten.
He told me that average engineers become outstanding when they learn more than engineering, when they learn about management and strategy, motivation and the use of influence. The best ones can see the big picture as well as the technical details and they never stop learning. In today’s jargon, he was talking about continual reinvention.
As the clock reached the end of our scheduled hour, his assistant came in to remind him of another meeting. Then he said something that I’ll cherish forever: "Please, give me five minutes more with Terry. This is important."
How that inspired me! That was over 40 years ago, and I’ve never forgotten the impact you can have on someone’s life by showing them you really care.
After that remarkable summer, it was back to UW for my senior year, where I convinced my student technical society, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), to sponsor an essay contest for Seattle High School students on the topic WHY EXPLORE SPACE. We needed a judge and of course Dr. von Braun readily agreed to judge.
Hundreds of essays sent in by future scientists sent in their essays. It was great publicity for NASA and stimulating for students and teachers. My initiative paid off handsomely in an unexpected surprise – that project landed me the Norton C. Clapp fully-funded fellowship to the Harvard Business School, given to the outstanding student from the Pacific Northwest.
I graduated with my bachelor’s degree in June 1969, just a month before the launch of Apollo 11—America’s first manned lunar landing.
I was determined be to be on the beach at Cape Canaveral among the two million people expected to witness Werner’s rocket go for the moon. But as a student, cash was short, and plane tickets were costly. Fortunately, I found someone who wanted their car driven from Seattle to Georgia, a 600 mile. I could hitchhike from there to Florida. Gas was cheap then – 19 cents a gallon - so I hit the road in early July with college roomier Fred Brock, bound for Cape Canaveral.
Along the way, I visited friends I had made in the NASA Press Office. Any chance of getting a press pass?
But this was the hottest media event of the century and every major newspaper and magazine in the world was already on board. Certainly the major Seattle newspapers were there.
I asked them.. Is The Helix on your list?
The Helix? Never heard of them!
The Helix was a Seattle weekly giveaway newspaper read mostly by hippies and supported by head shop and record ads. It was time to quickly become a journalist. I called the editor (who sounded like he was already high in outer space.) who dispatched an Air Mail Special Delivery letter authorizing me as their official reporter. NASA issued me a press badge; liftoff was three days away.
Powered by human thumb, I made it to The Cape with a sleeping bag on my shoulders, $30 in my pocket, and a big smile on my face. Two nights before lift off, I was prowling the beach searching for a place to pitch my bag when I stumbled upon a lavish pool party at The Hilton Hotel hosted by CBS News. I was so hungry and the shrimp were huge! So, I clipped on my press badge and joined the other journalists.
Those long nights of smoking a pipe as an engineering student paid off when my nose detected the sweet aroma of Cavendish tobacco in the air; and I followed the trail back to find a puffing pipe in the mouth of Walter Cronkite.
So, I fired up my pipe and we chatted much of the evening about his fascination with space. We also traded pipe smoking insider’s secrets – the advantages of wire bristle pipe cleaners, how to keep tobacco moist with a slice of apple. Here’s a little known fact about Cronkite – his favorite pipe tobacco was Amphora.
There’s something in common I’ve noticed something about the outstanding people I’ve met: they have a fascination with a larger-than-life vision and genuinely care about people.
The following night, the press was invited to see the rocket up close. We were bussed to within 50 yards of the rocket.. standing 365 feet tall and proud and bathed in Xenon lights, ready to blast of on a journey into history.
Begin so close to this miracle of technology was almost a spiritual moment. It made me proud to be an engineer, proud to live in a country with the vision to think big and the courage to be bold.
Then it was back to the press site, where we stayed up all night on wooden bleachers waiting for the early morning launch. Nikon was kind enough to loan me a camera. I sat in the 5th row and all the well-known media were there. In my row sat reporters from The Chicago Tribune, London Times, Life Magazine, Le Monde – and The Helix.
Dawn broke as the countdown continued. The excitement built; soon it was time ..until finally. 5-4-3-2-1, IGNITION.. LIFTOFF!
The engines roared to life spewing a giant plume of smoke as Apollo 11 slowly rose and was on its way into history. Even from two miles away, the air shook from the thunderous power of 7.5 million pounds of first stage engine thrust.
A few days later, Neil Armstrong landed Apollo 11 on the moon, and spikes his famous words. That moment changed my life forever by proving that nothing is impossible. And it has forever inspired me to spend my career working with engineers, scientists, IT managers, scientists, and those who blaze future paths.
This month we feature an emerging young superstar actor and director, Mr. Joon Lee. He is also a personal friend who does a dynamite job as coordinator for the UCLA Technical Management Program and therefore already has what every emerging actor needs (beside talent) – a good day job (and not waiting tables!) Enjoy reviewing his Logical Framework strategy for moving into full-time creative roles, and consider how to apply the same thinking to your own life and career.
What makes you Grow? Emotional Nutrients
By Hendrie Weisinger, PhD
Getting yourself into an empowering environment -- one that helps you grow -- is the foundation for enhancing your life, according to Mother Nature. That's why you are hardwired with shelter seeking instincts, their purpose being to guide you into an environment that helps you thrive-whether it is a job, college, or relationship.
However, whether Mother Nature is counseling a high school senior picking a university, a laid-off man or woman looking for that great, new job, a single person searching for The One, or a company looking to relocate, her question is going to be the same: "What are you looking for?" Without sarcasm, she would also tell you that if you can't answer this question, you're going nowhere fast. Indeed, the purpose of getting yourself in an empowering environment is to take advantage of what all humans are hardwired to do: grow.
Knowing what makes you grow is key to finding yourself an empowering environment -- it's a crucial function of self-awareness, a popular term these days that has many meanings. For shelter-seeking instincts, self-awareness is your ability to know your what you need to develop your potential: emotional nutrients.
Figuring out your emotional nutrients doesn't have to cost you a lot of money in therapy, but it is one of those tasks that require time and honest self evaluation. One strategy is writing in a journal. One terrific exercise is complete these sentences:
"In my primary relation, to grow I need______________________"
"In my job, to grow I need_________________________________"
I've found this topic is rarely discussed in our marriages, at least the ones that are surviving instead of thriving. Thus, you might find it relationship beneficial to ask your partner what he or she needs to grow, and share your emotional nutrients too. Many off track relationships invigorate themselves once partners become aware of this information as this relationship awareness often allows them to make adjustments that are tuned to the emotional nutrients of each other.
I've also found that this topic is rarely discussed in performance appraisals, so describing what you need to grow at work might be a beneficial topic to discuss in your next review, if not sooner.
Be tuned in to the fact that we often hide from both ourselves and others the importance of our emotional and creative needs. When we fail to acknowledge what really makes us feel good, we foster instinctual disconnection and the result, naturally, is to end up in an environment where we are ill-suited, one that makes us restless, dissatisfied, and miserable.
Why are many people resistant to expressing their true emotional incentives? Well, your evolutionary heritage suggests the fear of group rejection. Your ancestors depended on their clan for sheer survival. To go against the group, one would risk expulsion and lonely, risky exile, so conformity was a fundamental survival instinct.
Similarly, the stock analysts who goes against the advice of the group risks being an outcast, so, instead, he goes along with conventional wisdom, even though his instincts are tell him that a million people can be wrong.
You have to be true to yourself when you state what you need from your partner or colleagues or boss. And, you will only know what you need after deep reflection and your willingness to accept truths about yourself. Self-awareness leads to authentic wisdom about the emotional nutrients you need.
Dr. Weisingers insights can be found at the Huffington Post, in the Psychology Today blog “Thicken Your Skin”, and on his own blog at www.DrHendrieWesigner.com
The Craft of Power
By R.G.H. Siu
You’ll have to search hard for this “The Craft of Power” by R.G.H. Siu, as it’s an out of print classic. You can get used copies on Amazon or find one in a used book store.
I first read this in my twenties and my own copy is heavily highlighted with powerful insights as Siu applies Machiavellian philosophy to corporate and political settings. In short, it’s a manual for acquiring, maintaining, and expanding your personal power. You’ll find the tools to recognize and deal with every-day power plays, and be able to use them for offensive and defensive purposes.
This is an engaging and transforming book, which stresses the self-discipline most needed to build a base of power. You’ll enjoy the practical synthesis of East-West philosophy and psychology. While there are several books that take this approach (e.g., Sun Tzu’s The Art of War), I found this to be the most riveting.
Siu provides some 81 operational specifics, categorized into groups like Entering the Arena, Learning the Fundamentals, Honing Strategies and Tactics, and Orchestrating Ceremonies. Each is stated in eloquent terms, with elaboration through conceptual discussion and example.
I first read this book in 1986, a time in my life when I was part of an insurgent political campaign, as chairman of the Draft Lee Iacocca for President committee. This renegade group of six creative political strategists were masters in using power, but despite some exhilarating and exciting moments, and the adrenalin buzz that came from working with the media and donors, we eventually ran out of steam so when Mr. Iacocca refused out guess-roots effect. All that is left are some campaign buttons. It was this experience that reminded me of the wisdom of Siu’s principles, in this case, #17: do not confuse exhilaration with power.
If you can find this book, you will enjoy it, particularly if you are early in your career and looking for how to leverage your competitive edge.
As a management consultant, I sheepishly admit to resembling some of the following generalizations.
Top Ten Ways To Know You are Married to or Dating a Consultant
- 10. Referred to the first month of your relationship as a “diagnostic period”.
- 9. Talks to the waiter about process flow when dinner arrives late.
- 8. Spends only a half-day at the office because, “Sunday is your day.”
- 7. Congratulates your parents for successful value creation.
- 6. Tries to call room-service from the bedroom.
- 5. Ends any argument by saying, “let’s talk about this off-line.”
- 4. Celebrates anniversary by conducting a performance review.
- 3. Can’t be trusted with the car-too accustomed to beating up rentals.
- 2. Valentine’s Day card has bullet points.
- 1. Refers to lovemaking as a “win-win benefits”.