“Failing doesn’t have to mean not succeeding. It can be, ‘Hey we tried that. We can go forward, smarter.” Astro Teller

Astro Teller is a pretty smart guy. He is the Captain of Moonshots (CEO) for “X”. For those who don’t know – and I didn’t – X is the Moonshot factory for Google ( You may have heard of them.)

According to their website, this is what X is about: “This is our blueprint for X moonshots: we look for the intersection of a big problem, a radical solution, and breakthrough technology. We start with a large problem in the world that if solved could improve the lives of millions or even billions of people.”
That’s changing the lives of a lot of people. Maybe I take too many naps…

In addition to being a scientist, Teller is also a prolific writer and a serial entrepreneur. (again, the nap thing.) He’s been a pretty successful guy and I pay attention to successful people.

Here is a very interesting fact about Astro and Google and X. They try to fail.

Yep. they do everything they can to kill a project. Because the one’s that survive change the world. Self-driving cars anyone?

Teller gave a great TED talk on failure and what it means. Or probably more accurately, what it doesn’t mean.

Side Note: If you are unfamiliar with TED, you are in for a treat. TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. It is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization founded on the concept of spreading ideas.

Want to listen to a talk on space exploration? TED’s got it. How about philosophy, medicine, cybersecurity or magic? Whatever you are interested in, you’ll find it.

Check out TED. I promise you will spend way more time there than you thought! ( And learn a lot more too!)

Back to Astro and failure. I think we ( at least I ) spend far too much time thinking about the things that didn’t go right. How we “failed.”

But what we don’t think about it what that “failure” may have saved us. In time, in money, in aggravation. You have probably heard the saying: ” Be very careful what you want, you just might get it.” Sometime failing saves from ourselves.

Check out Teller’s short TED talk. ” The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure.” A few minutes might change your whole perspective. It changed mine.

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Have a great weekend!