Title of book: Shoot for the moon
Author: Richard Wiseman
Shoot for the moon is a non-fiction book depicting the story of the Apollo Missions that eventually put men on the moon. It centers around a group of seemingly ordinary men and women that worked behind-the-scenes to make the Apollo Missions a success. The book brings us through lessons that we can learn from these ordinary people.
What prompted me to pick up this book was that it was centered around ordinary people. Most non-fiction books cite famous and extraordinary people as examples. Although those people have amazing stories and displayed incredible resilience in adversity, it can be a hard truth to many of us that we will never become as widely recognised as those famous people even if we face the same amount of hardships and put in the same amount of resilience. For example, instead of centering around the courage displayed by Neil Armstrong and other famous astronauts, the engineers, scientists, staff members and astronauts whose names we cannot identify were given a significant role on this stage. Hence, this book focuses on how we can be extraordinarily ordinary people by drawing lessons from ordinary people.
My most important takeaway from this book is the do-nothing option. When we have to do something, we can easily list several ways to do it but do-nothing is rarely an option for non-procrastinators or try-to-bes. However, having the do-nothing option included in the list can help us be more productive in whatever we want to do. If we choose not to tick the do-nothing box and tick another box, we will end up executing our action plan with more determination because it was a choice that we made, to do something, and not forced to do something for the sake of it. This is proven by a research project conducted by Rom Schrift from the University of Pennsylvania where volunteers performed better when given the do-nothing option. This do-nothing option is especially useful in emergency situations. When there is an emergency, we tend to panic and quickly jump into doing something. As the book mentions, we can choose to do nothing when we don’t know what to do because it may just be better that way.
My favourite part of the book was chapter 5 on how every staff member on the Apollo Missions had a ‘it won’t fail because of me’ attitude. To me, this is a prime example of good leadership which we can learn from. The leader of the Apollo Missions trusted every staff member to do their best at whatever they were assigned to, even if it was seemingly very minor like buckling the seatbelts for the astronauts. This trust was conveyed to the team members by the leader’s non-micromanaging. Instead of supervising every step everyone makes, the leader divides up the work and is always available if anyone needs help. When you trust someone, that person can tell. And this translates into inspiring every team member to take up responsibility of their own work. This made group work very easy and effective, paving the way to the success of the Apollo Missions.
A summary of the book is as follows:
1. Passion (We choose to go to the moon)
The power of passion
Create your own space race by identifying your own competitors and rivals (for a quick boost of passion)
2. Creativity (‘John, it worked beautifully’)
Create creative ideas, beware of Einstellung effect (becoming blind to obvious alternative answers when we find one way of solving a problem)
Resisting temptation of going with the first idea you come up with, brainstorm for ideas, then choose the best one
Less is more: imagine that your resources are halved, then think of a plan. It is likely to be more creative.
Take it easy, have breaks
3. Resilience (‘We didn’t know that it couldn’t be done’)
Creating small wins by breaking down a goal into smaller ones
Self-talk. Try the best-friend dialogue. Talk to yourself like how you would talk to your best friend.
Recall times when you successfully overcame challenges to boost optimism.
4. A rough road leads to the stars
Learning from failures
5. Responsibility (‘It won’t fail because of me’)
On being accountable for what you do and what you don’t do
Share responsibility with every group member
6. ‘If you’re going to go to the moon, sooner or later you’ve got to go to the moon’
If not now, then when: taking action is important
We don’t have to go to the moon today: know when it’s risky and when it’s reckless, know when to pause
7. Preparing (The man who said ‘go’)
The power of preparing by thinking ‘what if…’ and conducting a pre-mortem, either an actual rehearsal or a mental rehearsal
8. Expecting the unexpected (Buzz Aldrin and the missing switch)
Embrace the unexpected and thrive in the face of twists and turns
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