The Inspiring Story Of The Astronaut Who Was Rejected By NASA 15 Times Before Finally Reaching The Skies

The Inspiring Story Of The Astronaut Who Was Rejected By NASA 15 Times Before Finally Reaching The Skies

VIVIAN GIANG JUL. 17, 2013, 8:58 PM 1,269 5

In 1998, Clayton Anderson was a 29-year-old aerospace engineer who wanted to fulfill his childhood dream of going to space. One agency was stopping him from getting there: NASA. The government agency had rejected Anderson’s application for its astronaut training program 15 times. But Anderson is one of those people whose dogged perseverance is inspiring.  Anderson didn’t feel depressesd after getting yet another rejection letter from NASA. He said he actually felt “hope” whenever he received one: “Most applicants receive postcards; a letter sent on stationary meant something.” But so many rejections after so many years can wear on a man, and Anderson decided that his 16th attempt would be his last one. Fortunately, that last attempt was all he needed. In August of 1998, Anderson reported for training, which included “numerous scientific and technical briefings, intensive instruction in Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) systems, physiological training, ground school to prepare for T-38 flight training, as well as learning water and wilderness survival techniques.” In 2007, Anderson boarded the Space Shuttle Atlantis for a trip to the International Space Station as a flight engineer on his father’s birthday and returned to earth five months later on his wedding anniversary. Three years later, he went to space a second time as a mission specialist on STS-131. Anderson is the first and only astronaut from Nebraska and has logged 167 days in space, including more than 38 hours in spacewalks. You can read his expedition journals here. In January of 2013, the 54-year-old retired from NASA and is now turning his attention to education. David Hendee writes at the World-Herald that Anderson has opportunities at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Iowa State University’s aerospace engineering program. If this story doesn’t embody the “never give up” motto, we’re not sure what does. Below is one of Anderson’s rejection letters featured in the book “Other People’s Rejection Letters“:

Surprises Are the New Normal; Resilience Is the New Skill

Surprises Are the New Normal; Resilience Is the New Skill

by Rosabeth Moss Kanter  |  10:00 AM July 17, 2013

The difference between winners and losers is how they handle losing. That’s a key finding from my ongoing research on great companies and effective leaders: no one can completely avoid troubles and potential pitfalls are everywhere, so the real skill is the resilience to climb out of the hole and bounce back. Volatile times bring disruptions, interruptions, and setbacks, even for the most successful among us. Companies at the top of the heap still have times when they are blindsided by a competing product and must play catch-up. Sports teams that win regularly are often behind during the game. Writers can face dozens of rejections before finding a publisher that puts them on the map. Some successful politicians get caught with their pants down (so to speak) and still go on to lead, although such self-inflicted wounds are harder to heal. Resilience is the ability to recover from fumbles or outright mistakes and bounce back. But flexibility alone is not enough. You have to learn from your errors. Those with resilience build on the cornerstones of confidence — accountability (taking responsibility and showing remorse), collaboration (supporting others in reaching a common goal), and initiative (focusing on positive steps and improvements). As outlined in my book Confidence, these factors underpin the resilience of people, teams, and organizations that can stumble but resume winning. Read more of this post

SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good

SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good [Hardcover]

Release date: August 25, 2009

Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the answer to the global crisis of business and American-style capitalism. Out of the ashes of conventional business models arises a set of companies using their power not only for profits and sustainable growth but also social good. If you think business corporations are doomed to be lumbering, bloated, and corrupt, think again. Based on an extraordinary three-year investigation, interviewing more than 350 key people at major companies around the world, Rosabeth Moss Kanter provides encouraging and astounding evidence that this assumption is completely outdated. The businesses that are agile, keeping ahead of the curve in terms of market changes and customer needs, are the businesses that are also progressive, socially responsible human communities. Take IBM. When the tsunami and earthquake struck Asia, IBM didn’ t just cut a check for relief funds and call it a day. The company used its technological expertise and skilled people to create what government and relief agencies could not: information systems to effectively track relief supplies and reunite families. While IBM did this with no commercial motive, its employees’ desire to serve people suffering during these crises stimulated innovations that later benefited the company. Or Proctor & Gamble. Despite a decade-long commitment to research and development of a water purification product, commercial prospects were unpromising. But because it was so consistent with P&G’s statement of purpose, people within the company persevered. And when the tsunami struck, it was then able to deliver roughly a billion glasses of drinking water for the victims, earning plaudits from aid partners, the media, governments, and crucially, P&G employees. SuperCorp captures the zeitgeist of the emerging twenty-first-century business. For example:

• The strong potential synergy between financial performance and attention to community and social needs
• The unique competitive advantage from embracing the values and expectations of a new generation of professionals
• The growth opportunities that result from stressing values and supressing executive egos when seeking partners and integrating acquisitions

SuperCorp is a remarkable look at the business of the future and the management skills required to get there. IBM, Banco Real, P&G, Cemex, Omron, and other companies reported on now move with the rapidity and creativity of much smaller enterprises. These companies are not perfect, but when people are empowered and values drive decisions, everything can come together in magical “Rubik’s Cube moments” of deep satisfaction. Kanter’s compelling and inspiring stories show that people are more inclined to be creative when their company values innovation that helps the world. Read more of this post

Beca Asia Emeritus Chairman Chuan Seng Lee presided over a business which grew to 40 times its original size in 25 years. In that time, the Msian-born Kiwi learnt many things about developing a NZ company in the ASEAN region

PERSEVERANCE BUILDS PROSPERITY IN ASEAN

15 July 2013

By NZTE

Beca Asia Emeritus Chairman Chuan Seng Lee presided over a business which grew to 40 times its original size in 25 years. In that time, the Malaysian-born Kiwi learnt many things about developing a New Zealand company in the ASEAN region. He says New Zealanders relate well with Asia, but need to have passion and perseverance to survive. It can be hard to convince a potential client of the value of your product or service, so you need the desire for success and a gutsy determination to keep going if you encounter slow initial progress. Lee says many ASEAN companies have been burnt by foreign companies who talked them into deals, then made ungraciously swift exits when the going got tough. “There are foreign firms that bail and leave everybody in the lurch. (That’s why) they will be cautious.” Read more of this post

How To Break The Sound Barrier With A Ping Pong Ball

How To Break The Sound Barrier With A Ping Pong Ball

KARIN HEINEMAN, INSIDE SCIENCE JUL. 17, 2013, 1:46 PM 2,535 5

Getting students excited about science isn’t always easy, but having a live demonstration that uses ping pong balls traveling at supersonic speeds will get almost any kid’s attention. Mechanical engineering and technology students at Purdue University built a supersonic, air-powered cannon that shoots ping pong balls at speeds so fast they break the sound barrier. “We figured out it was coming out at about 919 miles an hour, and it was just mind-blowing,” said Craig Zehrung, a Ph.D. student at Purdue. That is faster than an F-16 fighter jet at low speeds. Drawing upon his experience in the air force, mechanical engineer Mark French designed the cannon and turned a mundane class in to a fun learning experience. Read more of this post

Chengguan local officials allegelly beats street vendor to death in China’s Hunan Province; reporters mauled by police for vendor’s death coverage

Chengguan allegelly beats street vendor to death in Hunan Province

2013-07-18 00:38:09 GMT2013-07-18 08:38:09(Beijing Time)  SINA English

Several urban management officials, more popularly known as Chengguan in China, were accused of beating a street vendor to death in Chenzhou city, South China’s Hunan Province, according to a Weibo blast on Wednesday. The blast said the husband of a couple, who sold watermelon near a bridge, died after he had a dispute with the Chengguan. Witness said the husband was beaten in the head by an iron weight during the brawl. The families of the victim fought against the government officials who planned to loot the vendor’s corpse, which attracted crowd of onlookers. “The government dispatched over 200 armed police and finally snatched the corpse,” a reporter with CCTV revealed on his Sina Weibo.

Reporters mauled by police for vendor’s death coverage

2013-07-18 07:36:04 GMT2013-07-18 15:36:04(Beijing Time)  SINA English

By Jia Xiaoguang, Sina English

Two reporters of a local TV station in southern Hunan Province were violently assaulted by a handful of policemen when they were doing an on-scene report of the death of the watermelon dealer in Hunan’s Linwu county last night. Li Haitao and Lei Kai, two reporters of Huanan Economic TV Station, arrived at the site where a street vendor selling watermelon was beaten to death during a brawl with several chengguan, or urban law enforcement officials yesterday morning, at around 23 o’clock last night. On seeing them, about five or six policemen who were carrying out mission there soon walked towards them, yelling “No filming here! You’re dead men if you dare to film.” According to Li’s description, he then stayed in their news van while Lei got off and prepared for the report. Lei was beaten up fiercely by the charging policemen, who quickly closed in on them, thrusting wooden clubs into the van window and hitting Li in the head. Injuries of varying degrees were found on their heads, shoulders and backs after the atrocity, while Lei’s mobile phone was also taken away during their fight. They are currently writing news report in a local hotel.

Embrace Innovations Founder Jane Chen on Keeping Indian Infants Warm

Embrace Innovations Founder on Keeping Indian Infants Warm

by Jane Marie Chen | Jul 18, 2013

We met this woman who had lost her first baby and used our product for her second baby who was born prematurely

Jane Chen’s Embrace Innovations sells low-cost infant warmers. She says the challenges in India force one to be entrepreneurial

Jane Marie Chen
Age: 32
Designation: CEO and co-founder, Embrace Innovations. It sells low-cost infant warmers for low-birth-weight and premature babies in developing nations. It has partnered with multinationals like GE Healthcare to address infant mortality. Read more of this post

The Wealth Management Whine: The wealth management industry is on the eve of a major consolidation. Are the woes self-inflicted?

July 15, 2013, 5:36 P.M. ET

The Wealth Management Whine

By Robert Milburn

Steven Crosby, senior managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, predicts a five-fold, global increase in mergers and acquisitions in the wealth industry – during just the next two years. In Europe, meanwhile, he’s expecting a ten-fold increase in mergers among wealth management firms.

Crosby’s startling call is largely determined by the raw data found buried in PwC’s 2013 Global Private Banking and Wealth Management Survey. The PwC survey, now in its 20^th edition, is drawn from interviews with senior banking executives. A third of the survey’s 200-plus participating wealth management companies expect “significant consolidation” in the next two years, versus just 7% in 2011. Read more of this post

Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere

Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere [Hardcover]

Ravi Venkatesan (Author)

Publication Date: June 18, 2013

India: A Defining Choice for Your Business

India is on the minds of business leaders everywhere. Within a few decades, India will be the world’s most populous nation and one of its largest economies. But it is also a complex and challenging market, with a reputation for corruption, uncertainty, and stultifying bureaucracy. The initial infatuation with India is over and reality has set in. But India is not a market that can be ignored. So why take a chance in this extraordinary and complex region? What does it take to win in India? How do you deal with the chaos—and even prosper from it? Ravi Venkatesan, the former Chairman of Microsoft India, offers inside advice on how your firm can overcome the unique challenges of the Indian market. He argues that chaotic India is in fact an archetype for most emerging markets, many of which present similar challenges but not the same potential. Succeeding in India therefore becomes a litmus test for your ability to succeed in other emerging markets. If you can win in India, you can win everywhere. Hard as these markets are, Venkatesan says, for most multinational firms the bigger challenge to success in emerging markets may well be the internal culture and mind-set at headquarters. The unwillingness to make a long-term commitment to the new market or to adequately trust local leadership, combined with the propensity to rigidly replicate the products, business models, and operating systems that have worked at home drives many companies to a “midway trap” that results in India remaining an irrelevantly small contributor to global growth and profits. Combining his personal experience with in-depth research and interviews with CEOs and senior leaders at dozens of companies—including Nokia, GE, JCB, Dell, Honeywell, Volvo, Bosch, Deere, Unilever, and Nestlé—Venkatesan shows you how to tackle slowing growth, policy uncertainty, and corruption and enable your firm to thrive in India. He proves that you can break through successfully, but it takes a very different type of leadership, both locally and at headquarters. If you want to succeed in the twenty-first century, you must succeed in emerging markets. This practical book, written by one of India’s most respected CEOs, will give you the keys to win in India, other emerging markets, and beyond. Read more of this post

Superstars still reign over publishing; The decline of retail chains has made book publishers warier of taking risks on new authors

July 17, 2013 7:16 pm

The superstar still reigns supreme over publishing

By John Gapper

The decline of retail chains has made book publishers warier of taking risks on new authors

Alfred Marshall, the economist, wrote in 1947 that changes in technology and trade meant that “the operations in which a man exceptionally favoured by genius and good luck can take part are so extensive as to enable him to amass a large fortune with a rapidity hitherto unknown”. Robert Galbraith is a man exceptionally favoured by genius but it was only when Galbraith was revealed this week to be the nom de plume of a woman called JK Rowling that his supposed debut novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling , ascended the bestseller list with rapidity. As Marshall noted of the phenomenon of the superstar, a big name makes a big difference.

Read more of this post

Tesla CEO Musk Morphs From Tony Stark to Henry Ford

Tesla CEO Musk Morphs From Tony Stark to Henry Ford

Elon Musk inspired Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of comic-book billionaire industrialist Tony Stark in the “Iron Man” films. The role model for Musk, a billionaire industrialist for real, appears to be Henry Ford.

The Ford Motor Co. (F) (F) founder’s mastery of mass-production made the Model T the first affordable car, revolutionizing transportation. Musk, who named Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) (TSLA)’s sedan the Model S as a tip-of-the-cap to Henry’s car, sees himself similarly as an engineer, a tinkerer, a nitty-gritty entrepreneur. Read more of this post

Why U.S. Students Don’t Major in Science

Why U.S. Students Don’t Major in Science

In recent years, a lot of people have been concerned about the relatively low numbers of science majors among American college students. The percentage of science and engineering graduates in the U.S. has been far below that in China and Japan. On various math and science tests, the performance of U.S. students has fallen below that of students in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, England, Finland, Israel, Australia and Russia.

This is a real problem, because science majors can contribute to economic growth and because many of them end up with especially good jobs after graduation. In the employment market, students with degrees in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) can be at a comparative advantage. The relatively low number of American graduates in these fields has created what some people call “the STEM crisis.” Read more of this post

Lasting Legacy: Nelson Mandela’s Evolution as a Strategic Leader

Lasting Legacy: Nelson Mandela’s Evolution as a Strategic Leader

Published: July 09, 2013 in Knowledge@Wharton

Paul J. H. Schoemaker is research director of Wharton’s Mack Institute for Innovation Management, executive chairman of Decision Strategies International and the author of numerous books and articles. He recently visited South Africa, where he met with government and business leaders to discuss Nelson Mandela’s legacy. In the following opinion piece, Schoemaker describes three decisions that illustrate Mandela’s leadership, and he analyzes early political events that influenced Mandela’s career.

The life story of Nelson Mandela is well known, and has elevated him to the level of such widely recognized heroes as Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. There is indeed much courage, sacrifice, wisdom and nobility in his life — attributes that demand our deep respect and have much to teach us. What is less well-known is how Mandela evolved into the kind of strategic leader who, from prisons on Robben Island and elsewhere, helped to bring genuine democracy to South Africa. For example, while isolated from his fellow prisoners by force, he steered secret government meetings toward the abolishment of apartheid and free elections. Subsequent to that, he became the country’s first democratically elected black president.

Read more of this post

Economic uncertainty is ‘tremendously positive’: Jim Collins; “We are returning to normal. Normal is chaos, disruption, uncertainty and change. That’s actually the human condition.”

Economic uncertainty is ‘tremendously positive’: Jim Collins

PUBLISHED: 3 HOURS 59 MINUTES AGO | UPDATE: 3 HOURS 2 MINUTES AGO

The turbulence is likely to gather pace, with technology and globalisation acting as accelerators to speed up the boom and bust cycles. Photo: Reuters

JAMES THOMSON

Jim Collins starts with a history lesson that will send chills down the spines of entrepreneurs and executives struggling with the chaos and turmoil of the past five years. “In the developed world, we grew up in a period of very unusual stability and prosperity. Obviously there were disruptions – fuel shocks etcetera – but from the 1950s up until around 2000, it was a period of stability and prosperity,” he tells me from his New York office. Collins, the highly regarded management thinker, consultant and researcher famous for books including Built to Last and Good to Great, says the lesson from his most recent work, Great by Choice, is that the longer sweep of human history is not marked by lengthy periods of prosperity. “We are returning to normal. Normal is chaos, disruption, uncertainty and change. That’s actually the human condition.” Read more of this post

Members of Italy’s Ligresti family, who once controlled insurer Fondiaria-SAI SpA (FSA), were arrested today on charges of false accounting and market manipulation

Ligresti Family Members Arrested in Fondiaria-SAI Probe

Members of Italy’s Ligresti family, who once controlled insurer Fondiaria-SAI SpA (FSA), were arrested today on charges of false accounting and market manipulation, police said. The family’s patriarch, Salvatore Ligresti, and his two daughters, were among seven people taken into custody by Italy’s financial police, according to an e-mailed statement from its Turin office. They are accused of misleading at least 12,000 investors by concealing 600 million euros ($789 million) of losses at Fondiaria-SAI in its 2010 accounts. Ligresti is under house arrest, while his daughters Giulia Maria and Jonella are being detained at an undisclosed jail, police said. Three former Fondiaria executives, Emanuele Erbetta, Antonio Talarico and Fausto Marchionni also have been charged. An arrest warrant was issued for Gioacchino Paolo Ligresti, one of Salvatore Ligresti’s sons, is in Switzerland, police said. Gian Luigi Tizzoni, a defense attorney for the Ligrestis, wasn’t immediately available to comment on the case. According to the police statement, the Ligrestis underestimated the company’s reserves for outstanding insurance claims, allowing it to distribute 253 million euros of earnings to the family holding company Premafin Finanziaria SpA (PF), instead of losses.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniele Lepido in Milan at dlepido1@bloomberg.net