This weekend, I was fortunate to visit the Kennedy Space Center Visitor ComplexAND also see a SpaceX Launch for the first time.
Walking around Kennedy Space Center was so inspiring. I actually got to walk across the actual bridge Neil Armstrong walked across as he went into the Apollo 11 - the mission that put him on the moon in 1969.
Putting a man on the moon was the biggest, most audacious goal in human history. Not only had it never been done before, the dream was audacious. In President John F. Kennedy’s famous “We choose to go to the moon” speech, he describes inventing metals that not yet have been created and using it on the spacecraft they would eventually build.
In 1969, less than seven years from after JFK's speech, Neil Armstrong became the first person on the moon.
Walking around Kennedy Space Center was a constant reminder to me, that anything is possible. Anything is possible. Flying to space is such a defiant activity. It defies gravity. It defies what we understand. It defies the here and now.
What a great testament to dreaming bigger and accomplishing things no one thought possible.
That evening, I saw the SpaceX (Falcon Heavy) rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center. The host from NASA shared with us that this was already SpaceX's third space launch this year, only two weeks into the new year.
In 2022, SpaceX launched 180 successful rocket launches to orbit. Sending rockets and travelling to space is now “normal.”
Not only is it normal, even regular civilians can go to space through commercial space travel opportunities via Blue Origin and upcoming competitor Virgin Galactic (only for those who can afford it of course).
I flew home that night back to Toronto and even stepping onto the plane, made me think. This too, was impossible to humans once. It was the Wright brothers who invented the airplane, stood against opposition and people thinking they were crazy… and now air travel is just part of regular day life.
I'm sure space travel will eventually become like air travel is today.
Nelson Mandela said "It always seems impossible until it's done."
Walt Disney said, “if you can dream it, you can do it.”
This is why innovation thinking is so important. This is why innovation is needed. It helps push us beyond today. It pushes us past status quo and dares us to dream bigger, push bigger and go beyond the here and now.
I define innovation as creating a new future. The future is going to happen whether you want it or not… so take agency over it and create it!
Lean in to innovation and learn how to be an innovator.
What are your visions of the future? What future will you create? Anything is possible.
In the words of President John F. Kennedy, “choose to go to the moon.”
By the way, if your organization needs help with dreaming bigger, we’d love to help.
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