Failure is Not an Option

Monday Security Memo

Intellectual Firepower for Professionals

“You don't understand the strength of a team until you are pushed beyond your limits.”

— Gene Kranz

Dear A,

When an oxygen tank exploded aboard Apollo 13 on April 13, 1970, 200,000 miles from Earth, the three astronauts aboard — Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise — were suddenly fighting for their lives. What was supposed to be NASA’s third lunar landing instantly became a desperate struggle for survival. Back in Houston, a 37-year-old flight director named Gene Kranz and his team of engineers faced a crisis unlike anything they had ever trained for. Yet through composure, preparation, and leadership under pressure, they achieved the impossible: bringing the astronauts home safely.

Kranz was the leader of what NASA called the “White Team,” part of a rotation of mission control units responsible for different shifts. Internally, they were known as the “Tiger Team,” a handpicked group of engineers and problem-solvers whose average age was just 26 years old. These were young men controlling millions of dollars of equipment and the fate of their fellow Americans in space. But under Kranz’s steady guidance, their inexperience was overshadowed by an unrelenting sense of purpose and professionalism.

Following the near-catastrophe of Apollo 1 — when a fire on the launch pad killed three astronauts during a test — Kranz gathered his team and wrote two words on the chalkboard: “Tough and Competent.”

That became their mantra.

Those words defined not only how Kranz led, but how NASA operated in every mission that followed. Being “tough and competent” wasn’t about arrogance or bravado — it was about preparation, humility, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. It was about running endless “what if” drills before every mission, envisioning every possible failure so that when chaos struck, calm prevailed.

That mindset saved Apollo 13.

“Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. Competent means we will never take anything for granted.”

—Gene Kranz

When the command module lost power, oxygen, and navigation, Kranz and his team didn’t freeze. They calmly assessed, prioritized, and improvised. They developed new checklists on the fly, reconfigured power systems, and calculated trajectory corrections by hand. Every decision had to be right — the first time. And every move was guided by Kranz’s leadership philosophy: prepare relentlessly, adapt decisively.

Leaders today can learn much from Kranz and the Tiger Team. Preparation isn’t just about technical mastery — it’s about mental readiness. Great leaders train their minds and teams for the unexpected, running through “what if” scenarios not out of paranoia, but out of respect for the complexity of their mission. They understand that calm is not the absence of chaos — it’s the product of preparation.

When faced with crisis, Kranz didn’t yell or panic. He led with quiet authority. He trusted his team because he had trained them for that moment. And when the world watched anxiously, he uttered the words that would forever define NASA’s culture of resilience: “Failure is not an option.”

Stay safe and vigilant!

Luke Bencie