Failure is not an option!

I watched an awesome movie with my daughters last night. Apollo 13. This movie epitomizes the American belief that anything is possible. Three men 205,000 miles from earth in a spaceship made from aluminum foil. Limited electricity, no heat, almost no oxygen but shear will power and American ingenuity brought those American Astronauts back to earth safely.

Failure is not an option!

A small electrical failure stranded the ship but the country and NASA never gave up on them. Teamwork and determination brought them back to earth.

Does any of this sound familiar in these times. In the past 10 years very smart bankers (they call them Quants because they studied quantum physics in college, not banking) created vehicles that propelled our economy into the future. These vehicles made profits that were unheard of in the past and with these finance vehicles home owners were created, businesses were financed, power plants built, etc, etc. After a while it was every one's strong belief that this economy would stay strong forever. Apollo 13's original mission of landing on the moon wasn't even scheduled to be covered on TV. The belief was that this mission was just routine, in 1970 we started believing that space travel really wasn't rocket science.

One small electrical failure on Apollo 13 set off a chain reaction that would be fatal. Sounds like to today's string of failures, Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, AIG. All the worst case scenarios that no one ever planned for. Even the really smart quants.

Amazingly once the Apollo 13 failure became public the media coverage was enormous. Nothing else was on the TV or papers. Sounds familiar today with the economy. Can't go anywhere without hearing a story of economic failure. Even an article pointing to good signs in the economy is punctuated by a comment that it won't last or that its an anomaly. During the Apollo 13 mission, the media always reported how bad the odds where against the returning astronauts.
In the end, as you all know, the astronauts of Apollo 13 made it home safely. It was risk taking, ingenuity, teamwork, out side the box thinking and the belief that failure is not an Option, that eventually brought them down safely.

Once that thinking takes effect in the US on this economic crisis, sounder minds will prevail and we will be back on the track to a stabilized economy. I am not saying the economy will be as hot as it was but it will be stable.

My daughters watched the movie with me and Bryna(6) said after wards, that the lesson she learned is that anything is possible with teamwork.

Let's hope that politicians, bankers, CEOs, and consumers can all find it in themselves to work together to bring the US (now the world) out of this economic free fall.

Make it happen
Nick