At the Personalist Project: “A Tower that will Pierce the Clouds”

At the Personalist Project: “A Tower that will Pierce the Clouds” April 10, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a book called An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. I’m not sure what kind of advice I expected to read from this former commander of the International Space Station, someone who did countless interviews from space (including being interviewed by William Shatner) and whose space-earth duets and extraterrestrial performance of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” received millions of views on YouTube. There are traits you expect in ambitious men, assumptions you make of the kind of guy who grew up to fly fighter jets, and become a test pilot; someone who, as a small town Canadian boy, set his sights on becoming an astronaut back when Canada didn’t even have a space program. You expect a certain amount of braggadocio. You expect laser-focus, and stories of victories won and glories earned, and advice about believing in yourself, following your dreams, and aiming high.

What I didn’t expect was the advice repeated over and over again within the book:

If you want to succeed in life, aim to be a zero.

What does that mean?

Read the rest at the Personalist Project.


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