Overview
“If you can dream it, you can do it.” As an engineer, naval aviator, record-setting astronaut, and commander of the International Space Station, Scott Kelly has lived his life by these words. In this candid and entertaining course, Scott shares instructive stories from his childhood in New Jersey, his days as a Navy test pilot, and his year hurtling around the globe at 17,500 MPH and teaches hard-earned lessons drawn from his experiences in the most competitive, extreme environments imaginable.
You'll learn how to:
Find inspiration to fuel your success
Mentally prepare for multiple outcomes
Put in the right kinds of hard work to win
Adopt a solutions-focused mindset
Admit errors as a tool for growth and leadership
Embrace failure as a path towards success
Value and support diversity in team environments
Be guided by science and data when it matters most
What you'll get
- 2+ hours of audio lessons
Enriching stories containing expert advice to build resilience and achieve your goals.
- Companion e-textbook
When listening isn’t an option, dig into this text-based PDF.
- Lesson summaries
Be reminded of the key things you’ve learned.
- Curated resources
Save time searching. We’ve collected the best resources for you.
Lessons
- 01Find Your InspirationYou might think you’re not good at something, but often it’s a question of finding the right inspiration to motivate the hard work that you’ll need to become not just good, but great. In this lesson, we learn how a kid who “sucked at math” and was bored at school, stumbled upon a paperback book that changed his life forever — and why that made everything else possible.
- 02Know Everything (Or at Least as Much as Possible)There’s no shortcut to doing the real work. At the same time, few people go the extra mile to know everything they can about a subject. In this lesson, Scott explains how he used his competitive nature to get the edge, and learned how to learn, to fuel his rise and career.
- 03Failure is an OptionYou’ve heard it in the movies about the Apollo missions: “failure is not an option.” But in the real world, failure is always an option. Here Scott explains the true power in the idea of failure, and how being willing to fail can open up new opportunities and truly sets successful people apart from the rest.
- 04The Power of DiversityHighlighting stories from training and space, Scott explains precisely why diverse teams are more powerful teams. At NASA, he considered diversity of crews and teams a strength and a force multiplier that allows you to discover more and better solutions, faster.
- 05Take Responsibility and Admit Your MistakesYou can’t pass the buck in space. From complex and delicate missions to the fundamentals of leading a team, Scott discusses why being truthful and admitting mistakes (even when it looks bad) is critical to the functioning of any organization. And how, more often than not, it saves the day.
- 06Have a Plan, a Backup Plan and a Backup Plan for Your Backup PlanScott says there’s a quote he loves, from Mike Tyson, which goes, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” And that’s true. Whatever your first plans are, the real world will have some surprises in store. Scott learned how to navigate this in one of the highest pressure environments known to us, and now applies them to his daily life back on earth. From the health of ourselves and our families, to the public in general, to our financial well being, he develops backup plans for any contingency.
- 07It’s Likely Not Rocket Science, but When it is, Trust the Rocket ScientistsHere Scott explains why it’s critically important that we get our information and guidance from the experts and not, your friends on Facebook, untrusted media sources, or people who claim to have, “very good brains.” He believes we have a serious problem in this country with a certain demographic that distrusts science. “Science isn’t up for debate.”
