BY DANIEL BLACK

Chaotic. Enraged. Inflamed. Also known as America in 1968. The country was in turmoil, at home and abroad.

The Vietnam War was at its height of violence and operational scale. Prominent historical figures – MLK, Jr. and RFK – were each assassinated. Protests and riots erupted nationwide over racial inequality and anti-war sentiment. It was a year without many wins.

Despite how bad things were in 1968, the Apollo 8 mission offered a beacon of hope. Failure was the last thing on the minds of three brave astronauts as they lifted off on December 21, 1968. The trio – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders – aimed to become the first humans to circumvent the moon. The edict had been issued just four months prior to launch and NASA was woefully unprepared. But everyone involved moved heaven and earth, pun intended, to make the impossible, possible.

To this day, Apollo 8 remains in the shadows of Apollo 11, the famous moon-walk mission. Without 8, there is no 11. But Apollo 8 was a success in its own right, setting the foundation for future missions. On the shoulders of giants …” as the saying goes.

As this is a blog about marketing and not NASA, I’ll pause and simply suggest you grab a copy of “Rocket Men” by Robert Kurson, a fascinating and wonderfully detailed account of the journey of Apollo 8.

1968, and more specifically, Borman, Lovell, and Anders, taught us an important lesson: don’t let the fear of failure prevent you from taking the first step. Obviously, marketing rarely puts life and limb in danger. But there are risks: budgets, reputations, careers, and companies. Marketing may be a little less complex than launching a spaceship to orbit the moon, but they do follow parallel processes: design, build, test, launch, and debrief. And then throughout the mission: assess, modify, and learn.

Too often as marketers, we are expected – and perhaps we expect ourselves – to have all the answers. We don’t, and that’s okay. Instead, we should focus on finding the answers. This means testing something new on each activity to better inform the next effort. Run a campaign to learn more about your audience. Email reporters a pitch to see if the message sticks. Publish a blog post to see if the topic resonates. Put a billboard up and gauge reactions.

This rule of thumb applies beyond marketing, of course. For your career, take a job that helps you better answer, “What do I want to do with my life?” If it’s business strategy, how can we test a new product or market to determine if it’s the right direction. Pilot something (NASA would be proud) and see what works and what doesn’t.

Failing is winning, only if we learn from it. In our first-round interviews at Hencove, we ask candidates, “Tell me about a time you failed. What happened?” Most of the answers are tepid admissions of minor gaffs, confirming our suspicion that people spend little time talking about failure. We need more of that, in marketing and in life. It shouldn’t be uncomfortable to talk about failure.

Recently, I was asked about a client we succeeded with and a client we failed with. With a healthy balance of pride and humility, the conversation covered what went right (in both examples) and what could have gone better (in both examples). We don’t believe any client relationship exclusively succeeds or fails, but rather, in each relationship, there are moments of success and moments of failure. Hopefully, of course, the wins outweigh the losses.  

Consider this a call to companies, teams, and individuals to embrace failure (don’t get too comfy with it) and make it a habit to discuss what went well, what could be improved, and what to do differently next time.