Will you take us to Mars?

Who’s the person in your company that takes the lead? Takes the charge to navigate the change? Has the courage to launch an initiative that he or she feels is right no matter what the outcome would be?

Elon Musk was once asked by Ray Dalio on how he came to start his company, SpaceX. Elon answered “For a long time, I’ve thought that it’s inevitable that something bad is going to happen on a planetary scale-a plague, a meteor-that will require humanity to start over somewhere else, like Mars. One day I went to the NASA website to see what progress they were making on their Mars program, and I realized that they weren’t even thinking about going there anytime soon. I had gotten $180 million when my partners and I sold PayPal and it occurred to me that if I spent $90 million and used it to acquire some ICBMs from the former USSR and sent one to Mars, I could inspire the exploration of Mars.”

Now many of us won’t have as audacious of a goal as exploring Mars but we all have ideas, dreams and goals. Will you take that initiative in your organization to lead the big goal? How about starting it on your own because you believe so much in your idea and dream? We all need someone who has the vision and the drive to take us there. Will that be you?