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The James Altucher Show

The Secret to Overcoming Impossible Odds | Mike Massimino

The James Altucher Show

James Altucher

Education, Business

4.62.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

One of our favorite guests, former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, has authored a new book titled "Moonshot: A NASA Astronaut's Guide to Achieving the Impossible" and is back to talk all about it. "Moonshot," a follow-up to his bestselling memoir, offers an insightful look into the mindset required to overcome challenges and achieve ambitious goals. Massimino distills his experiences and lessons learned at NASA into an actionable guide designed to help readers accomplish their biggest goals. He emphasizes the importance of perseverance, leadership, problem-solving, and adapting to change. In today's interview, the pair discuss some of James' favorite stories from the book and talk about some of the  ten key lessons that Massimino has gleaned from his career in spaceflight and other life experiences. These lessons include principles like "One in a Million Is Not Zero," encouraging readers to pursue their goals despite the odds, and "The Thirty-Second Rule," which focuses on learning from mistakes.James and Mike's conversations are always full of wit and heartfelt enthusiasm. Enjoy this conversation and pursue your "moon shots"!-----------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltucher.com/podcast.------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe  to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsStitcheriHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on Social Media:YouTubeTwitterFacebook ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Always so great to talk to my favorite astronaut Mike Massimino. He has a new book called

0:12.1

Moonshot. This guy has been through so much stuff.

0:15.8

He is a case study on achieving your dreams. Again, his book is Moonshot and he's an astronaut so such an interesting conversation here's Mike.

0:29.8

This isn't your average business podcast and he's not your average host.

0:35.0

This is the James Altager show. I appreciate so much you coming on the podcast again. I appreciate you having me back on.

0:51.0

Just good to see you. Thank you.

0:53.0

And great book. I really enjoyed it.

0:54.0

This was different from your earlier book that we spoke about,

0:57.5

which was more like autobiography,

0:59.5

and this is more what you learn from all these different experiences and there's a little bit of overlap

1:04.6

which I want to talk about but you know this book Moonshot it's very interesting the idea that

1:09.8

you know it's almost like you personally have like leaned into the things that are most difficult and impossible

1:16.9

like there was one story in the beginning that had a lot of impact on me which was you talked about

1:22.2

the guy who applied for the astronaut program and they

1:25.4

said no and he didn't want to apply again because he figured they'll just reject me and

1:30.4

you got accepted like on your fourth or fifth time applying and you went through all this stuff.

1:35.6

So I wanted to... It was interesting though how like that almost inspired you the fact that that guy wasn't going to apply again and explain that.

1:43.4

Yeah, and I appreciate you bringing up that story.

1:47.0

And what it was is that I had been rejected at this point.

1:52.3

It was my third time. I was medically

1:53.6

disqualified on top of it that when I might so I got rejected outright twice and in my

1:58.6

third time I got an interview but then I was medically disqualified through the revision issue that I was trying to clear up because I didn't want to give up and at the time it didn't seem hopeful.

...

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