What inspired me on the Chandrayaan-3 successful landing on the moon besides a proud moment for all Indians and accolades to our great scientists and team of ISRO:
1. Small group of highly determined people can achieve anything: History has shown time and again that a small group of highly determined people can achieve anything. ISRO proved it with the lowest budget and despite hiccups from the past.
2. When there is a will there’s a way: India and ISRO had a strong will to make the mission successful. Yesterday they wrote history.
3. If you know the problem, it is half the solution. ISRO was very confident that this Chandrayaan unlike before was not going to crash. I believe that the source of their confidence was that beyond doubt they knew what had gone wrong last time. They learned it and fixed it in this mission.
4. Power of prototyping and iterations. Each mission of Chandrayaan became better and that is precisely how startups, products, and services become better each day.
5. Never give up: India and ISRO did not give up and while it took longer, they ultimately achieved their goals.
6. Sense of ownership: Over the TV all ISRO employees appeared to be like one family 100% vested with equal sense of ownership to see the mission’s success. This was happening independent of their title, salary, and duration with ISRO.
7. Do not throw money at the problem but solve it fundamentally: ISRO spent $85Mn for the entire mission and it is only 25% of the second cheapest mission of a similar kind. It became possible only because ISRO solved this fundamental problem based on science, knowledge, research, and experiments vs. just spending money brainlessly.
8. Work hard and play hard: It was amazing to see the celebration, music, and dance at ISRO after the successful landing. Never forget to have fun when you are working extremely hard.
Let all entrepreneurs and startups learn from this highly complex and challenging mission to the moon and unleash our true potential.
