“but why some say, the moon? why choose this as our goal? and they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? why, 35 years ago, fly the atlantic, why does rice play texas?”

one of my all time favorite orators reminded me this weekend of president kennedy’ speech,  september 12, 1962 at rice university, to persuade the american people to support the effort of nasa to go to the moon. the soviets had successfully launched sputnik four years earlier and a russian cosmonaut became the first man in space earlier that year. president kennedy had a vision of surpassing the soviets…but why?

“we choose to go to the moon. we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

kennedy’s speech appealed to the public’s entrepreneurial heritage and described space as a new frontier. equally important, it challenged america. bravado cannot take the place of profound commitment and what followed was nothing short of spectacular execution…”we choose to go to the moon because it is hard.”

after re-reading this speech i thought of cal newport & the importance of stretching. the importance of proving oneself. as an entrepreneur, the conquering of the challenge, that’s the prize.  putting yourself through an intense trial of fire and coming out forged on the other end. you cannot know the strength of the steel you hold until it strikes something solid. and you cannot know what kind of person you are until you look hardship and difficulty in the eye, face it, and rise to its challenge. without that test, you just don’t know.

this is a central tenet to oseberg’s culture & the people that work here. it’s who we are. we like challenges. we have folks that are excellent dads with five kids under the age of 9-hustling at a growth stage startup to triple top line revenue, folks that study koin greek & compete in the tough mudder & still  complete their sprints days ahead of schedule, developers that are experts in the science of sound because they’re naturally curious & lend their expertise to local organizations, client success managers teaching themselves javascript & d3 to better serve our clients,  & national  DDR contenders… this guy can move his feet like a berocca lumberjack log roller, im telling you.  we hire doers. folks that aren’t afraid of ambiguous problems or unknown challenges-for which we do not have all the answers. we’re exploring uncharted territory & its not easy.  but that’s part of why we do what we do. “we choose to go to the moon because it is hard.”