There is a little-known connection between the Star Spangled Banner and Maryville, Tennessee. Everyone knows that Francis Scott Key authored the poem, “Defence of Fort M’Henry” as he watched the bombardment of Baltimore from a British navy ship on September 13th and 14th in 1814. Few folks remember that Key was a successful attorney who argued before the U.S Supreme court.
Key also represented Sam Houston, former Maryville, Tennessee resident and Tennessee’s 6th governor, against criminal assault charges from Congressman William Stanbery in 1832. Stanbery accused Houston of fraud and in the aftermath of their dispute, he beat Stanbery with a cane. Despite Key’s legal efforts, Houston was convicted and reprimanded in a House of Representatives trial. Shortly afterwards, Houston took his ill-tempered self to Texas and started a revolution for independence from Mexico.
Perspective – all change involves some loss. Loss is not a negative indicator. It may be an indicator that growth is coming.
Had Francis Scott Key prevailed in rejecting Houston’s assault charge, Sam would have stayed in Washington instead of going to Texas. Our history books would read much differently than they do now.
Last week Jeff Bezos’ private spaceflight company, Blue Origin set the Florida skyline ablaze when a rocket engine test went wrong and detonated a near nuclear blast. The explosion registered a 2.5 on the Richter scale even though as an “above ground” event it didn’t technically qualify as an earthquake.
Billions of dollars literally went up in flames. Blue Origin was on the calendar with NASA to send an unmanned lunar craft to the surface of the moon in 2027. With the rocket destroyed and the launch pad severely damaged, NASA is scrambling to rethink their Artemis moon mission timeline.
Elon Musk tweeted his condolences, “Unfortunate, Rockets are hard.” He has firsthand experience with unplanned detonations. In March 2025, a SpaceX launch saw the second stage of their rocket explode. Just like Blue Origins failure, Musk responded, “rockets are hard.”
Flash forward a year later. After 24 years as a private company SpaceX is on the verge of going public. The SpaceX IPO is expected to be one of the most disruptive stock market events ever. Pre-IPO speculation places the company’s total value around $1.75 trillion. Had Musk wavered after his early rocket adventures, we wouldn’t be on the verge of this event.
Our setbacks and losses can fuel our future wins but only if we stay focused on the future and not on the immediate failure. Instead of ringing his hands in defeat after a disaster, Musk the engineer jumps into action to work the problem, diagnose a fix and solve for future success.
Success requires focus. Focus requires a target. The target must be meaningful enough to you to become an obsession. Obsession is the cure for temporary failures. Like Musk, focus on your obsession and success will follow.
