Tuesday I had the pleasure of meeting the producer of the documentary film The Triumph of the Dream, Norman Seeff, a medical doctor turned photographer.  In a a visually intimate and compelling style, Seeff explores the human and emotional side of the Mars Exploration mission during which engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) successfully landed two Mars Rovers on the surface of the planet. It turns out that the technical achievements of the mission served merely as the context or backdrop for the very real inner journey experienced by the team members as they struggled to overcome the inertia of previous failures with the Mars Polar Lander mission in 2000.

Seeff brings to the documentary years of experience photographing artists, musicians, and actors with uncommon results because he doesn't rely solely on his technical prowess but rather on his ability to interact with his subject to turn a conversation into an emotional experience.  Out of his creative studio sessions, which became famous in their own right,  a framework for the creative process as a journey of self discovery emerged.  It consists of seven stages with each sphere (depicted in the graphic) holding all the information of every other sphere.  In other words, the process is dynamic and perhaps even chaotic. 

As I listened to Seeff describe his experiences with the JPL engineers, it became clear to me that you could overlay the entrepreneur's journey on this process.  For example, Stage 1 is a kind of honeymoon phase because an idea has emerged and you're in love with it - you can picture all the ways this idea could manifest itself--the sky's the limit.  As Seeff learned in his conversations at JPL, the idea for the Mars Rover project emerged from the failure of the Mars Polar Lander mission--not directly, but when you go through a big failure  it forces you to think about things in new ways.   However, you also retain emotional fear from the previous failure and that serves as a guidance system so you don't leap too fast into something new. Finding ways to resolve the inertial resistance or fear of failure will eventually lead to the turning point. 

Stage 4 is a really critical point (that's why it's called the "turning point.") because it's the point at which you either give up on your idea or you commit fully to doing it despite the fact that you don't have all the answers.  You're comfortable with the risk.  Stage 5 represents the process of implementation of the idea and Stage 6 is the manifestation of your implementation plan in a product, a business, or in the case of the JPL engineers, the actual Rovers and the resources needed to land them on Mars.  In the documentary you get to share in the emotional and physical fulfillment of the dream the team had, which is Stage 7.

Why did the team succeed this time?  Seeff believes that their imagination and their emotional commitment to each other and to the dream made the difference.  The team essentially became a family who believed in each other as much as they believed they could achieve the mission. Successfully landing two Rovers on Mars in just three and a half years from the date the idea was born is an enormous achievement in itself, but it pales in significance to what the engineers achieved as a team: close relationships, exciting work in a fun environment, and a team capable of game-changing creativity.  As entrepreneurs we should take this to heart and build start-up teams that are emotionally connected with a vested interest in succeeding as individuals and as a team for the good of the whole.  Keep an eye out for screenings of The Triumph of the Dream; you won't be disappointed.