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Failure: The Blog  

August 2018

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  • Flamin' Hot Cheetos Had An Interesting Start

July 2018

  • Fear This Instead Of Failure
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June 2018

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May 2018

  • 8 Examples of Mental Toughness Part 2
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  • MIT Accidentally Creates New Smelting Process

April 2018

  • Johnny Cash Quit Singing Lessons
  • Cruise Control Came Out of Frustration
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  • Rock Around The Clock Was a Commercial Failure
  • Sigmund Freud Should Have Been Discouraged

March 2018

  • Superman Couldn't Fly
  • This School Shares Failures
  • Jim Croce's Parents Hoped He Would Fail

[More archives...]

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Astronaut Insurance

August 6th, 2010 - by Robby Slaughter

Suppose you are an astronaut about to go on an extremely dangerous space mission. There’s a reasonably high chance you might be killed. Also: no one will sell you life insurance.

That might sound crass, but it was a real problem during the height of the space race in the 1950s and 60s. So what do you do if you’re a spaceman with a family? According to the UK InsuranceNet blog, you leverage your fame to design high-value collectibles:

…a number of which were given to every crew member and subsequently signed by every astronaut involved, as close to launch as possible. Its value would instantly be high, but would no doubt sky-rocket (no pun intended) should the astronauts never return; the deceased’s surviving family then at least safe in the knowledge that in future they could cash-in their makeshift insurance policy if required.

Apollo astronaut insurance failure
Photo © UK InsuranceNet blog

Everyone in the insurance business has to talk about failure. You pay premiums (or autograph “insurance covers”) in the hopes that you’ll never need to cash in on the policy. Yet embracing the difficult reality of tragic loss is necessary to make the right decision.

Failure is the secret to success. Every Apollo astronaut who signed an insurance cover returned safely to Earth.

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