Daniel Goldin Interview (page: 4 / 6) Space Exploration	Print Interview

When the phone rang and a voice on the other end said, "This is the White House," did you think somebody was pulling your leg? What were you thinking?

Daniel Goldin: I was on my way back from Spain. I had gone to the World Administrative Radio Conference there because I had invented a new commercial communication system with some of my coworkers, and I went there to get frequency spectrum and we got it. I was flying back and, as soon as we got over the microwave stations in Canada, I called my office because I had been out of contact and I had a lot of things going on. My secretary said, "You just got a call from the White House." My immediate reaction was "What have we done wrong?" We were doing a lot of government business so I said, "God, we must be in trouble. There must be something I don't know about." I waited about a half hour to place the call because I was nervous some administration official was going to tell me we had done something bad in one of the defense systems my group had been working on.

So I called and asked for the person and went through the White House switchboard. I had never done that before. I had met this person once before about a year ago. We started talking, and then he popped the question. I was overwhelmed. Why would anyone consider this kid that grew up in the South Bronx to run NASA, to work for the President of the United States in the ultimate job for a space cadet? My insecurities from my youth came up. He said, "Would you consider it?" and I said, "Absolutely. I'll call back in 24 hours."

When you hung up that phone, what was the next thing you did?

Daniel Goldin: I wanted to scream for joy, but I also realized it was going to be a very significant sacrifice. I talked to my wife about it. My daughters had graduated from college and we were very close. Our weekends were spent with them, and we'd have to give that up. I was making a considerable amount of money, and I would have to give that up. There were some complicated financial situations, but the honor and the privilege of serving the American people in this job just overwhelmed me. "My God, the President of the United States is interested in having me run NASA!" At the time, NASA was in a lot of trouble, but it never bothered me because I believed that the people at NASA were the most outstanding in the world and all they needed to do was to open their minds and open their spirits, and have someone tell them how good they are. So that part never bothered me. It all happened almost overnight. From the time my name went up until I was confirmed was maybe a week and a half. They pushed me right through.

You took over a government agency with a big budget that, as you put it, was in a lot of trouble. How do you deal with that?

Daniel Goldin: I wrote down seven points on a piece of paper the night before I went for my interview with a senior government official, and I discussed each point. These were the things that I felt were necessary to do and we checked off each and every one. We both agreed. From that, I went back and I wrote out a plan of what had to be done --very simple, very focused. It's not as though I was coming from the planet Mars, if you will, into the job. I had been in the space business since I was seven years old. This job had my name written on it, although I never knew it.

When I went for my interviews with the members of the Senate up on Capitol Hill, I told them what the plan was. I said, "Here it is. If you want to vote for me and confirm me as a NASA Administrator, this is my plan for what I intend to do for this agency, and if not then I'm the wrong person." After I got sworn in, the very first thing I did was kiss my wife and children goodbye. They went back to Los Angeles. Within 30 minutes I was at NASA. We have an internal TV system, and I gave a speech to all the NASA employees. I told them exactly what to expect, and I've stuck to that script. I haven't changed it one iota. It is now my seventh year and we now are measuring things. We have metrics, so people can actually see what their accomplishments are.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. We fixed the Hubble Space Telescope. It was nearsighted just like me. It needed a contact lens. And, there was terrible depression at NASA because we launched it and it didn't work. Bad people didn't do that. The space frontier is fraught with problems. But we put a team together and good people fixed it. The same people that designed it, fixed it. We launched a probe to Mars and it blew up when it got to Mars. Within 24 hours, we conceived that we're going to put a lander on Mars and do it in three years for a quarter of the cost, and we did it.

[ Key to Success ] Perseverance

We had a spacecraft that went deaf on us: Galileo. The antenna didn't deploy. We figured out how to use this very problematical antenna system, using coding and using bigger antennas on the earth so we could hear. And we redesigned the international space station. We said, "The Cold War is over. We're no longer fighting with the Russians. We don't have to compete. We don't have to have one space station for the Soviet bloc and one for the western block." With the leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, we asked the Russians to join us and things started happening. The cost of space craft went down by a factor of three. We did it in half the time. We used to launch two a year. This year we're going to launch ten a year. So people began to feel the electrons surging through their veins. They knew they were good. All they had to be told is, "You are terrific." It's the Pygmalion approach to management. Professor Higgins found Eliza in the gutter and he gave her positive feedback. That's what he did for her. You would read in the press about "the troubled space agency... federal employees... they're bureaucrats... they're lazy." These people are brilliant! They went to the best schools in the country. They work from early in the morning 'til late at night. But they needed to know that they're the best, and they proved it.

Is that one of the most important keys, to make sure people understand that they are worth something, that they can do it?

Daniel Goldin: The leader is only one. The leader can only work to create an environment for the brilliance and the warmth and the loving of all the people in the organization. The leader can't make all the decisions. The leader creates an environment. If you create an environment where you reinforce negative feelings about people, you have a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ego-wise it's easy: "Hey, it's not my fault. These people are incompetent." But they're not. People may be terrific, but they have to know what they're doing is terrific, they have to be given the tools. And there's another issue, in both federal government and in industry.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. People have got to be given responsibility, clearly defined -- a contract if you will -- and say, "Here. I trust you. Let's sign this contract." People felt you can't do that because it will cause fear. It didn't cause fear. When you give someone a responsibility and authority, they don't mind being accountable. They step up. So, that's the other aspect. We had 85 people signing off on the shuttle before it's launched. If some one thing went wrong, who's responsible? You need that pride of ownership. So, contracts and measurements are absolutely key.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

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