Reach for the Stars

When I was a teenager living in Nassau Bay, Texas, our next-door neighbor happened to be Gene Cernan. You may know him as the last man to walk on the moon.

Now, imagine being sixteen years old and the guy next door has literally been to the moon. That’s intimidating. You can’t exactly top that in casual conversation.

“Hey Gene, what’d you do today?”

“Oh… just mowed the lawn.”

“Really? Last week you drove a moon buggy.”

One afternoon Gene and I were talking in the backyard. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Like most teenagers, I didn’t have a clue. I was full of doubts. He looked at me and said something I’ve carried with me ever since.

“Reach for the stars. The sky’s the limit.”

At the time, I thought it was just a nice saying. It sounded like something you’d find on a motivational poster with an eagle flying over a mountain.

But life has a funny way of teaching you what words really mean.

Years later I joined the Navy. Then I built a career. I got divorced. I raised kids. I was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Doctors weren’t sure I’d survive. Then prostate cancer. Bipolar disorder. Retirement.

Most people would’ve said, “You’ve had a good run.”

Instead, at sixty-nine years old, I’m starting over. I’m doing stand-up comedy. I’m writing books. I’m making videos. I’m trying to build a movement that gets more people involved in democracy.

People ask me, “Why would you start something this big at your age?”

Because I finally understand what Gene meant.

He wasn’t telling me I’d become an astronaut.

He was telling me not to put limits on myself.

The sky was never the limit. The limit was whatever I believed I couldn’t do.

If a kid from Houston can grow up next door to a moonwalker… if a stage 4 cancer patient can still be standing here talking to you… then maybe our biggest obstacle isn’t age, money, or circumstances.

Maybe it’s the little voice in our heads that says, “You can’t.”

So here’s my challenge.

Whatever your moon is—go after it.

Reach for the stars. Because whether you make it all the way or not, you’ll go a lot farther than if you never left the ground.