Bonus: Hustle, Risk & Rockets: Lessons from Sir Peter Beck

Rocket Lab CEO Sir Peter Beck shares why space is more exciting—and more accessible—than ever, from building spacecraft bound for Mars to tackling risk the right way. He talks leadership, hustle, and what it takes to keep a team inspired when the pressure is sky-high. Plus, his take on NASA’s renewed focus on Mars, the Moon, and even building a nuclear reactor on the lunar surface.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to a shares these podcast, we just.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Want to in your head right now, what have investors
and other humans got to be optimistic about looking towards space?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I mean it's so exciting. I mean, you know, there's
real tangible plans and opportunities to send humans to other planets.
If you look at the commercial space industry, we just
built too spacecraft commercially to go to Mars, and you
know there's there's so many, so many cool projects that
we get to work on and so many cool opportunities.
And you know, typically the space, you know, space has

(00:32):
been a domain for government, it's not commercial companies. And
you know, as a public company, everyone can come along
for the ride too. So yeah, I think it's tremendously exciting.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Do you have one key focus when it comes to
leading your team? One value that you wouldn't sacrifice?

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Hustle the rocket lab hustle, So everybody is expected like
if barriers come up, you've just got to climb over them.
And you know, if you look at our competitors, we
are never going to outspend our computers, but we could
sure as heck out to hustle them.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Love it. You've talked a lot about risk. It's a
huge part of any space related work. What is your
advice to leaders who struggle with risk and how should
they think about or approach it.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
So there's perceived risk and then there's actual risk, So
making sure you don't get confused with those two and
then you know, you have to take a level of
risk if you want to achieve good things, But you
should never take a level of risk that you know
is pushing all the chips. In so roca A Lab,
Yes we take risk, but we never take so much
risk that that we ever put you know, the company
at risk. I've actually got a sign on my toolbox

(01:33):
at home that said says everything is sweetened by risk.
So you have to you have to get comfortable with risk,
but it should be it should be well engineered risk.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
So pressure is a given when you're building a rocket
like Neutron with a tight deadline. How do you motivate
your team to stay productive and inspired when the stakes
are high?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, the team at RockA Lab is just so awesome,
like we don't have to do that. Everybody believes in
the mission, believes in the company. You know, the team
here at OLC three have just been just working day
and night. Like I have a camera that I can
log into for OLC three actually up on that water tower,
and every time I log into that camera in the snow,

(02:14):
in the sun, day or night, there is just a
team of people just swarming around this place, working flat out.
In fact, it started to work again. You know, we're
just you know, open this pad in their back at work.
So you know, the team at RockA Lab is just
amazing and you know the mission and what we're trying
to achieve, and you know the coolness of the technology.
I don't have to do a whole bunch of motivation,

(02:35):
that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
The new acting NASA chief, I think, Seann Duffy, said
that NASA will focus on exploration, particularly Mars and the
Moon yep, and move away from climate research and earth sciences.
So just wondering how that shift impacts rock Land.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, we've done We've actually done quite a bit for
the client climate research and science guys. So we launched
a mission from a New Zealand actually called Tropics and
was for hurricane detection. And you know those spacecraft we
used in a couple of years of hurricane seasons and
kind of like saved lives, So you know that that
there they were. They were great, great, great programs to do.

(03:12):
But the new administration has a clear focus on you know,
leaving Earth's gravity well and exploring other planets, and you
know that will aligns very well with us, and you
know the administration also is looking for efficiency and speed,
and that's the definition of rocket Lab.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Right, that's a great definition. I think the other quote
was that NASA will build a nuclear reactor on the Moon,
and they obviously got quite a lot of mainstream media
like what does that mean for the space industry broadly,
but also like how how is that likely to impact
rocket Lab having those sort of ambitions Like.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Yeah, no, I mean I think if you're going to
go and go and you know, settle other planets and
and and the Moon, you know you need to you
need a pretty pretty important to have a big source
of energy.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
So you know this.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
There's just a tremendous number of those kind of kind
of programs. But I think I think what the administration
and Secretary Duffy is trying to do is there certain
elements that you need to get right to be able
to land and be successful on another planet and one
of those is energy obviously, so you know they're systematically,
you know, identifying the bits that they need to be
able to live on Mars, and then you know, developing

(04:21):
programs and research programs around those technologies.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you, sir Peter Beck. I personally
do not want to go to space, but I neither
I would have the opportunity to do an interview on
a launch complex, so thanks very much. Investing involves for
risk you might lose the money you start with.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
We recommend talking to a licensed financial advisor. We also
recommend reading product disclosure documents before deciding to invest.