What José Hernández Taught Us About Persistence, Proximity, and Getting in the Room
From the Fields to the Stars
What happens when the dream feels a million miles away?
You keep moving toward it.
In 2025, FounderFuego® CEO Amber Tarrac and Chief Learning Officer Richard Lopez had the opportunity to hear former NASA astronaut José M. Hernández tell his story on stage at Avance Global.
We knew parts of his story before we walked into the room.
But hearing someone tell you their story in person is different.
And getting the opportunity afterward to spend a few minutes talking with José while he was getting his shoes shined?
That was one of those moments that reminds us why getting in the room matters.
Because José Hernández's story isn't simply about becoming an astronaut.
It's about what happens when where you start and where you want to go seem impossibly far apart—and you decide to keep moving anyway.
Before NASA, there were the fields
José Hernández grew up in a migrant farming family from Mexico, one of four children whose family traveled for agricultural work. He spent part of his childhood working alongside his family in California's fields and didn't learn to speak English until he was 12.
Space could hardly have seemed like the obvious destination.
But eventually Hernández pursued engineering, earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of the Pacific and a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
And then came the dream:
NASA.
Not just working around space exploration.
Becoming an astronaut.
There was just one problem.
NASA kept saying no.
What do you do when the answer is no?
Hernández has shared that NASA rejected him 11 times before ultimately selecting him as an astronaut candidate in 2004.
Eleven.
Think about that as a founder.
How many of us have questioned an entire strategy after one rejection?
One grant you didn't receive.
One investor who passed.
One corporate partner who didn't respond.
One proposal that went nowhere.
One customer who said no.
One application that didn't make the cut.
Rejection gives you two pieces of information if you're willing to look for them.
The first is obvious:
Not yet.
The second requires more work:
What needs to be different the next time I try?
Persistence isn't simply submitting the same thing over and over and hoping somebody eventually changes their mind.
Sometimes persistence means becoming more prepared for the opportunity you're pursuing.
Hernández kept building.
And eventually, the answer changed.
NASA selected him in 2004. He completed astronaut candidate training in 2006 and became a mission specialist aboard Space Shuttle Discovery's STS-128 mission in 2009.
The kid who had worked California's agricultural fields eventually traveled more than 5.7 million miles in space.
Sit with that for a second.
Sometimes you have to see what's possible up close
This is where José's story became particularly meaningful for us.
We met him at Avance Global in 2025.
Amber and Richard were there because FounderFuego believes deeply in something that can be easy to underestimate when you're busy running a business:
Proximity matters.
Being in the room matters.
Relationships matter.
Hearing someone's story directly from them matters.
And sometimes the conversation that happens outside the official program matters just as much as the keynote.
After hearing José tell his story on stage, we had the opportunity to chat with him while he was getting his shoes shined.
Nothing elaborate.
No formal meeting.
No conference room.
Just a few minutes of human connection with someone whose journey had taken him from California's agricultural fields to orbiting Earth.
And that's what made it memorable.
You can read someone's biography.
You can watch the movie.
You can scroll through their accomplishments.
But there is something different about standing a few feet away and realizing:
This person actually did it.
The impossible thing became real.
Get in the room
That's one of the reasons we're constantly encouraging founders to get outside their businesses.
Go to the conference.
Attend the event.
Introduce yourself.
Ask the question.
Stay after the panel.
Have the conversation in the hallway.
Sit next to someone you don't know.
Tell somebody what you're building.
Not because every conversation needs to turn into a transaction.
It shouldn't.
But because relationships compound.
Ideas travel through people.
Introductions travel through people.
Opportunities travel through people.
And sometimes belief travels through people too.
You may walk into a room thinking about what's possible based on everything you've experienced so far.
Then you meet someone whose life challenges that definition.
Your world gets a little bigger.
Don't confuse the room with the result
There's another lesson here founders shouldn't miss.
Getting into the right room doesn't mean somebody in that room is going to build your business for you.
José Hernández didn't become an astronaut because he met the right person at a conference.
He did the work.
He studied.
He became an engineer.
He joined NASA's Johnson Space Center as a materials research engineer in 2001 and eventually became a branch chief responsible for professionals working across materials science and engineering.
He kept building the experience required for the opportunity he wanted.
That's the combination we believe in at FounderFuego:
Proximity + preparation.
Relationships can open doors.
But you still have to be ready to walk through them.
Your starting point doesn't get to decide your finish line
During Hispanic Heritage Month, stories like José's matter because representation changes the picture of what's possible.
There is a kid somewhere who understands agricultural fields better than laboratories.
Someone who speaks Spanish at home and is still finding confidence in English.
Someone whose parents don't have a professional network that can make the right introduction.
Someone looking at an industry where almost nobody seems to have their story, their apellido, or their experience.
José Hernández's life offers powerful evidence that a starting point doesn't have to become a boundary.
NASA selected him as an astronaut in 2004.
Five years later, he climbed aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
On August 28, 2009, STS-128 launched toward the International Space Station. Hernández and the crew spent roughly 14 days in space before returning to Earth.
From the fields to the stars.
Literally.
So what does this have to do with your business?
Probably more than you think.
There's something you're trying to build right now that may feel farther away than you'd like.
The contract.
The funding.
The team.
The partnership.
The revenue goal.
The business that doesn't require you to personally hold every piece together.
José's story gives us three questions worth asking:
Are you still pursuing the goal after hearing no?
Are you becoming more prepared each time you pursue it?
And are you putting yourself in rooms where the relationships, knowledge, and possibilities around you are bigger than the ones you already know?
Because sometimes the distance between where you are and where you want to go isn't covered in one giant leap.
It's covered by continuing to move.
One application.
One relationship.
One conversation.
One room.
One opportunity at a time.
Keep going, mi gente. Your current coordinates don't determine your destination. 🔥
Now it's your turn to get in the room
One of the reasons meeting José stayed with us wasn't simply who we met.
It was the reminder of what can happen when you intentionally put yourself in rooms with people who expand your thinking, challenge what's possible, and understand where you're trying to go.
That's what we're building inside FounderFuego®.
And on October 13, we're opening the doors for Café Caliente.
Grab your cafecito and join us for a complimentary, behind-the-scenes look at la comunidad. Meet other founders, get to know the people inside FounderFuego®, and see what it feels like to be in a room with people who understand what it takes to build something.
Because you never know which conversation, relationship, or introduction could change what feels possible next.
Get in the room. 🔥
Save your spot for Café Caliente.
Con fuego,
