May 01, 2026

Five Core Values That Shape Who We Are and How We Think, with Andy Crocker

49 minutes

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Episode recap:

In this episode, Marcel sits down with Andy Crocker—a former rocket scientist and author of The Unconditionals: Five Timeless Values to Live Without Limits and Ignite Your Superpower—to unpack the five core values that shaped both his leadership philosophy and personal transformation. Drawing from a pivotal career setback and personal reflection, Andy explains how practicing these values without conditions can reduce stress, strengthen relationships, and help leaders show up more authentically, even in high-performance, technical environments.

BIO:

Andy Crocker is an aerospace executive with three decades of experience building high-performance teams and leading ambitious projects, including NASA’s Human Landing System. He holds degrees in engineering, humanities, management, and leadership and is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. His multidisciplinary background and diverse career shaped his unique perspective that led to his new book, The Unconditionals.

Quotes

“You don’t discover who you are when everything works out—you discover it when the moonshot fails and you choose your values anyway.”

“Unconditional love doesn’t mean staying in a toxic place; it means caring for yourself and others enough to walk away when you must.”

“When you stop negotiating your behavior with circumstances, your values finally become who you are—not just what you believe.”

“Gratitude is not thanks for the tragedy; it’s thanks for what the tragedy cannot take away—the love, the lessons, and the strength you carry forward.”

“The most advanced systems on earth still run on human hearts; love and gratitude are not soft skills—they’re the core operating code of real performance.”

Takeaways

Your identity can’t be safely built on achievements. Andy’s lost “moonshot” with NASA forced him to separate who he is from what he does—and that shift is what unlocked deeper purpose and peace.

Values only transform you when they’re unconditional. Love, gratitude, integrity, accountability, and endeavor matter most when they don’t change based on who you’re dealing with or whether you’re winning or losing.

Unconditional love requires boundaries, not self‑sacrifice. Truly loving others starts with self‑respect and the courage to leave toxic situations—for your good and, often, for theirs.

Gratitude is a discipline for surviving hard things. Andy’s response to his mother’s sudden death shows that gratitude isn’t about approving the pain; it’s about honoring what can’t be taken away and finding steadiness in the middle of loss.

“Soft” values are the hard edge of performance. Even in hyper‑technical, left‑brain environments like aerospace, cultures of love, appreciation, and integrity create the psychological safety, motivation, and resilience that high performance actually depends on.

Timestamps

00:00:03 – Introduction and Andy’s rocket-scientist background

00:03:07 – Andy’s story: career, NASA moon mission, and heartbreak

00:08:54 – Why he wrote The Unconditionals for his kids

00:09:17 – Overview of the five unconditionals

00:13:34 – What unconditional love is (and what it isn’t)

00:17:59 – Why love matters in organizations and leadership

00:20:59 – Love in technical, engineering, and “left‑brain” cultures

00:25:43 – Unconditional gratitude and losing his mother

00:31:12 – Unconditional accountability and real ownership

00:38:06 – How engineering shaped Andy’s leadership philosophy

00:41:45 – Speed round: life, careers, and hopes for the future

00:43:40 – How to lead with practical love every day

00:45:32 – Final takeaway: living your values unconditionally

Conclusion

Love, gratitude, integrity, accountability, and endeavor aren’t abstract ideals—they’re the unconditional choices that define who you are when the dream falls apart, the contract is lost, or life doesn’t go your way. Andy Crocker’s journey from leading a moonshot bid for NASA to grieving its loss—and then writing The Unconditionals for his children—shows that real strength is refusing to let circumstances dictate your character. When you stop tying your worth to titles and outcomes, and instead anchor yourself in values that don’t move when the world does, you gain the freedom to lead, work, and live with clarity, courage, and compassion. This episode is an invitation to decide: Will you keep living conditionally—reacting to success and failure—or will you commit to becoming the kind of person whose values hold steady, no matter what happens next?

Links/Resources

Website and Book: https://andycrockerbooks.com/

Andy Crocker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andycrocker/

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By Marcel Schwantes

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