Samuel Pierpoint Langley is a guy who had it all. Including a seat at Harvard University, Samuel was a golden boy working on the problem of his age. i.e., mechanical flight. He had more than sufficient capitalization for the research and development of maned flight. Samuel had obtained a huge grant from the War Department. Samuel had people with access to the front page of the New York Times at his beck and call, he enjoyed a direct line to the acquisition editor any time he had a press release concerning his progress. Samuel was also a favorite of Wall Street. He had the best minds and all the right people in his corner, the people that proudly carry the right initials behind their names. But did you recognize Samuel Pierpoint Langley's name? I bet you did not. Well no worries, if I had not followed a hunch in my own research I would not have known who he is either.
But we do know the names of Orval and Wilbur Wright, two poor boys from Dayton Ohio who financed their own little operation with proceeds from their bicycle shop. These Americans are remembered. I think that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs will be remembered tomorrow in much the same way.
I have been thinking about why that is. Why did my wife agree to leave a very lucrative pawn shop business and come along with me to pursue something promising far less lucrative returns on her investment? Innovators don't seek fame or fortune, they believed in their cause and generally very much like Orval and Wilbur only after falling from the sky many times do they take flight.
On the other hand we have the Samuel's who for whatever reason, perhaps their skin is just not thick enough, Or maybe they have created a sort of bubble in evaluating their own self worth, being so use to riding on the shirttails of the establishment. It seems likely that Samuel had not learned to truly stand firm behind his principles in the heat of battle. And this is how we measure one another in America is it not? The proudest moment in my life was the day that my martial arts instructor and former Marine Drill instructor Randy Patino Sr, praised me for continuing to attack a man 70 lbs heavier and six inches taller than me. Truth is I never got the best of that soon to be Heavyweight Champion (Enough name dropping for one article) But he made me the best I could be and I never quit trying to overcome that giant. (His heart is equal to his body).
I believe that I learned that sense of fight because I have at critical times (not always of course) embraced my heritage as an American. In the face of opposition no matter what the personal cost might be we tend to stand up for what we believe and we take the high ground or we fall trying, that is simply who we are.
But poor Samuel must have lived out his days in shame. I wonder how he was able to withstand the ridicule and disappointment of his family and friends. If he had continued to grow then perhaps people would have remembered his name. But instead history recorded that Samuel quit aviation altogether. One cannot help but wonder what might have been had he humbled himself and made peace with his failure.
There, I think, is the key fundamental difference between the entrepreneur and the ham and eager career man. The entrepreneur is propelled by his vision, and the career man looks on from self imposed limitations of his station. Therefore he is trapped thinking in a closed loop, pondering merely of what and how to proceed on the track which is inherently limited in its scope. It is a the design laid out by more daring men. This is not to say that there can be no honor in a career vocation. Of course there must be. But to gain and hold honor the career man must truly be willing to give his vocation his visceral all.
The moment he quits doing that, unless it is to engage a walk an even more challenging, he loses that place of honor. At that point he forfeits his claim to our mutual heritage and dishonors what it means to be an American. Strong words, but it takes strength to push on when you've been knocked down hard. And all of us no matter how tough we think we are, if we are facing challenges will experience hard knocks. It is sad that anyone should go way of Samuel because it is in the why of everything we do that we find what really matters.
Have you have ever dared to color outside of the lines, most recoil having lost their spirits from being scolded for doing so. They have forgotten our heritage. Take heart and face the risk. Because there is no greater failure than to have failed to act from your own agency. And until you dare to try to go out on your own, you will not understand the meaning of these things. But those who are American entrepreneurs not only understand it, they live for it. Each and every one of them can cite the reasons which prove the statement true. They understand what it really means to be an American.
Source: Wikipedia and my own life experiences.
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