“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” – Albert St. George
In 1899, Charles H. Duell then Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office made a startling statement: “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Duell lived till 1920. After his statement he saw the invention of the Airplane, motorcar, assembly line, phone, radio and countless other inventions in medicine, business, education and science. We can laugh at the short sightedness of Mr. Duell but the world is still full of short sighted thinkers. It is a common statement – even taught in schools – is that the age of discovery is over. Many believe that we have discovered just about all there is to find. What a dumb thing to think.
THERE IS MORE UNKNOWN THAN KNOWN
Success-Minded People know that there is a wealth of new discoveries in the world just waiting for those who have the courage and determination to find them. Scientist William Harvey said, “All we know is still infinitely less than all that remains unknown.” We may not hear of all the discoveries made every day but they are out there. Just look at what has come about in your own life time (no matter how old or young you may be). It is amazing to those Success-Minded People how take the time to look how much the world is changing. The sad thing is so many people go through life and never notice.
OPEN YOUR EYES
So if there are discoveries being made every day by people just like you and me, why can’t they be made by you or me? That’s right; you could be the one to make the next great discovery that will change the world as we know it. Why not? “But I don’t even know where to start” you may say. Listen to the words of author Marcel Proust: “The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.” See things like no one else sees them. Be creative, imaginative and daring. Do not follow what everyone else tells you can be done, follow what you believe can be done. Albert Einstein said “Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.” Those few are Success-Minded People.
LEARNING BY MISTAKES
The thing that holds many Success-Minded People back from venturing into the unknown is their fear of making a mistake. My friends, mistakes are a key part of the art of discovery. Irish author James Joyce rightly said “Mistakes are the portals of discovery.” Samuel Smiles also said “He who never makes a mistake, never made a discovery.” Mistakes are how we learn and grow. We discover that one thing may not work, but then we see that something we never thought of will work. Learning from mistakes was the whole foundation of the great inventor Thomas Edison.
GO FOR THE UNKNOWN
Be a person of courage and head off to the unknown. Open your eyes and see what everyone is missing and then claim it as your own. Be willing to do what others will not, find what others don’t even know is missing and achieve what has been dismissed as impossible. You have a long and honorable line of adventures before you. Success-Minded People just like you who never listened to the saying, “It can’t be done.” My encouragement to you is in the words of the 19th Century philosopher Oliver Wendell Holmes who said “If I were dying my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.”
© 2011 John Patrick Hickey
