12 Seconds – Doing things the Wright way

Two of my favorite people in history were brothers with a crazy dream. Their names were Orville and Wilbur. (Kind of unfortunate names if you ask me) Their last name was Wright. That’s right, the guys who invented the airplane.

On the morning of December 17, 1903, the brothers decided to give their flying machine a test run. They called up a bunch newspapers ahead of time so that everyone would be able to read of their accomplishment but only ONE reporter showed up and it was only cause he thought they would crash and die.

After a coin-toss to decide who would pilot the first attempt, Orville jumped in the seat of the machine. He fired up the engine started off down the track they had made to help launch the plane into the sky. Can you imagine what the people watching would’ve been thinking? If it was 2009 they for sure would have been recording it on their Flip cams to send it to TMZ.com.

Then the miracle happened! The plane reached the end of the track and it actually left the ground! Orville was flying! To everyone’s disbelief the flyer was actually using an engine to fly.

Imagine what that was like.

Orville hardly had time to be excited because after a lightning fast 12 seconds in the air, the plane crashed to the ground smashing the rudder and breaking a lever off of the engine.

Orville had only managed to travel a distance of 120 ft

They had 12 seconds, 120 feet and a broken airplane to their names.

All the people watching were disappointed. Some people laughed at the weak attempt at flight. They chalked it up as another failure for these two brothers. The crash proved to people that the brothers were in fact, crazy and that real flight was mpossible.

Do you know what the brothers did?

They celebrated! High fives and chest bumps. They were so excited that they had flown 12 seconds, 120 feet! Next step: fly higher, longer and greater distances! After a quick repair, brother Wilbur jumped in the airplane and had a try at flying.

Their final attempt for the day produced a 59 second flight covering the distance of 852 feet!

These brothers had a vision and there were many who told them it was crazy, people who even took action to stop them from achieving flight and many who were certain it would never be accomplished. The brothers never released their vision, their dream and their goal.

Even after what some would have called a failure of their first attempt, when onlookers were shaking their heads and calling the brothers crazy, the brothers celebrated their small victory, fixed the plane and started down the runway again and again until they had perfected it.

The Wright Brothers changed history because of their persistence and vision.

Many of us have things we dream about and a vision for our future but give in and give up at the first sign of opposition and adversity.

Are you focused on your vision? Are you taking the time to celebrate your small victories along the way? Your 12 seconds and 120 feet in the air?

It’s easy to be wrapped up by a vision for bigger, better and more but we all need to take time to look at what we have already done and see the signs that we are that much closer to flight. Without a doubt, there will be times when you will crash after barely leaving the ground, leaving your plane in need of repair but celebrate the fact you left the ground. Never let go of your vision.

Make the decision to do things the ‘Wright’ way. Decide to celebrate every small accomplishment along the way to your dreams. Celebrate every second you spend off of the ground! Even if it’s only for 12 seconds!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under I Made My Own Lunch, Make Your Own Lunch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.