How the Spectacular Brooklyn Bridge Was Built: A Story of Dogged Determination

Below is the story of how the Brooklyn Bridge was built.

In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island. However bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat and told Roebling to forget the idea. It just could not be done. It was not practical. It had never been done before. Roebling could not ignore the vision he had in his mind of this bridge. He thought about it all the time and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. He just had to share the dream with someone else. After much discussion and persuasion he managed to convince his son Washington, an up and coming engineer, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished and how the obstacles could be overcome. With great excitement and inspiration, and the headiness of a wild challenge before them, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge. The project started well, but when it was only a few months underway a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was also injured and left with a certain amount of brain damage, which resulted in him not being able to talk or walk.

“We told them so.” “Crazy men and their crazy dreams.” “It’s foolish to chase wild visions.” Everyone had a negative comment to make and felt that the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. He tried to inspire and pass on his enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task.

As he lay on his bed in his hospital room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows, a gentle breeze blew the flimsy white curtains apart and he was able to see the sky and the tops of the trees outside for just a moment.It seemed that there was a message for him not to give up. Suddenly an idea hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this, he slowly developed a code of communication with his wife. He touched his wife’s arm with that finger, indicating to her that he wanted her to call the engineers again. Then he used the same method of tapping her arm to tell the engineers what to do. It seemed foolish but the project was under way again.

For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife’s arm, until the bridge was finally completed. Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man’s indomitable spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances. It is also a tribute to the engineers and their team work, and to their faith in a man who was considered mad by half the world. It stands too as a tangible monument to the love and devotion of his wife who for 13 long years patiently decoded the messages of her husband and told the engineers what to do.

Perhaps this is one of the best examples of a never-say-die attitude that overcomes a terrible physical handicap and achieves an impossible goal. Often when we face obstacles in our day-to-day life, our hurdles seem very small in comparison to what many others have to face. The Brooklyn Bridge shows us that dreams that seem impossible can be realised with determination and persistence, no matter what the odds are.

Source: http://academictips.org/blogs/determination-and-persistence/

I do not want to undermine the impact this story may have on you, so I refuse to make comments. I strongly believe you have learned some lessons from the story.

Have You Written Your Bucket List?

“Every man dies – Not every man really lives.” ~ William Ross

Do you have a bucket list? Or maybe I should ask, “Have you heard of the term ‘bucket list’?’’ I first came across the term ‘bucket list’ from the 2007 film, The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. If you don’t have an idea of what the term means, below is an example of a bucket list.

1. Write a book
2. Take singing lessons.
3. Take my grandmother on a vacation to the destination of her choice.
4. Build or buy a home.
5. Take my children to the White House
6. Travel around the country
7. Travel the World.
8. Fly first class on an international trip.
9.     Write your memoir
10. Publish a book
11. Learn to play a new musical instrument.
12. Learn painting.
13. Learn photography.
14. Learn how to start a business.
15. Start a blog.
16. Public speaking.
17. Own your dream home.
18. Own your dream car.
19. Start a company
20. Donate blood

Does it look like goal setting? For me, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about goals but wishes. A bucket list is list of all the things you desire to experience during your lifetime. Your bucket list contains all the wishes and desires that you have always wanted to fulfill. Having a bucket list reminds you of what’s really important so you can act on them. Your bucket list is your wish list. The reason I said bucket lists don’t have to be about goals is because the activities or experiences listed don’t have to be time-bound. 

Your bucket list is just a way of writing down all the memorable and exciting experiences you want for your life. And it serves as constant reminder of all those things you want to do. It is all about fun and excitement and our fulfillment in life should not depend on whether we have checked off the items on our bucket list. I believe a bucket list will help us to quickly make up our mind or give us focus when we are thinking of memorable activities to do.

Some people prefer to call their list life list instead of bucket list because of the negative connotation they feel bucket list has. The phrase ‘bucket list,’ is believed to have derived from "kick the bucket", which is a euphemism for death. So whether you want to call it bucket list, wish list or life list, what is your list going to look like? You can come up with as many items as you can. Thus, your list can be as long as you want it. So are you ready to write your bucket list now? I can assure you that it’s going to be fun. There is really no harm in trying, you know?

Here is a peep into my bucket list:

 To attend Joseph Prince’s church – New Creation Church – in Singapore and listen to him preach, and 

         also interact with him.

 To watch Arsenal play at the Emirates.

 To visit World Changers Church in Chicago, USA and hear Creflo Dollar preach.

 To visit Kenneth Copeland’s church in Forth Worth, Texas, USA and hear him preach.

 To visit Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas and hear Joel Osteen preach.

Now that you have taken a peep into my bucket list, I want you to take your pen and book, or your tablet, or create a file on your PC or even create a note on your mobile phone and draw up your bucket list. You may think your bucket list is just a list of mere wishes. But I want you to understand that your bucket can be likened to a summary of your dreams. And whatever your mind can conceive, you are likely to achieve. So don’t be afraid. Dream big. Write your bucket list and expect your wishes to come to pass.

Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Others Who Obeyed the 10000-Hour Principle

“Champions do not become champions when they win an event, but in the hours, weeks, and months, and years they spend preparing for it. The victorious performance itself is merely a demonstration of their championship character.”

The statement above is credited to Michael Jordan who is arguably the best basket ball player ever. Jordan’s long time coach, Phil Jackson reveals that it was hard work that made him a legend. When Jordan first entered the league, his jump shot wasn't good enough. He spent his off season taking hundreds of jumpers a day until it was perfect. He says Jordan's defining characteristic wasn't his talent but the humility to know he had to work constantly to be the best.

From childhood, Serena and Venus Williams would go to the tennis court at 6 o’clock in the morning before going to school and when they returned from school, go back for tennis practice. Any wonder then the two of them have dominated women’s tennis.

Kobe Bryant spends his free time endlessly practicing jump shots. Workers at his club, the Los Angeles Lakers say he is always doing the same thing at their practice facility at all hours of the day and night.

It is reported that Demosthenes, a great orator of Ancient Greece, stammered and was inarticulate as a youth yet became a great orator through dedicated practice which included placing pebbles in his mouth.

I read that Tiger Woods’ father started teaching him golf at eighteen months. So it should not be too surprising that he took the world of golf by storm at age eighteen.

The Beatles performed live in Germany over 1,200 times between 1960 and 1964 and by the time they went back to England they had become inimitable. Those hours spent performing paid off.

Bill Gates gained access to a computer in 1968 at the age of 13 and spent thousands of hours programming on it. His efforts have been hugely rewarded.

In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell is said to have posited that to become a world-class expert in any field, an individual needs to practice for ten thousand (10,000) hours. It is known as the 10,000-hour rule or principle. His argument is that it takes about 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to truly master a skill. 10,000 hours of dedicated practice in a particular area of interest will make a person an expert. The 10000-hour principle was not propounded by Gladwell though; he only popularised it.

I read in another place that scientific research has concluded that it takes eight to twelve years of training for a talented player/athlete to reach elite levels and that this is called the ten-year or 10,000-hour rule, which translates to slightly more than three hours of practice daily for ten years. I also read that research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. Through practice, you can become what you desire to become.

Hope you are getting the drift of this write-up. This is it: the key to attaining phenomenal success in any endeavour is, to a great extent, a matter of practicing or doing a specific task over and over. I am not asking you to start striving towards meeting the 10000-hour mark. All I am saying is that for us to be hugely successful in whatever we have chosen to do, we must do it over and over again. We should not be waiting for lady luck to smile on us.

Before you jump out to begin your practice, listen to what Michael Jordan has to say: “You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.”

Did you get that? Through practice or repeated performance is very essential, it should be done the right way. It is important to practice the right way. And I want to add that if you must commit hours to a particular task or activity, such activity must be what you really enjoy or else you will be sentencing yourself to a life of dissatisfaction, disappointment and frustration.

I couldn’t resist the urge to end this piece with another inspiring quote from Michael Jordan: “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. . . . I can accept failure, but I can’t accept not trying.”