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Whether we listen to a sonata of Beethoven’s, watch highlight reels of Michael Jordan, or learn a law of Newton’s,
First, that the seed of greatness exists in every human being.
Whether we’re talking birthdays in sports, or the fact that Bill Gates just happened to go to a high school that housed one of the most advanced computers of the time—a computer that most colleges didn’t even have—we can easily see that being in the right place (physical, educational, societal, or otherwise) at the right time can influence our destinies as much as anything else.
Opportunities are whispers, not foghorns.
“there is a boundary to men’s passions when they act from feelings; but none when they are under the influence of imagination.” Imagination is the life force of the genius code. This force amplifies and colors every other piece of the code, and unlocks our potential for understanding and ability.
In every field of human endeavor, the more visionary the work, the less likely it is to be quickly understood and embraced by lesser minds.
Edison referred to him as a “damn good man.”
He had a dream of providing electricity throughout the entire United States, and he believed that alternating current was the future of electrical generation and long-distance transmission.
He also immediately began research into what he termed “radiant energy.”
More personally, he was heavily invested both financially and emotionally in his direct current network of generators and distribution lines.
James Clerk Maxwell had proven mathematically that light was electromagnetic radiation—electricity that was vibrating at an extremely high frequency. In 1888, Heinrich Hertz had confirmed that an electric spark emits electromagnetic waves.
It was a device that took normal sixty-cycle-per-second alternating current electricity and stepped it up to an ultra-high frequency of hundreds-of-thousands of cycles per second, and extremely high voltages. Tesla used his coil to invent the first high-efficiency, high-frequency fluorescent lamp.
He immediately envisioned a network of transmission stations that would provide free, wireless energy to not only the United States, but the world.
He found that the earth was “literally alive with electrical vibrations,” and that the entire planet can be “thrown into vibration like a tuning fork.”
“He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment.
“imagination is more important than knowledge,” because “knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Ray Bradbury said that thinking is the enemy of creativity because it’s self-conscious. When you think you sit calmly and try
The more varied your knowledge and experiences are, the more likely you are to be able to create new associations and fresh ideas.
