Thomas Edison created the first electricity-generating plant in the 1870s. At this time, and up until the late 1880s, all electricity ran through a direct current. It wasn’t until 1888, when a physicist by the name of Nikola Tesla released his polyphase induction motor, that electricity changed. Polyphase motors are used in an alternating current. To keep it simple, an alternating current is more efficient than the commonly used direct current.

So what does this history/physics lesson have to do with anything? Well, at that time, if you were using electricity, you were using a direct current; that’s just how it was. But Tesla, being the inventor that he was, went into the unknown and developed a more efficient way to transmit power.

Granted, he did not do this all on his own, Tesla created the most common form of electricity that we use today. He had no idea what his polyphase motor could turn into or what it could do for the world, but he still went for it. Go ahead and take a risk, you never how big your small idea could become.

-Connor

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."

-Henry Ford

Words spoken almost 100 years ago, but still ring so true today.  When you are forging new territories and doing things that haven't been done before, there are always going to be obstacles that spring up in your path.  You can choose to focus on those problems and use them as excuses to not achieve your goal or you can keep your eye on the prize and deal with these issues as the minor speed bumps that they likely are, and keep pushing forward.  It is your choice, so choose wisely...

Seth Godin shares a lot of genius in very few words. The daily emails of his blog post I receive are rarely longer than a paragraph, and contain nondescript wisdom that is as simple as it is effective.

This recent blog post was basic enough that I had to re-read it to really catch the importance of these simple words and basic sentences. Sometimes K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) really is the best rule to live by:

"The second time you create that breakthrough...it only takes a few minutes. Because it's not a breakthrough.

Breakthroughs are slow because you don't know how to do it...

Re-creation is fast, because you already know how.

The art of the breakthrough is the practice of figuring out all the ways to not do it on your way to an insight.

Don't curse the dead ends and the failures. They're the key element of the work you're doing. 

We find our way by getting lost. Anything other than that is called reading a map."

The failures and dead ends are imperative to achieve a dream of anything bigger. So attempt big things, fail fast and bask in the art of the breakthrough.

Steve Jobs would be proud.