With his ideas still informant, Albert Einstein was 22 years old when he sat out alone on foot across the Alps. In his youthful passage through the mountains he longed to grasp the hidden design, the underline principles of nature. Throughout his life, Einstein would look for the harmony, not only in his science but in the world of men. The world wanted to know Albert Einstein and yet he remained a mystery to those who only saw public face and perhaps to himself as well. However, the next 7 practical life lessons can reveal Einstein’s way of thinking and formulating the miracles in former times.
1. Follow Your Curiosity
“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious”
What Einstein is trying to deliver with this message, is that curiosity forefront him through all the foundations during his life. We may say that we are curious, but we often snap when we need action to reveal and answer question marks. Follow your curiosity, whatever that is. It will endlessly go deeper and deeper. That’s what divides us from being average. Digging in places where no one before thought miracles will be found so deep. Keep digging your vision and answer all the questions. You will be amazed how life can be extraordinary with continuous curiosity.
2. Perseverance Is Priceless
“It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”
Besides from Einstein, as many researches as I have previously done (especially on highly successful people), I’ve concluded that perseverance is what brought them the major discoveries. They say that every problem you can think of has at least one solution. If we keep staying with that problem, chopping and pinching it from every corner, we will discover at least one solution. So whatever you can think of, such as your vision, you can always get over anything on the way if you include perseverance in your character. Don’t ever give up on your unsolved problems.
3. Make Mistakes
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
It’s not deliberately the meaning of “make a mistake and you will follow Einstein’s path”. It means that we should forcefully attack the fears and the unknowns. We may want to go and work in Alaska, but we will never discover how it feels to work in Alaska if we stay in Chicago. Dare to discover and dare to make mistakes. That’s what divides people from successful and unsuccessful. You will never learn to conquer the weak sides if we don’t dare to try and be wrong.
4. Create Value
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”
Most people approach the word “success” wrongly. It’s not just being bare-wealthy and having big firm who runs mechanically without your existence. Success is about getting all mentioned before, step by step, so we will be able to appreciate those things while we create and sustain them. Someone of value inspires others to live the right way and do the right thing. Live in accordance with one’s religious, philosophical, or spiritual values. A person of value has ethics, morality, decency, integrity, principles and honesty. All those things one should strive to attain.
5. Knowledge Comes From Experience
“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”
When we see a capable and apt person in a given situation, we conclude that the person is experienced. Not because they read a lot and they have big library at home, but because they were in a lot of similar situations and now have vast knowledge in that area. Coming from number three, we should strive to make mistakes and gain experience of how “not to” approach particular problem. That’s how experience is gained.
6. Learn The Rules And Then Play Better
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”
We are taught the rules of the game our whole lives. Whether we like it or not, we are obliquely learned to play by the rules. For example, rules of the game to become a success are to be persistent, preserve, and to gain experience all the time. If we learn to preserve, persist and to gain experience more than others, we will always be one step ahead from everyone. It doesn’t mean that you have to behave like everyone else or do the same things other successful people do. Once you have a full understanding of the rules of the game, you can have the power to play better, challenge the rules of the game, or to change them.
7. The Imagination Is Powerful
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
While we cleared the term of knowledge and experience, imagination is something similar to 3D world in our heads. I firmly believe that imagination is coming from knowledge, experience, and most of all, reading. Reading things in our sphere, say, blogging and SEO (if I am the case) there is nothing that I can’t imagine and do to make my website viral. The power to imagine is the power to formulate clear picture of how your future will be painted if you do a particular thing. Short example: We play football and I have the ball. If I try to dribble, I would have few options. The worst is to lose the ball and make possible counter attack, but if I succeed to dribble one player, I will leave one player open free for passing and I will positively open the game on our behalf. Imagination would be a lot more complex than this when we have life waiting on us to make decisions, but life is also made up of all sorts of small choices. Imagination is what will serve best to do the better ones. Featured photo credit: Albert Einstein/Peter Wagner via flickr.com
