One day, a young boy was looking at the sky. What he saw was beautiful and amazing. The first satellite in the world’s history showed up in the heaven. The boy was so inspired, that after a while, he realized he wants to build a missile.
The first rocket, which he had created with his friends burst out. The same as the second and the third and so on… His peers were making jokes on “rocket boys”, how they called Homer and his friends. Homer’s parents couldn’t ever pay for college, just as everyone in his small town, so he was assumed to become a coal miner like his father. The only way to embody his dream was to win National Science Fair, but obstacles had constantly encountered on Homer’s way. At first, the father of the boy forbade him to construct. Then, the reality of having no money for materials sunk in. Moreover, police accused “rocket boys” in a wildfire, arrested them and precluded missile developing. After Homer had proved their innocence, boys were allowed to continue their work. But another problem was that Homer left school and started working in the mine to gain money on medicine for his father. With all these difficulties it feels like he didn’t have a chance for a better future, but he didn’t stop trying. Homer and his friends finally made a successful rocket and took their designs to the 1960 National Science Fair, where they won a gold and silver medal in the area of propulsion. Thanks to this victory, “rocket boys” got an opportunity to study at college. And nowadays, Homer Hickam is a former NASA engineer and a trainer of astronauts for Space Shuttle missions.
One can describe the Homer’s path to success as tremendously difficult and almost impossible. But this real-life story proves that even if you don’t have enough money, or you are stuck in a negligible town, or you are imposed to be someone you don’t want to, or whatever else – all these don’t matter if you dream big and put an effort.
Winston Churchill once said: “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential”. In my opinion, value of an attempt you make to let your dream come true, is a mirror of your chance to succeed. There is no victory without the effort, so apparently “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
But there is also a different view on this conventional assertion. Some people consider that we are so worried about our to-do-lists, that we forget if the results of these errands really matter and why we have started. In other words, to prevent time-wasting we should spend less time on the work we don’t need and more on the tasks that are overridden. But even by considering the fact that this kind of prioritizing is good for time-management, I reckon that any hard work pays off and is always useful for self-improvement and skills development.
Different opportunities and difficulties are given to us depending on where we were born, that’s why there are as many success formulas as people’s visions. But returning to the story of Homer, I’d like to point out that everyone is able to somehow affect his life and do everything possible to embody his dream.