2025 Issue #25 🚲

Happy Sunday, Reader!

Greetings from Sheboygan, where in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the release of Penguins Can't Fly this month, this is the third in a series of lessons we can learn from some historical rulebreakers, Wilbur and Orville Wright.

What are you waiting for?

It seems we're always waiting for something before we can begin.

We are waiting until we get the degree.

We are waiting until the kids leave the nest or until we retire.

We are waiting until we know all the steps.

We are waiting until we finalize the plan.

We are waiting until we feel ready.

We are waiting until we feel courageous.

We are waiting for a vote of confidence.

We are waiting for inspiration.

We are waiting for permission.

We are waiting for a sign.

We are waiting for the stars to align, the sun to come out, and conditions to be perfect.

We are waiting for just one last thing before the rest of our lives can begin.

Meanwhile, sand slips through the hourglass, turning into minutes, days, and years.

Patience is a virtue, and there are times in life when only patience will do. But more times than not, our waiting is just a form of hiding. Adultitis sabotages us before we even begin.

One thing that stands out to me about the Wright Brothers is that they didn't waste a lot of time waiting.

Other people working on achieving sustained flight of an engine-powered, heavier-than-air aircraft were highly educated experts. Giants in their fields. The Wrights only had high school diplomas. They didn't put their dream on pause to get a degree. Instead, they read books on math and physics, studied and observed birds in flight, and collected data from their own experiments. They needed knowledge and experience, not a piece of paper.

They didn't wait for funding from investors. The big money went to the more well-known, more highly educated experts in the race. Orville and Wilbur were nobodies. Unknown and irrelevant. They didn't have investors, an inheritance from a wealthy father, or a winning lottery ticket in their pocket. They had a mildly successful business that provided just enough profit to self-fund their experiments, bit by bit.

They also didn't wait until they had a full plan in place before taking their first steps. They tinkered, learning as they went. Even though the whole point was to figure out how to make a self-powered plane, they didn't even bother with a motor until they could figure out how to master lift, balance, and control. Their competitors floundered trying to accomplish everything all at once. Business plans are useful thought experiments, but they are no guarantee of success and become largely irrelevant when exposed to real life.

After the brothers had cracked the nut of manned flight, they tried selling their invention to the U.S. government. Their first few attempts were met with doubt and disinterest. Instead of giving up, they went to Europe. It was only upon becoming celebrities there after successful, well-publicized public demonstrations in France, that the United States finally offered a contract.

On the surface, it may seem like the brothers didn't have anything going for them. But Orville himself denied that emphatically. “It isn‘t true to say we had no special advantages. The greatest thing in our favor was growing up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity.“

They rode that curiosity to the heights.

In addition, the brothers lived in a time permeated with possibility. As David McCullough recounts in his book, The Wright Brothers:

We can't choose the family we come from or the age in which we were born, but we can choose to surround ourselves with people who are optimistic and open to possibility. We can choose to go to places where opportunity lives. This is the secret of Silicon Valley and why it's such a hotbed of innovation. When you are immersed in an environment filled with people who just do things, you realize that you can just do things, too.

Adultitis is the king of convincing you that you absolutely need just one more thing before you begin. It's really just trying to kill time and run out the clock on you.

You don't need to wait for the diploma (or the pink slip) to start looking for your dream job.

You don't need to wait to become a millionaire before you start being generous.

You don't need to wait to feel courageous before you can act bravely.

Yes, you will need some patience, but you don't need permission to start chasing your dream.

The clock is ticking.

Don't wait for the terminal diagnosis to start living.

🤔 I wonder...what are you waiting for? Hit reply to share your thoughts with me, or join the conversation in the Escape Adulthood League!

Stay young and stay fun,

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