How to get off the Ground

13A – Reading Reflection No. 1

I read The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. I love reading Biographies, and had a lot of fun with this one. It was a great story and as someone who has loved airplanes since I was a kid it was just very cool to get more context on the first flyer and everything it took to get there.

1)

• What surprised you the most?
• I had no idea that it took years after they first flew for it to be commonly accepted or that there was ever any doubt in their invention after the first success at Kitty Hawk. I had seen all the pictures they took of their tests and of the first flight so I would not have expected that they would be not trusted with so much evidence, but their reasons for keeping everything secret were valid. 

• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
• I was most impressed by the moment after their fist tests at Kitty Hawk when they realized that the total knowledge on aerodynamics made in history so far could only take them partially there. With that realization, they didn't give up and quickly got over disappointment to commit themselves to making their own measurements, theories, and all new tools and equipment without help.
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
• I think their ways of dealing with interpersonal conflict could be improved. When the fight was between the two brothers that had an almost comical ability to see the other sides point of view and would switch sides of a debate and argue against their original positions, but when the conflict was with other people they sometimes had difficulty reaching an agreement or compromising. This is a small complaint and I really had to think to find one because they were so amazing to learn about.
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
• They encountered years of problems, setbacks, injuries, and doubts but managed to continue forcing their way through. Because they were a pair, they relied on each other to face the problems but together they still had to try to do things that no one had done. 

2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 

Both brothers shared an amazing assurance that they could not afford to wait or be held back from their discovery. They never took time off (except to save money at the bike shop, but even then they were working on the flyers in all spare hours) and never delayed any step of their process except for safety and lack of means. The also were obviously talented mechanically and creatively. They never stopped learning, valued knowledge, and used that to help people. 

3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you.

I had trouble putting some of these events into my mental timeline of history because it is in between eras of history I have read books on. By the end of it I was drawing really cool connections and had found where it fit in the web of facts and events I'm trying to expand by reading biographies in my free time.

4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why?

How did you pick the one thing you knew you had to do? I am currently trying to figure out some big questions about what I want to do in the next few years and as a job after.

Would you have gone to college and pursued more formal education if possible? I think it would be interesting to see if they would value college and more traditional knowledge if it meant taking time from their inventing.

5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion?

I think the brothers needed hard work to keep themselves happy and occupied, it was what motivated and rewarded them. I get that concept to some degree, but am obviously much more inclined to enjoy work when I have it but slower to create my own grand projects and stick to them.