At the age of nineteen, during the Korean War, I was in the Marine Corps and in Japan. On my first day of duty an officer told me, “You are a machinist and will be in charge of the machine shop.” As he gave me the shop keys, he pointed to a trailer. In the Marine Corps, everything is on wheels. When I opened the doors, I had my first look ever at a machine shop. In the shop was one short instruction manual titled “How to Run a Lathe.” When a job came in, I followed the manual"s instructions. I was surprised at my ability to complete assigned tasks. The Marine Corps experience launched my machinist career. It also made me realize that learning howtolearn is a powerful tool. For example, every manmade object around us is the result of someone"s dream and failures. Consider the light bulb. Thomas Edison believed something could burn whitehot and not burn up. A wild unrealistic dream? Everyone knows everything burns up in a short time. A thousand failures later, Thomas Edison burned a steel wire white hot that never burned up. Continuous white heat creates light.
Opportunity is attracted to people with a dream. They are the first to be hired, first to be offered opportunity, and first to be promoted. Bigger the dream the faster doors open. People without a dream are last to be hired, last to be promoted, and first to be laidoff in a force reduction. For nondreamers, doors remain closed. “WHY?” People with a dream act differently than non dreamers. Dreamers develop an attitude that radiates energy; they have a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives. Radiant energy is an attitude that bosses like and to which they offer opportunity. This is how the impossible becomes possible.
When I was discharged from the Marine Corps, I decided people were right, my wild teenage dream was ridicules. Real people do not drift across oceans on rafts. I am now an adult, I should think and act like one. The raft dream was dead. For the next five years my life went nowhere, my ambition, hope, dreams were gone. Something else was also gone...Opportunity that came fast during my earlier years also dried up.
One day I dusted off the KonTiki book. My dream jumped off the pages and came to life. I said to myself, “I must find a way!” Two years later, I was in Hawaii and learned how the Polynesian people populated the Pacific Islands in dugout canoes 2,000 years ago. My dream was changed from a raft to a dugout canoe. At this time, opportunity came back and fast.
I helped crew a 36foot sailboat from Hawaii to California. This provided my ocean sailing experience. Next, I was hired by the Panama Canal Company, Panama. Soon, my supervisor asked me to attend hardhat diver school at company expense. With this skill, money was no longer a problem.
A short time later, I was living on a beach in Tahiti building a 40foot Polynesian doublehull boat named Liki Tiki. The hulls were built by Choco Indians in the Darien Providence of Panama and shipped to Tahiti. I built the boat according to popular theory and information supplied by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Three days at sea convinced me the doublehull theory was wrong. The two hulls worked against each other and would soon breakup.
Back in Panama, I took the problem to the Indians in the Darien Jungle. They said, “Outriggers is what works.” I then succeed in sailing a 36foot dugout canoe with outriggers, named Liki Tiki too, from Panama, 5,000 miles, to Hawaii.