Before going through the success story of one of the brightest minds of his generation, as well as someone we still look up to today, Albert Einstein, I would like to address something which I feel people tend to take for granted today, and that is the power of will. We have the will to do whatever we want today; we know there is a God up there and he does not meddle into our affairs. He has given everyone the ability to become whatever they want to be. God told Abraham in the bible “As far as your eyes can see, which means one thing, your circumstances are not the problem, you are your problem.

Looking at this topic, I remember what Jim Bob Arnold said about 22 years ago, which was one of the most motivating things for me, he said “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” You have a responsibility to your self to become what you want to be.

Part 1

Talking about Einstein, the first thing that would come to mind is that he was a genius, but this was not always the case. As a kid, Einstein did not speak till he was four and it was so bad to the point that he could not read till he was seven, which caused everyone including his parents and teachers to think he was anti-social, slow and even handicapped. In the light of this problem, he was eventually expelled from school and refused admission into the Zurich Polytechnic School. Even though it took him a little bit longer than others, he ultimately did well in the end, changing the face of modern physics and winning the Nobel Prize in the end.

Part 2

Looking at everything, the way things were going, many would say that Einstein would never succeed at anything, little did they know how wrong they were. Despite difficulties with his higher education, Einstein did not give up. He wrote an application to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology where he failed the entrance exam. He applied for the second time and was then admitted, despite all the challenges. As time went on, moving on in school, he got his doctoral dissertation rejected by the school as it was termed farfetched and irrelevant which I suspect came back to hunt them later on as his intelligence became evident to the world.

Once he graduated from college despite all the odds, he started as an office clerk in a patent office. The fun thing about this aspect of his life is that he never lost sight of what he wanted and he said he liked the job because it was one which needed less mental strength and allowed him more time to study and research scientific theories he was working on. He was so into his studies and research that he often forgot to simple things like putting on socks before his shoes. He also misplaced the day’s payroll check most of the time because he used it as a bookmark for his research.

The most important thing to point out from all of this is that despite all of Einstein’s rejections and setbacks from the people and even the educational system is that he continued to fight for what he believed in. He kept on with his studies, theories and experimentation. To tell you how much he worked, nobody recognized his work until his theory of relativity was published. This did not come without its setbacks as many scientists throughout the world thought him to be unrealistic, saying that his theories were worthless and useless, even going as far as saying that he was mad.

Einstein went on to become a professor at the University of Zurich and afterwards, a professor of theoretical physics at Prague. His story proves to all, especially those who doubt themselves that you can do whatever you want to do as long as you set your mind to it. He proved to all that he had a brilliant mind as he won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921.

Never give up, never doubt yourself and most of all, believe you can do anything because you are only as good as your self-image.