Estimated Reading time : 6 mins
“If you are born and didn’t run for your dreams, what were you born for?”
The reason why I kept a question mark at the end of the title, is not that it is a question I will answer, but it is the question I was wondering about, a few days back, and also because I want you to think about this question, after you are done reading this article. Why is he a legend? How could he do all that?
The correct answer? I don’t know!
But I tried to dig deep in his life, through documentaries, of course, blogs, nobelprize.org type sources, etc. I don’t know if there is any hierarchy in English literature, about the accurateness of information sources, but I would say, I did my best to find things about him.
Though, I hate putting facts in my articles, firstly, because I want to talk more about emotional side. Secondly, you reading those facts won’t change anything, and third, the most important one, Its too much copy paste.
But, he was born on 14th March 1879 in Ulm, Germany. Someone’s religion makes no significance to me. Hence, I would skip that analysis.
By the way, he shares his birthday with Pi-day. Pi, the endless fraction. Cool!
He was a late talker in his early childhood years, as per many biographies I found of him. His parents got so worried, that they even took him to the doctor once. He was perfectly fine of course.
You know? he used to correct the English of a sentence, in his mind, unless he finds the best articulation, before speaking it.
When he was five years old, his father gifted him a compass. And probably changed his life forever. Who knows? But he was definitely fascinated by looking at the compass needle, automatically aligning itself towards North.
Looking at that needle, he was amazed to realize, that there are some invisible and powerful forces, who are controlling this needle, and all of us. And, the quest started.
While he was in his school, he was a rebellious kid. though he used to perform very good in maths and science, but not much in other subjects. And, his teachers often dislikes him.
His theories are part of every teaching system in the world, but he himself didn’t like the teaching system. Ironical.
Once asked, he said this
“It is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for what this delicate little plant needs more than anything, besides stimulation, is freedom ~Albert Einstein”
He loved playing the violin and accepted that music helped him a lot to relax and come out of something he was stuck in. He just loved Mozart and once said: “Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe”.
By the way, he was quite a women’s man and used to get lots of attention from ladies. And… *Wynk
His first wife Mileva Maric met him while studying at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. They later married in 1903. And, his love life is also none of our business.
What concern us, are his thoughts, especially on social issues. He was very vocal about social issues, especially for Jewish people. During the world war, he tried to unite scientific community, by convincing them that we have a higher purpose other than these wars, but of course. Not many gave attention.
He published his iconic E=mc2 in 1905 when he was just a teenager, that too, two years after marriage. Hmm…
It took many years to prove his ultimate, general theory of relativity because it could have been only proved, through photographs of the sun while full eclipse.
You can go in details about it, elsewhere. But the problem was at that time, telescopes were a precious commodity, that too which can highlight the stars behind the sun, during a full eclipse.
Three attempts were made to capture sun images, across the globe, until it was ultimately, proved in 1919, during a solar eclipse.
He astonished the whole world, with his general theory of relativity. You can imagine a bowling ball, kept over a trampoline. Now, that ball is sun and that depression is on the universe. One of my friends gave me this example.
After reading all these things, I was wondering how he was able to live a normal adult life, when he was working in the patent office in 1905 and still ended up being the “Rockstar”. Oh! he was a rockstar, with his charm and deep eyes. You look at them for a while, you will feel like they are reading your mind.
He had a complete rock star life in the whole scientific community. You know? Once, he was offered the presidency of Israel, and he was very happy to get that, but he politely denied.
A life just like us, office and home, strangled in many things, could be women, could be deadlines, etc. Everything was kind of, same with him. Yet he rose to the heights of success and glory.
What was that something inside him, which distinguished him apart from all of those billions of people, who will come and go without making a noise? Again, this is the question I was wondering.
Correct answer? I don’t know!
But, in my pursuit, I saw two things in him. There could be people who can articulate 100 things. But I am just a normal retarded, like you. Though I can debate that these two things can explain all his other qualities, but that is a conversation for some other place, not here.
Anyways, I saw two things in him. One was his love for imagination and the other was his talent. Yes, all that hype which I created earlier, came to this one line.
But, let’s dive deeper into each of them, how he was in love with imagination? You know there is a story that, once he was in his class, and a ray of sunlight was falling on his hand. And he was trying to imagine, how it would feel like, to travel with a beam of light particles. You try and imagine you are traveling with a single photon of the light. How that world would be?
By the way, out of his imagination to travel with a beam of light, he later perfected a theory, which is still a landmark for the scientific community. Name of the theory? I don’t remember, and I don’t want to make a technical article. I hate maths. But it was something related to photons, can’t remember the exact name, and I am too tired to change the tab and google.
Coming back to the imagination part, we dream with our eyes open and we imagine ourselves doing something outstanding, A simple concept, known as daydreaming.
We dream many things, like we are a Rockstar, performing in a rock concert with millions of people going mad. Haha! Or driving a Harley- Davidson, etc. I think we all use our imagination to feel that moment, to feel that fame, appreciation, love, and limelight. But not how to reach there.
I observed that Einstein used his imagination in also finding ways to achieve that dream. He wanted to build an equation, which can predict everything in the universe. Not the future- past thing, or maybe that too, who knows, but all the laws of the nature co-existing together and explained through only one equation. (As per History channel) You trust the history channel. rite?
Imagine, how grand this dream was, to explain everything through one line of equation.
So, the point is, that he used his imaginations, such as, about traveling with light, about how time will stop when you will run with speed of light, why do you experience weightlessness, when you free falling. These imaginations helped him in the pursuit of his dreams, as a result. he presented some of the most astonishing theories, in front of the scientific world and mankind.
Now, let us talk about talent. Well again, you can find a list of them on the internet, but he was definitely good at maths and physics. From his childhood only, he was doing great in maths and solving equations.
He was often seen solving equations on anything he can find his hands on, always thinking something,. who knows what all dreams he had? But he definitely used his talent to quantify his imaginations.
He is the perfect case of awesome synergy between dreams, actions, and talent. He used to imagine about invisible forces, who control our world and he executed the needful with his talent, to explain those forces.
But not everyone is good at maths, certainly not. I just hate maths, and even more the equations. We all are not meant to like same things. Rite? But we can surely get inspired by a person, just like us, a normal person with dreams, who later became The Einstein, and gave some of the most revealing theories of the mankind. Einstein is not alive anymore, but he is definitely immortal with his work.
Well, that is his story,
his talent, his dreams,
and his glory.
What’s yours? You don’t want to be Einstein. rite? It is not possible on this planet. Everybody lives once. What’s done is done! But you can surely look forward to being you. Best you! A legend of something, about which, sons of your grandsons will be reading in their curriculum. Wynk*
Find your dreams, imagine ways to reach them, and use your talent to make them come true.
Dream! It’s a good thing to do. 🙂
~R
Time to think about the question ” Why Einstein is “The Einstein”? Give it a thought, and relate yourself with it. Who knows? you might find something about him or may be something about you.
An Observer 