Every vision is a joke until the first man accomplishes it; once realized, it becomes commonplace.
Interpretation
Innovative ideas are often dismissed until someone proves them possible.
This quote emphasizes that visionary ideas may initially seem unrealistic or humorous until someone has the courage to bring them to fruition. Once these ideas are demonstrated successfully, they shift from being viewed as peculiar or unattainable to being accepted as ordinary or conventional, underscoring the importance of perseverance and innovation in human progress.
In practice
In a motivational speech about entrepreneurship, one might say, 'As Robert H. Goddard remarked, every vision is a joke until realized.'
How many more years I shall be able to work on the problem I do not know; I hope, as long as I live. There can be no thought of finishing, for 'aiming at the stars' both literally and figuratively, is a problem to occupy generations, so that no matter how much progress one makes, there is always the thrill of just beginning.
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
The only barrier to human development is ignorance, and this is not insurmountable.
It is not a simple matter to differentiate unsuccessful from successful experiments. . . .[Most] work that is finally successful is the result of a series of unsuccessful tests in which difficulties are gradually eliminated.
But you can't muscle through a five-hour run that way; you have to relax into it like easing your body into a hot bath, until it no longer resists the shock and begins to enjoy it.
American business can out-think, out-work, out-perform any nation in the world. But we can't beat the competition if we don't get in the ball game.
Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take to get them closer to the fulfillment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them.
The world takes us at our own valuation. It believes in the man who believes in himself, but it has little use for the timid man: the one who is never certain of himself, who cannot rely on his own judgment, who craves advice from others, and is afraid to go ahead on his own account.
It's not like at university where you graduate. Every cyclist must start again. At the end of the season you know if you are good or not.
If you are clear where you are going and you take several steps in that direction every day, you eventually have to get there. If I head north out of Santa Barbara and take five steps a day, eventually I have to end up in San Francisco. So decide what you want, write it down, review it constantly, and each day do something that moves you toward those goals.
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