Inventor and visionary Buckminster Fuller used to tell how his life changed in one instant. He was in despair and considering suicide at the age of 32, when suddenly he heard an inner voice telling him that he should dedicate the rest of his life to making a difference to the world. From that day on, he was driven as he created innovations like the geodesic dome and new approaches to transportation and city planning.
Now a New York Times article reveals: "...it now appears that the suicide story may have been yet another
invention, an elaborate myth that served to cover up a formative period that
was far more tumultuous and unstable, for far longer, than Fuller ever
revealed."
Stanford historian Barry Katz: “If you really look for the details of
his life at the time, it’s easy to see that the suicide story was a creation...That’s why I now call it a myth, but it was an effective myth. It gave
a trajectory to his career. The story was constructed after the fact to show
how he suddenly developed these new ideas. I think he came to believe the story
himself.”
His conclusion:“Fuller’s greatest invention was not a house or a car or a dome. It was
himself.”
I think many successful people create stories about their success after the fact, to make it more dramatic, neater, more inspirational. There's probably no harm in it, but if you're ever discouraged because you haven't had overnight success or dramatic revelations from above, remember--probably neither did they!
