You CAN Get to the Right Place by Going the WRONG Way
A few weeks ago I wrote a popular post entitled, You Can’t Get to the Right Place by Going the WRONG WAY! It was the story of the homeless guy trying to get from South Florida to Atlanta, Georgia by heading South, the wrong way.
Well, it seems that I need to rethink it. Sometimes you can get to the right place by going the wrong way.
You will remember hearing about Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan who was a pilot who caught America’s fancy in the late 1930’s. It was during the dark days of the Great Depression. Corrigan became a national folk hero and a symbol of those who do things the “wrong way.”
Corrigan’s dream (goal) was to fly across the Atlantic, a feat that had only been accomplished by Lindberg. He filed a flight plan from Newfoundland to Ireland but was denied permission by the authorities. They said his plane was too unsafe.
He then filed a flight plan from New York to Long Beach, California. Twenty-eight hours later he landed in Dublin, Ireland. He told authorities that he accidentally went the WRONG WAY because of low cloud cover and a faulty compass. However, it was noted that he had attached extra fuel tanks to his plane.
Corrigan was lucky to have made it alive. During the flight his fuel tanks started leaking into the cockpit and he used a screwdriver to punch holes in the floorboard to let the fuel drain out. It could have been a disaster had the fuel hit the hot exhaust pipes.
From that day forward he was known a “Wrong Way” Corrigan. He retuned to America and was given a ticker tap parade down Broadway in New York. He became a cultural Icon. Corrigan never admitted that he flew to Ireland intentionally.
There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from Corrigan. But one is that he was determined to accomplish his goal and he wasn’t going to let anyone stop him. Even it meant going the “wrong way” he would achieve his dream. A high point of his life was when President Franklin Roosevelt assured him that he didn’t doubt his story for a minute.
Successful people always find a way.
(Photo: Museum of Flight.)
(Copyright © 2007 By Dan Forbes, All Rights Reserved.
==================
Please give me a call if you have questions abour our Bradenton real estate market. You can reach me, Dan Forbes, at 941-746-0505 or toll free 877-646-8326. Also visit my web site at BradentonFloridaRealEstate.Com and my blog at The Real Estate ZOO.
