- Morning Bites
- Posts
- Uncharted territory 🗺️
He says the best way out is always through
And I agree to that, or in so far
As I can see no way out but through.
So is the story of General Ulysses S. Grant and his journey in cracking the defenses of Vicksburg, a city high on the cliffs of the Mississippi, critical to the Confederacy’s stranglehold.
He tried everything he could, from attacking head-on to digging a new canal that would change the course of the river.
Nothing worked.
Meanwhile, the newspapers chattered. Months had gone by without any glimpse of progress. Even Lincoln himself had become desperate and had sent a replacement, but Grant refused to rattle nor desist. He knew there had to be a weakspot. We would either find it, or make one himself.
He finally tried something which to the untrained eye might’ve seemed stupid.
He chose to run the boats right in front of the gun batteries guarding the river.
After a nighttime firefight, most of the boats left unharmed and came ashore 30 miles from their target.
The strategy?
Leave most supplies behind and make their way up the river.
It was much riskier since they had to live off the land, but this also meant a faster pace for his soldiers.
Taking town by town on their way up, they finally arrived and laid siege until Vicksburg surrendered.
But beyond having succeeded, Grant had been sent a message, loud and clear:
He would never give up. His victory wouldn’t be pretty, but it was inexorable.
Modern media has led us to believe behind every single case of massive success there’s thousands of hours of planning and a single yet perfect execution of a plan born out of an epiphany.
Reality is much more chaotic.
As modern engineers like to say:
FAILURE IS A FEATURE
Like any good school, learning from failure isn’t free. The tuition is paid in discomfort or loss and having to start over.
By discovering all the wrong ways to do it, Grant found the one way that it did.
Same goes with Thomas Edison’s story and the incandescent lights. Around 1878, several people where experimenting with it, yet Edison was the only one willing to test over six thosuand different filaments!
PROVING THAT GENIUS IS JUST PERSISTENCE IN DISGUISE
And so, in our search for success, we must not desist, we must stop looking for an epiphany. Instead, we must empty our options and try every possibility we can think of.
Only then you’ll get there.
What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first steps to something better.