If you tell me something isn’t possible, I’m going to do everything in my power to prove you wrong. Impossible is a “lazy” word in my mind. It means deciding something can’t be done without vetting out options. In life, I hear people use the word “Impossible” more than the words “Possibly” or “Probably.” In my life, use that word around me, and prepare to learn exactly how wrong you might be.
My Story:
This story happened back when I was a Senior at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. I was working at ViA Inc. under a great group of leaders in my first start-up company. I was balancing classes and work, but candidly, doing a horrible job of it. When class ended, I’d find my way downtown and write a few thousand lines of code and then get some food… go to sleep.
I received an email earlier in the day that we had an important client (a coffee company) coming into our office the next day to take a look at using our wearable computers for some line-busting applications during their peak hours. By the time class finished up, it was a little after 4PM when I arrived downtown and I spoke to my boss about the meeting. He informed me that despite the size of the opportunity, we’d just show them an example of using our computers to inspect vehicles for defects. — I had a quick conversation with him about this and then the bomb dropped. I made the comment that “we totally should do a demo that wows them and is specific for their coffee use-cases.” I quickly received the response, “That’s impossible. — It can’t be done.”
I spent the next hour catching up on other items all the while telling myself, “I know I can do this.” — I had a great set of tools and libraries to help me get started. I went home, grabbed some dinner and in my empty apartment told myself I’m doing this. — I stopped at the liquor store, picked up a 6-pack of Henry Weinhardts beer and headed into work.
The code was FLYING out of my fingers much like when Ralphie was decoding the little-orphan Annie message in “A Christmas Story.” — It was beautiful… I wish I had done a line-count of the code I created that night. By about Midnight I had the mobile code written up and I decided to make a custom monitor so as the orders were taken they would show up on an over-head monitor. I finished that code by about 2AM. — After about an hour of Quality Assurance on it, I began wrapping it up and by 4AM the systems were loaded for the next day.
At 9AM the next day, our guests and my boss came over and we started the demo. I was showing speech-recognition based orders popping up on monitors which simulated the role of the barista. Everyone, including my CEO and VP’s were blown away. — The customer was shocked. As the group walked out, my boss was left and looked at me… puzzled. He asked, “Did you do this all yourself?” — I replied, “yes”. He asked, “When did I finish?” — I told him a little after 4AM. — He replied, “Well, I guess you can make impossible things possible.” — I smiled.
How I practice it today:
Impossible isn’t a word that exists in my vocabulary and people that work with me know not to use that word. Some things cannot be achieved, but it’s so much more genuine to truly try something first and risk being wrong than to slap the label, “Impossible” on something. My gift today, never slap the word “Impossible” on anything or let someone tell you something isn’t possible. Impossible is a lazy word and should be eliminated if you truly want to be exceptional.
A Gift from your Father 