2. COURAGE – The Courage of Sarah Emma Edmonds
However, one invention, air valves, led him to what would become his lifelong focus. While visiting New York City, he found a store selling inflatable life preservers. Upon examining them, he found their air valves very poor quality. Knowing he could solve what others found unsolvable, he returned to Philadelphia, deter- mined to devise a better valve. Months later, he returned with an improved valve and presented it to the store clerk. Charles was told he should instead focus on the rubber itself because every one of the store’s life preservers had melted into sticky, stinky blobs. He returned home, ready to do what no one had ever done before, his mind focused on rubber. Upon arriving, he was arrested and locked into a debtors’ prison . This setback did not diminish his confidence that he would find the solution no one else had. His devotion to goals (#3) remained strong. He brought a few samples of rubber and his wife’s rolling pin to his cell and spent his days pressing, folding, and stretching the rubber to figure out its secrets.
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