persistence
Kept going when the world said stop, and was usually right.
The Bucket List
A college dropout found him in four days with a bucket list.
The Man Who Could Not Swim
He crossed every ocean alone and considered learning to swim entirely pointless.
The Postman Who Built a Palace
He tripped on a stone in 1879 and spent the next thirty-three years building a palace out of the ones he found on the way home.
The Man Who Stabbed a Bible
A century before the Civil War, a four-foot-seven cave-dweller in a military coat walked into a Quaker meeting and sprayed fake blood on every slaveholder in the room.
The Woman Who Walked to Lhasa
At fifty-five, she disguised herself as a beggar pilgrim and walked into the most forbidden city on earth.
The Man Who Couldn't Stop Walking
He left home for a sixteen-month pilgrimage and came back twenty-four years later.
The Chemist Who Tasted Everything
He described hydrogen cyanide as having a 'pleasantly sharp acidulous flavor,' the way someone else might describe a good Riesling.
The Woman Who Calculated Everything
She funded her physics research by calculating card game odds and winning.
The Girl Who Was Struck by Lightning
Her neighbors believed she became a genius because lightning killed three women standing next to her when she was fifteen months old.
The Man Who Recorded Everything
After nearly walking into Lake Michigan in 1927, Buckminster Fuller decided instead to document his entire life in fifteen-minute intervals.