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Ask total strangers to name a physicist. Their response, if any, will be Albert Einstein. (One can only hope that Morgan Freeman‘s name is not suggested.) Require a woman’s name and the reply can only be, “Marie Curie,” the only name any will know.
Madame Curie can teach you a great deal about technology persuasion, as will soon be revealed.
Manya Sklodovska, as she was called by her family, was born in Warsaw, November 7, 1867. Publicity concerning this, her 144th birthday, has, unfortunately, descended to the customary 21st century pretentions, a graphic biography in which art displaces science, and a Google Doodle that spells her name with left-over Halloween pumpkins. Regretfully, we have drained the intellectual pool of any physics, chemistry, or mathematics interest.
The real Marie Curie was an ocean.
She was born the fourth girl and the fifth child of a moderately successful Polish headmaster. In a Poland oppressed and suffocated by Russian rulers, a Russian-appointed bureaucrat soon replaced her father as director of the school. When Marie was eight years old, a sister died of typhus, brought to the house by borders her father had taken in to raise money for her mother’s long bout with tuberculosis. That bout ended two years later. Marie was ten.
After finishing what we would term High School, Marie made a pact with her sister, Bronya. Since they were too poor for both of them to go to college, simultaneously, Marie would work as a governess (a lowly position) and send money to Bronya so that Bronya could go to college in Paris. To the credit of both young women, after Bronya graduated, she reciprocated and supported Marie. Manya Sklodovska first enrolled in Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry at the Sorbonne (University of Paris) at the age of 24. It was 1891.
Once set in motion, her fame rocketed skyward. She shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with husband, Pierre, and also with famed physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry outright. By the time she died, July 6, 1934, she had received no less that 129 (I counted them) awards of national merit. I think it cheapens her accomplishments to add that Madame Curie was the “first woman” to do this or that. She was the first person to do a lot of things. Period. Surely, the generation of the 21st century is beyond that need.
At the age of 66 years, Marie Curie died of leukemia, undoubtedly produced by radiation exposure. She was within days of publishing a scientific book describing her life’s work, Radioactivity. It was published posthumously with the help of her students. Four years after Marie’s death, her daughter, Eve, wrote Marie’s biography, Madame Curie. The memories were fresh and the acquaintances were still alive. Eve Curie’s biography of her mother cries out for modern readers. As Eve stated in her introduction, “I have not related a single anecdote of which I am not sure. I have not deformed a single essential phrase or so much as invented the color of a dress. The facts are as stated; the quoted words were actually pronounced.” (Eve Curie Labouisse lived to be 102 years old and died in 2007.)
Others have, and will, relate what Marie Curie accomplished. I feel no need to repeat that. This is an article on technology persuasion. I think my readers are best served by learning how Marie Curie accomplished what she did.
First, let’s discuss her innate assets. She was born to a scientific father who taught his children science, history, music, poetry, and other subjects of value. This cohesive and loving family spent considerable time in study and serious pursuits. Manya Sklodovska was born with a phenomenal intellect and a great deal of beauty.
Second, let’s talk about her liabilities. She was poor. She was shy. She was a Pole downtrodden by the Russians. Her sister and mother died when she was young. She had to learn four languages to be successful (Polish, Russian, English, and French). She worked her way through college and almost starved to death. I could add that she was a woman, but her biography makes far, far less of that than we do.
Now, how about you? How do you compare with Marie Curie? Your assets and your liabilities. It is highly unlikely that you have the genius of intellect or carry so comely a stature as did Madame Curie. But, regardless of your genetic endowments, what Marie did with those assets can be done by anyone with any assets. If you make her habits, your habits, success in technology is assured. Absolutely assured. I summarize briefly, here.
Integrity. Marie Curie kept her word with her sister, kept her word with her students, kept her word with her father, kept her word with everyone. She could be trusted over the long haul. She would stick to her word even when it meant personal sacrifice and injury. She was undivided in spirit. She was undivided in deed. She possessed integrity.
Hard Working. I cannot count how many geniuses I have had working for me who were lazy. Technologists with far less intellectual acumen rose to far greater successes than did those geniuses. It’s the Tortoise and the Hare. All the ability in the work cannot compete with someone who is willing to work harder, longer, and more intensely to put their lesser capabilities into practice. No other asset will serve as well as working hard. Thomas Edison (1847-1931) was a strong advocate of this principle. In Marie Curie’s own words, “I acquired the habit of independent work.” Again, when referring to her free time, “When I feel myself quite unable to read with profit, I work problems of algebra or trigonometry, which allow no lapses of attention and get me back into the right road.”
Perseverance Against All Obstacles. Pierre Curie, her husband, was killed by a horse-drawn vehicle in 1906. Marie, 38-years old, was left with two daughters to raise on her own. She remarked, “First principle: never to let one’s self be beaten down by persons or by events.” I, myself, tell engineers to throw away their rear-view mirrors. Don’t even think about going backwards. Retreat is not an option. Smash your rear-view mirror. Where you have been and what you have done does not matter. What does matter is where you are going and how you plan to get there.
Absorption. Eve tells the story that Marie, still a young girl, was at home with her four siblings, all supposedly studying at the dining table. The brothers and sisters took all the chairs and made a bridge behind her. The makeshift structure fell just as they were getting it over the top of Marie’s head. Only when it landed on her was Marie even conscious of what they were doing. She learned to concentrate and shut everything else out. As a college student, she moved out of her sister’s apartment because it was too noisy. She chose an apartment, alone, where she could concentrate, even though she had to starve herself to afford it. She forced herself to focus and put everything in place to make it happen. Every successful technologist I ever knew had this ability to utterly concentrate and focus, to be totally absorbed in the task at hand.
Stubborn. While this may not be a virtue at all times and in all circumstances, it is required. You will never get anywhere if you do not believe in what you are doing. The wise person does learn to change his mind, of course, but most people fail, not because they are unwilling to change their minds, but because they are unwilling to make up their mind and to stick to their made-up minds.
There is more, of course, but I must shorten an already long introduction and continue another day. Until then, celebrate Madame Curie’s birthday by making her principles your principles.