49 Challengers — Every Story Points the Same Way

To close Season 2, let me gather what runs through all forty-nine challengers — and laid side by side, the laws are startlingly clear. One: all decided the dream first — as Shoin taught, dream begets ideal, plan, execution.

Two: all passed through the bottom — exiled Jobs, ruined Ando at forty-eight, Mandela's twenty-seven years in prison; the bottom was the runway to the next chapter. Three: not one achieved alone — Van Gogh had Theo, Helen had Sullivan, Ibuka had Morita.

Four: age excused no one — Ino at fifty-five, Sanders at sixty-five, Hokusai at ninety. Five: all accumulated the small — Sontoku, Ichiro, Teresa, one thing before them at a time. And finally, see this: every great work was, at bottom, for someone's smile — a loom for a mother, a bowl of ramen, a kingdom of dreams for children.

The direction the forty-nine point to is the same direction our essays point to. What separates the greats from us is not talent, but whether we take one step in that direction today. What do you work for?