I’m continually thankful to have such a great job at Grand Valley State University; one of the many benefits to working here is having the holiday break between Christmas and New Years off. It is always a very relaxing time of year after the rush of Christmas is over and trips to visit family are complete. I had hoped to spend a bit of time snowmobiling over break, but a total melting of the snow in western Michigan did nothing for those plans. With plenty of time I was able to read a couple of books; one shared with me by a friend and the other a book that had been on my “to-read” list.
I started with Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean, a book a friend of mine gave me after he finished it. I really enjoy the Florida keys so this book appealed to me, and once I started it was hard to put down. First, I had no idea that Henry Flagler had such a close affiliation with J.D. Rockefeller. Most people know the Rockefeller name, but few people know Flagler despite also having similar wealth and public prominence. I wonder if Rockefeller would even have had such wealth had it not been for Flagler’s shrewd dealings. It also was interesting to learn that Flagler’s wealth and ambitions had an enormous impact on much of the state of Florida. I learned that Key West was already a bustling island long before Flagler, but his quest to build a railroad from the mainland of Florida through the Keys along with plush hotels changed the area forever. And doing this was so amazingly difficult…I don’t think anyone today would even consider such an undertaking.
Reading this, I couldn’t help but think that there was such opportunity in the late 1800′s into the early 1900′s for a person to start their own business and have the potential to grow it into a small empire. I would love to be an entrepreneur and start something from the ground up, but it seems so very difficult now. At times it seems like every good idea has been thought of, and every great product already developed. And in my profession, it is ridiculously difficult to even find an original domain name for some new web-business.
If you like history or if you’ve ever driven down the keys and wanted to learn more about the railroad bridges that still stand near US 1 you would find this book a great read. I will have to get back to the Keys to do a bit more first hand observation soon!
Next, I read One Man’s Widerness, An Alaskan Odyssey, a book that has been on my “to-read” list ever since watching a PBS documentary about Richard Proenneke. The book and the documentary have a lot of overlap since they both are based on photos, footage taken by Proenneke, and entries in his journal but the book goes into a bit more detail. This was another “against all odds” type story which details Proenneke’s departure from a “normal” life and his decision to move to Alaska’s extreme wilderness where he built his own log cabin and lived by himself for over a year. He died in 2003 but spent much of his life at that cabin. As he got older he opted to fly out before the extreme winters took hold of the area.
Proenneke struck me as half survivalist and half environmentalist, with real creativity, ingenuity, and passion for nature. Aside from designing and building his own cabin with little more than what was available to him from nature and a collection of hand-tools, he had to make plans months in advance to survive all that nature would throw at him. From bear attacks, to -40 degree days in the winter, to a water source covered by 48 inches of ice the journal entries cover the ups and downs of his endeavor.
Like Flagler, he set out to do what some people would call crazy and/or impossible, but it made total sense to him and his journal entries and photos are enough to convince anyone else to attempt the same thing. Towards the end of the book the author touches on Proenneke’s thoughts on a man’s sense of accomplishment; Proenneke thought it did a person good to see a project through from start to finish by one’s self, completed by their own hands.
I’d love to do something like this in my lifetime, but I think I’ll settle for an alternative that involves weekends in some remote wilderness followed by a grounding return to society during the week. I haven’t built my own cabin yet, but I’ve started with building houses for birds…which does give me a nice sense of accomplishment when done.
So…the take-away from these books is that I need to find some business idea that revolves me building my own house way out in the middle of no where. Now I just need to sell Holly on this idea!