Assignment 13A- Reading Reflection No. 1

I read The Wright Brothers by David McCullough 

• What surprised you the most? What surprised me the most is how old the Wright brothers were when they found their most fame and success. I had always imagined that entrepreneurs would be in their prime both in life and in their business in their early 30’s, but the Wright Brothers were well older when they were in the prime of their lives in all aspects. Also, the fact that the Wright Brothers came from humble beginnings. I had always viewed them as rich, powerful men who became pioneers in the world when they really came from a small town in Ohio. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire? The thing that I most admired about the Wright Brothers is their purity. After learning about their personal lives as well as their business lives, I realized that they were just normal people who fell in love with their craft. The reason I admire their “purity” is because it gives me hope for my future and shows me that regular people just like me can make a huge difference in the world. They also were extremely close-knit, doing almost everything together and spending their free time helping their family. I guess the thing that stood out to me the most that was admirable was their decency as genuine human beings, thats hard to come around nowadays when talking about people who make an impact on the world. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire? The thing that I least admire about the entrepreneurs is something most people do not know about the Wright Brothers. This is that due to all of the use that airplanes had in the future within wars, they are known to regret their invention. Their inventions changed the world forever, not only what they were used for in the war. I think they should have appreciated all that they were to do to change the world and appreciated it more, I do not admire people who have ultimate regrets in their lives, especially one that they cannot control. 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it? The adversity that the Wright Brothers faced that spoke to me the most was a little different. The adversity was when Orville, one of the brothers, got extremely sick. This spoke to me the most because his family was there for him to every extent In this time showing that they were one unit in not only business but real life too. The brothers were known to be extremely close and they worked together, especially in times of need im order to overcome adversity. 
• What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? The competencies that stood out to me about the Wright Brothers are their discipline and dedication to their craft. The Wright Brothers were very intelligent men, who often used their intelligence to analyze things from different perspectives than everyone which helped them be so successful. They were so naturally gifted yet worked so hard to go above and beyond with everything, paying such attention to every detail. 
• Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. The part in the story thats was confusing to me is when the author was using birds to explain how the Wright Brothers were thinking about flight. I saw the connection that they were making, but the way the author explained everything was confusing to me. Also, all of the specific mechanical talk about airplanes was confusing, Im not the best with that. 
• If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, whats  would you ask? Why? The question that I would ask to the Wright Brothers is how they were able to stay so persistent with their work with such a little idea of how the airplane was to work. When the Wright Brothers were working on things such as engines without having any prior experience, they used hard work and their creativity to make it work and I would like to know how they were able to do such a thing. I think their natural ability to make things work was incredible, and I would like to learn how they are so creative and efficient. 
• For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur’s opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? I think the entrepreneurs option of hard work was staying persistent and never giving up no matter what. The Wright Brothers were so persistent despite so much adversity, the thing that I took out the most about their work ethic was their ability to face so many road blocks and mental barriers trying to perfect their craft but finding ways to push through and somehow find a way.