Personal Growth
How My Eureka Moment Created a Career With a Life-Changing Payout
I created a business from a magazine cover story idea
An old farmhouse sits on a remote country road in the heartland of the Midwest amidst a vast expanse of cornfields under an open sky. It’s an unlikely setting for an unexpected launchpad into the dawn of the personal computer revolution.
Within these walls, a young mother of three is diving headfirst into the intricate world of software and hardware, decoding the marvels of a newly developed personal computer and its software.
I am that young mother. This unconventional story started with a sudden Eureka moment, leading me to the exciting launch of my own business.
Around me, cornfields stretched to the horizon, and the nearest neighbor was miles away. While three young children slumbered peacefully in the quiet hours of the night, I sat mesmerized in front of the computer screen, absorbing the complex workings of software and hardware, my mind racing with possibilities.
I’m not just learning to use this machine for my benefit. I’m on a mission to master it, decode its complexities, and then share this knowledge by starting a business to teach others to harness its power.
I am armed with little more than an iron will to succeed, a typing proficiency learned in high school, and an adding machine skill nurtured under my father’s guidance when he managed a convenience store during my formative years between twelve and eighteen.
I am venturing into uncharted territory, gearing up to take a risk, a leap of faith to birth a personal computer training business.
My Eureka Moment
While passing through the magazine aisle of the grocery earlier that day, my gaze was instantly drawn to a Time Magazine cover story. At that moment, an unexplainable but strong feeling inside pushed me to buy the magazine.
I would have to wait until late evening to read the story and comprehend its mystery.
When night came, I quickly learned this wasn’t just another night with a magazine; it was the birth of a journey. A journey that would lead me to create a business leveraging the hidden magic inside the personal computer. This venture would, in time, culminate in a life-changing payout.
Who was Bill Gates? What was Microsoft? What was software? The magic inside the machine? So many questions. My head was exploding with excitement.
I shrieked silently, EUREKA! I had found the answer to my college professor’s lesson on how to start a business: find a need and fill it.
Long before spotting the April 16 Issue of Time Magazine, I had conditioned my mind like a broken record to repeat the phrase over and over, find a need and fill it.
I repeatedly doled out affirmations to myself. Trust yourself to earn a living. Live your life your way.
I was on the hunt for a service I could provide using the only two skills I possessed — typing and calculating. I wanted to free myself from the restrictions of a 9–5 job to set my own hours and use my intellect to produce an income.
The article explained A computer without software is like a car without gasoline, a camera without film, and a stereo without records. It listed several types of software programs and their function — word processing, spreadsheets, and databases.
The next two sentences sparked my Eureka moment:
Instructions for using software programs are complicated and require hours of study and practice before they can replace today’s office machines.
Even the instruction manuals supplied with the software programs range from barely acceptable to awful.
Perfect! I had found a need.
What is a Eureka Moment?
I didn’t know it then, but I had laid the groundwork to create the favorable conditions for a Eureka moment.
A Eureka moment is an extraordinary phenomenon that can instantly shift the course of thoughts and actions. It’s a bolt of lightning illuminating your mind, revealing connections, patterns, and solutions that were previously hidden or elusive.
In that exhilarating instant, a veil lifts, allowing you to perceive your world with newfound clarity and understanding.
Eureka is Greek for “I Found It!” According to legend and historical accounts, around 250 B.C., Archimedes, the Greek mathematician, was asked by the king to figure out how to tell whether the crown he had purchased was indeed made of pure gold or did it contain fillers, like silver.
Some days later, Archimedes was taking a bath and noticed how the water level rose as he submerged himself. It suddenly dawned on him that you could use displaced water to determine the volume of an irregularly shaped object, like a crown.
He leaped from the tub and ran naked into the streets to tell the king he solved the problem, exclaiming Eureka (I found it)!
His observation led to the answer to the king’s problem — no, the crown was not pure gold as the buyer had promised.
Archimedes had discovered the principle of buoyancy. He went on to make many other discoveries in his field.
Can You Prepare for a Eureka Moment?
Anyone can prepare for a Eureka moment. It is an unpredictable phenomenon, but the power of a Eureka moment lies in its ability to break through the mental barriers of prepared minds.
Although never guaranteed, it’s worth your time to employ several strategies to create an environment conducive to Eureka moments and unexpected insights.
· Acquire a deep understanding of the subject matter that interests you through research, reading, discussions, and exploration. (My subject matter was improving tools for office personnel.)
· Be willing to question assumptions, challenge conventional thinking, and explore alternative perspectives.
· Ask thought-provoking questions, investigate diverse sources of information, and engage in activities that stimulate your mind.
· Take breaks to create mental space for insights to emerge — walks in nature, meditating, practicing mindfulness, or pursuing hobbies.
· Have conversations and share ideas, and brainstorm. Other people’s insights and feedback might trigger new connections in your thinking.
Movie characters often have moments of clarity or sudden realizations that help them solve a problem or gain a deeper understanding of a situation.
There is a scene in the movie “Men in Black” (1997) where Agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones, eats a piece of pie while contemplating a problem. He appears to have a moment of insight, representing a “Eureka moment.” Pie consumption is a visual metaphor for his Eureka moment.
In reality, Agent K’s fictional Eureka moment is not necessarily how real-life moments of insight occur. However, it symbolizes that they can happen during seemingly unrelated moments like taking a walk or engaging in a hobby. For me, it was a walk through the grocery store.
Here are four scenarios where Eureka moments can commonly occur:
Your mind is intensely focused on a problem and suddenly it presents you with a breakthrough solution or a new perspective.
You are interacting with individuals who have different knowledge, experiences, and viewpoints. It increases the chances of making novel connections.
You are learning new knowledge. A combination of existing and new knowledge can increase the potential for discovering connections and insights that were previously hidden, leading to a breakthrough.
You take a break, engage in unrelated activities. This can free your mind from roadblocks to let it process information subconsciously. During these breaks, a sudden clarity of thought can produce a Eureka moment.
Self-Taught Expertise
My story continues with me purchasing an IBM PC and software on credit, then learning how to install and use the word processing and spreadsheet software. Every night, till midnight, one, two in the morning. I took copious notes and translated them into easy-to-learn instructions I could teach in a 4-hour training session.
I created and distributed brochures describing the 4-hour word processing and spreadsheet training classes. To my delight, the brochure produced a sudden effect, easily filling the class space.
As the business grew, I made important connections with interested business people. George, a famous hamburger headquarters IT Manager, was thrilled to distribute my brochure. Secretaries were using his IBM PC purchases as planters, uninterested in the long hours of study needed to master them.
He warned me they like their typewriters.
I promised him that I could persuade them word processing was a game-changer, making their work easier and more professional looking. He gave me access to a vacant room with several computers in exchange.
After several months of outstanding student reviews, Bill introduced me to his IT friend at a national bank’s headquarters. Now I had two large customers. Soon after, requests for spreadsheet training started pouring in.
I was on fire!
The Intersection of Knowledge, Luck, and Eureka Moments
You can increase your chances of experiencing a Eureka moment by investing in lifelong learning.
Call it prepared luck, where knowledge and opportunity meet. As you continuously acquire new knowledge and specific skills, opportunity finds you through the people you connect with and who need your skills. It’s not an accident or a coincidence. The universe is trying to bring you into another person’s orbit for a particular purpose.
My unique combination of skill sets connected me with George. George connected me with Joe, a competitor. I joined Joe as an owner-partner in his training business.
The ultimate payout came when we successfully sold the computer training business after fifteen years. The rest is another story.
Summary
Though I’ve moved on, starting my computer training business in that old farmhouse serves as a reminder of my journey, a blend of the traditional past and a modern technological future.
Stumbling upon the magazine was a chance occurrence. But, I had been systematically expanding my knowledge and priming my mind long before that Eureka moment.
Luck happens where knowledge and opportunity meet.
Make your own luck.
Today’s world is absolutely bursting at the seams with opportunities.
To name a few, there are rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and data analytics, E-commerce that offer gateways to global entrepreneurship, and renewable energy and sustainability opportunities.
Just like the PC revolution created a new and unique opportunity for me, embracing emerging revolutions allows you to tap into the wealth of possibilities available to you in today’s world.
In doing so, I hope you will stumble upon your own Eureka moment!
