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DON'T BE AFRAID TO CLIMB AN UNCLIMBED MOUNTAIN
I was sitting at my desk jotting a note with my Bic pen last week, and suddenly had a flashback to a special day more than 50 years ago.
It was graduation day and I was wearing my beautiful white graduation dress. Oh, what a dress that was! An almost transparent material with tiny self-fabric white stripes. A dress I dreamed of wearing again and again when I wanted to look especially nice.
I sat down to write a quick note, and spilled a whole jar of ink on my new dress. Now the beautiful fabric was stained with blue ink, as were my white shoes. Looking at those stains, I hoped against hope. But deep in my heart I knew that ink stains like that would never come out.
At that moment I would have given anything for a way to write without those messy little jars of ink. And Marcel Bich knew I felt that way — along with millions of other consumers. That's why he died a billionaire.
Now, half a century later, most of us have forgotten that those little jars of ink ever existed.
It all started in 1953 when Bich bought the patent rights for the ballpoint pen. That purchase was the beginning of an empire that would include disposable cigarette lighters and disposable razors, but mostly simple stick pens that every American would come to know and use. Pens you could buy singly or in packs of a dozen.
Today, I worry about what we have done to the planet with our millions of ballpoint pens. Used until they run dry and then buried in landfills along with cameras that take one roll of film, diapers that are used only once, disposable razors and coffeepots that are cheaper to replace than to repair.
But I will say in Bich's defense, the rest of us didn't understand either in 1953. Most of us still had a frontier and growth mentality. More space. More resources. More luxury. Bigger was better. And we all sought progress.
So, you have to admire a man like Bich. He was a man who saw an opportunity and made the most of it. If it hadn't been Bic pens, it would have been something else, for Marcel Bich was destined to succeed.
His son said of him, "He's like a climber who sees a mountain no other person has ever climbed. And he must, simply must, get to the top."
Still, even the most successful person sometimes faces failure and Bich was no exception. He was an avid yachtsman, trying 11 times to win the America's Cup. But that was one prize he never won.
There's an old saying that people who never fail haven't risked enough. Marcel Bich wasn't guilty of not risking.
Most of us could learn a lot from the man behind the Bic pen.
Next time you encounter a task that seems impossible, think of Marcel Bich and his pens. And ask yourself whether perhaps you should look seriously at that mountain that "no other person has climbed" and make it your business to "get to the top."
© 2007 Marie Snider
Marie Snider is an award-winning healthcare writer and syndicated columnist. Write Marie Snider at thisside60@aol.com or visit her Web site at www.visit-snider.com
Jay L. Roth, Mennonite Association for Retired Persons
23 Homestead Drive, Lancaster, PA 17602
717-201-8391 ~ E-mail
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