Mastering the Challenges of becoming a Professional Electrical Estimator for an exciting, successful, career.
“When one door closes…another door opens.”
Alexander Graham Bell wrote those words sometime in the late 18th century.
Alexander was not the first; nor would he be the last.
Hellen Keller in her book, expressed the same sentiments “The Open Door” in 1957.
And Miguel de Cervantes in his famous novel, “Don Quixote”.
These extraordinary individuals come to my mind because…they were extraordinary. They were authors, inventors, and yes… dreamers.
Their body of works have enriched our lives with their riviting stories, remarkable inventions, and shared their words of hope, to have faith in our own dreams and not fear the unopened door standing before us.
Alexander was a visionary; a young man with strange and far reaching ideas about what the future would look like.
He was also an Engineer. An inventor. A tinkerer with imagination.
In the summer of 1875 Alex was experimenting with sound waves across thin strands of wire stretched tightly between a farm house he and his assistant, Watson were renting, to a barn fifty feet away.
He experimented with tones at first, then tunes of music over short distances. His ultimate goal was to transmit a human voice over those same strands of wire. Imagine that.
His detractors said. “Hogfwash”! But Alexander was a deliberate man. Failure was not an option. He could make this work…he would make this work. He knew that sound created waves of vibration and under the right conditions these vibrations could be picked up across strands of wire and be transmitted to a receiving device. This receiving device could magnify the vibrations; duplicating the tones from the opposite end of the wire. Alexander also knew that the human voice emitted vibrations of their own.
Alexander experienced many failures. How many…who can say. But on this morning he sensed that tickling exhilaration of a major breakthrough. Did he actually hear voices? Voices of his assistants speaking to each other! From a room inside a barn fifty feet away. The voices were faint, but yes they were voices!
Some say: The rest of the story …is history.
On the 7th day of March 1876 Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the first telephone, ever.
In 1983 Motorola manufactured the first commercially available hand held mobile cell phone. Smartphones came next. In 1992, less than ten years later IBM invented “Simon” the personal communicator.
In 2022, the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) stated, there were more than 8.58 Billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide and is expected to reach 18.22 billion by 2025!
Had Alexander Graham Bell not conceive of or believe his contraption would someday achieve world-wide success we might still be sending up smoke signals like the Indians between mountaintops.
Thank you, Alex for your foresight – and never giving up on your dream…
After all, he just finished his freshman year in High School. Next year he’ll be a Sophomore. He needs to earn some money. Lots of
Fast food places are hiring. Macdonalds, Taco Bell. Maybe the local Grocery Store. Minimum wage at least.
Sanders Electric Service has got a sign up. Electricians, Helpers, and warehouse help are needed. John is pretty good working with his hands.
They’re only a couple miles away. He could ride His bike there and back home again. It would be good experience.
Hank entered into the Service right out of High School. The Navy. Instead of sailing aboard ships at sea he joined the SeaBees.
Hanks Uncle had been in the Construction Battalions. They built bridges, airfield runways, hospitals, Barracks, both temporary and permanent.
When Hank got out of the service he had achieved a Third Class petty officers rank as a Naval Electrician.
Both John and Hank worked at Sanders Electrical Service. John worked in the warehouse sorting through electrical materials: pipe, wire, lighting fixtures, fittings, boxes, devices, and all manner of support hardware, and power tools. All stacked neatly on shelves.
Hank began working on projects in the field as an apprentice. After a year he became an Electrician and a year after that rose to position of Foreman.
