DISCOVERY

Discovery is a remarkable human achievement. To uncover something new is regarded as a person’s greatest accomplishment. In every period of history, those who added something new to human knowledge have been honoured and respected.

What is discovery, and how does someone arrive at it? Albert Szent-Györgyi (1893–1986), who won the Nobel Prize for his work in science, gave a meaningful answer. He said:

“Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.”

A famous example of this is Newton’s story. Newton saw an apple fall from a tree. Everyone knows that fruit falls from trees—everyone has seen it happen. But when Newton looked at this ordinary event with deeper thought, he discovered something extraordinary in it: the laws of gravity. In what everyone else had seen, he found what no one else had noticed.

This discovery is the foundation of all great achievements. The person who reaches true success is someone who creates something new. The nation that gains dominance over others is the one able to develop innovations before them. Those who lack this creative ability remain in the back ranks; they never advance to the front.