Stay Curious, Produce Success
By Dave Hoffman, Editor
Asset Allocator Institute is a never ending quest for inspiration, and that means we always look outside of our normal routine. This summer I took my family up to the border to visit Niagara Falls. First of all, I was surprised to learn that Ontario’s Niagara Falls is not one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, an exciting discovery, because it means that there is more where this came from.
Anytime you’re looking at a geological feature like a waterfall, certain lessons are staring you in the face. Perseverance. True of many waterfalls. On the way up, we stopped by Watkins Glen, a chasm carved out by 12 thousand years of patient water flow. By gently continuing along your path, you will carve out a route that brings us to the next obvious lesson, momentum. You can’t stop a river without flooding the valley. Your persistence creates the third lesson, which is power. The power harnessed by a river and waterfall is a function of routine and gravity. The force of gravity requires no effort on the river’s part. The combination of the well traveled route and gravity keep the flow going for ever based on external forces.
But those lessons are obvious! The most interesting lesson I learned is about transformation. When Europeans first discovered Niagara Falls in the 1600s, it was terrifying to them. As more intrepid travelers came upon the falls, Pierre Berton, in his book Niagara, likens the verbiage used by early explorers to that used by the nascent art of gothic horror, which was born of the same era at the end of the romantic age. Father Louis Hennepin, who published the first eyewitness accounts of the falls described them as “the most Beautiful and at the same time the most Frightful Cascade of the World.” Berton emphasizes Hennepin’s choice of phrases such as “frightful abysss,” “horrible mass of water,” and “a sound more terrible than that of thunder,” as stimulating a “macabre vision of the New World,” in the minds of Europeans, with Niagara Falls specifically described as a “dread and mystic place.”
In the barely explored, completely undeveloped wilderness, Yale College President Timothy Dwight described the falls effect on him as, “his thoughts labor in a manner never known before,” Berton recounts Dwight as writing, “The struggle within is discovered by the fixedness of his position, the deep solemnity of his aspect, and the intense gaze of his eye.”
Perhaps it was this sense of danger and adventure that embeds itself into the American Spirit, attracting intrepid souls from across the world.
The story of Niagara Falls reveals a story of free markets in developing communities. Early settlers began building sawmills and grist mills above the falls, along with tanneries, and bridges. Foot trails turned into carriage roads. The nine day wagon journey from the state capitol was shortened as canals and railroads facilitated travel. It’s a case study of what Square founder Jim McKelvey described as an Innovation Stack, “a cascade of interlocking solutions that creates a massive advantage.” A series of innovative solutions leading to a larger accomplishment, the laissez-faire development of New York State.
As more visitors arrived, Niagara Falls’s reputation transformed from one of terror to one of wonder. The sublime awe that captured early observed was captured and tamed. Tourist trap hucksters became the bigger danger as visitors flocked to see gimmick entertainment like Charles Blondin and Signor Guillermo Antonio Farini’s competing tightrope acts and Thomas Barnett’s attempted Great Buffalo Hunt.
On the other end of the spectrum, Niagara Falls is where Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse created the first mass power station, bringing electricity to the entire state of New York. Visitors can walk through the man made caves where the water was diverted to power the generators.
Today the splendor of the falls is tightly controlled and safe. The energy companies sequestering of the water flow has mitigated the original oppressive intensity of the falls. Visitors can walk behind, climb beside, and even float in front of the majestic sight in carefully contrived tourist attractions such as the Hornblower, or Journey Behind the Falls. If fear is what you’re looking for, you’ll need to visit Dracula’s Castle on Clifton Hill, across the street from the miniature golf and go cart tracks.
Today the splendor of the falls is tightly controlled and safe.
The energy companies sequestering of the water flow has mitigated the original oppressive intensity of the falls. Visitors can walk behind, climb beside, and even float in front of the majestic sight in carefully contrived tourist attractions such as the Hornblower, or Journey Behind the Falls. If fear is what you’re looking for, you’ll need to visit Dracula’s Castle on Clifton Hill, across the street from the miniature golf and go cart tracks.
Inspiration persists. You can experience the full force of American conservation and industry at the top of the Cave of the Winds, a series of sturdy wooden steps and platforms that puts you directly beneath the American Falls. It’s indescribable. A peak experience. The full force of the falls is inches away from you as you are soaked in its waters. A unique power of nature, an expression of the formidable foe early Americans viewed nature as. It’s daunting. Humbling. And terrifying if you let your imagination go wild. But the genius of engineering that produced the wooden platforms allows you to live in this surreal moment, secure and confident in your own safety. It’s a culmination of centuries of man’s dynamic relationship with nature, respect, fear, conquering, and finally, symbiotic interdependence, not destructive, but mutually respectful.
When you take it all in, the Falls suggest some key questions for entrepreneurs or anyone building a roadmap to self improvement
What do you fear?
How can you reimagine it as something inspiring?
What innovations may come up along the way?
How can you adjust your environment to make your endeavor less threatening and more inviting?
