Chaim Weizmann — The scientist who changed the course of history

Talent is overrated. You may have heard this expression before. Geoff Colvin in his book “Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else” provides quite extensive proof for this statement, but I disagree. Although it may be comforting to us mortals to know that the only thing that separates us from Beethovens and Einsteins of the world is pure effort and if only we could resolve to spend the next 10,000 hours mastering some craft we could be as good as they are.

I believe that not all of us could become great pianists, scientists, runners or writers but this doesn’t mean that we should be languishing in obscurity. We are all capable of doing something well, even better than others and the goal is to find this “something” and nurture it.

But I’m digressing from the topic of today’s post. I would like to tell you a little bit about the person who through his efforts helped establish modern Israel as a sovereign country.

Chaim Weizmann, a world-renowned biochemist, devout Zionist, political leader and the first president of the State of Israel. A lot has been written about him, so we are not going to explore all the details of his life. If, after reading this post, you would be interested in learning more about his work and personal life, I’ve included links to several good sources at the bottom.

Born in 1874 in Motol, which was part of the Russian Empire and now Western Belarus, he was the third of 15 children in the family. After finishing school at the age of 18 he left home for Darmstadt, Germany to study chemistry and then to Berlin, and finally in 1897 to Switzerland to complete his studies at the University of Fribourg where he received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry in 1899.

That’s it, I’m stopping here to make a point. Imagine you’re as talented or just simply as diligent student (if you do not believe in natural talent) as Weizmann living in a tiny village in rural Russia. Would you travel alone, with no money to Germany, where you don’t know anybody, to continue your education? Or would you prefer to stay where you are and enjoy a relatively peaceful life surrounded by friends and family? The truth is that for most of us, the status quo is the way to go and there is nothing wrong with that.

Talent alone will not make you successful. Same with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. Sometimes, to make a create a major difference in your life you need to make a step into the unknown and see what life has in store for you. Being an entrepreneur is not always about risking everything you’ve got and many people start their side-projects at night while maintaining a full-time job that brings enough money to pay for all necessities. As long as you understand that the payoff is almost always positively correlated with the size of the risks you are taking.

If Chaim Weizmann chickened out and stayed home, the course of World War I could be different and so would be the future of the Jewish Nation. But this is a topic for one of my next posts.