ALBERT EINSTEIN’S INCREDIBLE WORK ETHIC.
ALBERT EINSTEIN’S INCREDIBLE
WORK ETHIC
As soon as he
hung up the phone, Ralph Morse knew that he needed to get moving. He was still
90 miles away and there wouldn’t be much time before people began to hear the
news. Albert Einstein had just died.
Morse was a
photographer for LIFE Magazine. He drove down to Princeton, New Jersey as fast
as possible, but other members of the media had already been alerted by the
time he arrived. Morse would later recall the situation by saying,
“Einstein died
at Princeton Hospital, so I headed there first. But it was chaos — journalists,
photographers, onlookers. So I headed over to Einstein’s office at the
Institute for Advanced Studies. On the way, I stopped and bought a case of
scotch. I knew people might be reluctant to talk, but most people are happy to
accept a bottle of booze, instead of money, in exchange for their help. So I
get to the building, find the superintendent, give him a fifth of scotch and
like that, he opens up the office.”
When Morse
walked into Einstein’s office, he snapped a photo of the desk where Albert
Einstein had been working just hours before.
Nobody knew it
yet, but Einstein’s body would be cremated before anyone could capture a final
photo of him. As a result, Morse’s photo of Einstein’s desk would soon become
the final iconic image of the great scientist's career.
Albert Einstein’s office just hours after his
death on April 18, 1955. (Photographer: Ralph Morse. Image Source: Time &
Life Pictures/Getty Images.)
THE WORK ETHIC OF ALBERT EINSTEIN
Einstein
died of internal bleeding caused by the rupture of an abdominal aortic
aneurysm, a condition he had struggled with for years.
In 1948, seven years before his death,
Einstein had surgery to prevent the “grapefruit-sized” aneurysm from
rupturing. One physician familiar with
Einstein’s case wrote, “For a number of years he had suffered from attacks of
upper abdominal pain, which usually lasted for 2-3 days and were often
accompanied by vomiting. These attacks usually occurred about every 3 or 4 months.”
Einstein
continued to work despite the pain. He published papers well into the 1950s.
Even on the day of his death in 1955, he was working on a speech he was
scheduled to give on Israeli television and he brought the draft of it with him
to the hospital. The speech draft, shown below, was never finished.
The final document worked on by Albert
Einstein, a draft of his speech for Israel’s 7th Anniversary. (Image
Source: Einstein Archives Online)
Contributing vs. Consuming
“Try not to become a man of success. Rather
become a man of value.”
—Albert Einstein
Einstein's
most famous contribution to science, the general theory of relativity, was
published in 1915. He won the Nobel Prize in 1921. Yet, rather than assume he
was a finished product, Einstein continued to work and contribute to the field
for 40 more years.
Up until
the moment of his death, Albert Einstein continued to squeeze every ounce of
greatness out of himself. He never rested on his laurels. He continued to work
even through severe physical pain and in the face of death.
Everyone
has a gift to share with the world, something that both lights you on fire
internally and serves the world externally, and this thing–this calling–should
be something you pursue until your final breath. It could be your actual job,
as it was for Einstein. It could be a creative hobby, as it was for Vivian Maier.
It could be the care you provide to those around you.
Whatever
it is for you, our lives were meant to be spent making our contribution to the
world, not merely consuming the world that others create.
“I HAVE DONE MY SHARE.”
Hours before his death, Einstein’s
doctors proposed trying a new and unproven surgery as a final option for
extending his life. Einstein simply replied, “I have done my share, it is time
to go. I will do it elegantly.”
We cannot
predict the value our work will provide to the world. That's fine. It is not our job to judge our own work. It is our job
to create it, to pour ourselves into it, and to master our craft as best we
can.
We all have the opportunity to squeeze
every ounce of greatness out of ourselves that we can. We all have the chance
to do our share.
my references
1. The Day Albert Einstein Died: A Photographer’s Story by
Ben Cosgrove
2. With regards to his cluttered desk Einstein famously said, “If a
cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a
sign?”
3. Famous Patients, Famous Operations, 2002 – Part 3: The Case of the Scientist with a Pulsating Mass by
Albert B. Lowenfels, MD
4. Famous Patients, Famous Operations, 2002 – Part 3: The Case of the Scientist with a Pulsating Mass by
Albert B. Lowenfels, MD
5. The
ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm of Albert Einstein by Cohen
and Graver
Compiled by OKELLO ELIOT OTWAO
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