Net Positive

4

Blow Up Boundaries

Thinking Big and Setting Aggressive, Net Positive Goals

The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.

—Chinese proverb

Breaking the sound barrier, running a four-minute mile, surviving in space. Each of these seemed impossible … and then they became commonplace. In 1947, a test pilot died when his plane disintegrated as it approached supersonic speed (760 miles per hour). Some scientists worried that a plane would not hold together at that speed. But just a few months later, Chuck Yeager passed Mach 1.0 in his Bell X-1.¹ When British runner Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds, he proved the human body could do it. Within a year, three people ran four-minute miles in ...