I'm on a mini-vacation this weekend doing the whole tourist thing and went to the Wright Brothers Memorial. I'm not a pilot, I'm not a historian, and frankly, I went in with very low expectations. I came away completely inspired by the dedication to mission these two brothers had.

In a nutshell, Wilbur and Orville Wright ran a bicycle repair shop. My impression from the museum is they were not really professionals at anything. The didn't possess tremendous business acumen, their science was amateurish, they were supported by no benefactors, and their experiments with flying were mostly failures.

"Our first experiments were rather disappointing. The machine...at times seemed to be entirely beyond control." -Orville Wright, July 28, 1901

On the way back to Dayton, OH, Wilbur stated in frustration, "Not within a thousand years would man ever fly!"

And yet, in spite of failure and continued setbacks, they steadfastly stayed on mission. They built their own air tunnel. They tested thousands of wing shapes and sizes. They learned how to control pitch, roll, and yaw using a glider. They tested various propellers. They built their own engine. And finally, in 1903, they had turned a glider, an engine, and two propellers into what would prove to be the very first plane.

At the memorial there is a large boulder marking the lift-off site of their four historic flights on Dec 17, 1903. There are smaller boulders marking where the four flights landed. Each flight is longer than the last with the final flight lasting just shy of a full minute. They achieved their mission just two years after thinking they would not achieve it in thousands.

On Big Kill Devil Hill, overlooking the field of their success, stands the largest monument ever built to honor men that were still living. Its inscription reads: "In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. Conceived by genius. Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith."

Inside the museum resides a small frame holding a piece of the original left propeller and a piece of cloth from the upper wing. These two pieces are perhaps the most amazing of all as they were carried to the moon by Neil Armstrong less than 100 years later.

At the bottom of the hill there is a note to passers-by which reads, "This memorial to the Wright Brothers serves to inspire people who believe, and, by believing, accomplish the impossible."

In short, find your mission, stay on mission, and go change the world.

Oh yeah, and don't forget to lift!