If your intention is to do something, nothing can hold you back

I went to the most usual cafe in Portland, going to work a little, read e-mail and write another blog post. Half an hour later an elderly gentleman, who looked at least eighty years old, sat next to me with a cup of hot coffee and a bun. I smiled at him, nodded, and went back to work.
- Do you like Apple? - He asked, pointing to the new Macbook Air, I bought a few days before.
- Yes, I use their technology for some time, - I replied, wondering: Do I have to be drawn into another controversy about the maki-versus-PC with an older stranger in Portland Cafe?
- You program under it?





- Well, I do not program to program, but occasionally I write and I spend a lot of time creating online projects and helping customers manage the business.
- Recently I do not like makintoshnuyu company. They're trying to get everyone to use iPads, and when people use iPads, they are simply a result of the technology used to consume, not create. You might be programmed to create things that have never before existed and do what no one did. This is the problem of many, they are not trying to create something that was not up to them, and because they do nothing at all. And if tried, they would be found that can do a lot of what we do not and never did one.

I nodded and smiled to myself, I myself would say something like that, and it's a funny coincidence that in a crowded cafe in the result of conversations I have with this man. And what a way to start a conversation!
The old man drank some coffee and looked at me again.
- In fact, I had to create a lot of things that I was not to create one, - he said with a half smile.

I was not sure whether he was joking or not, and curiosity got the better:
- Yes? For example? - I thought he was going to say something generally unimpressive.
- I invented the first computer.
- Uh ... excuse me?
- I have created the world's first computer with a stored program. He occupied the same space as all of this room, and my wife and I went inside to his program.
- What is your name? - I asked, wondering if he really who he claims to be, or just another crazy homeless.
- Russell Kirsch (Russell Kirsch).

Of course, in a moment I knew he was not lying. Russell Kirsch really invented the first computer with a stored program, as well as all sorts of other things, and that he certainly lives in Portland. As he spoke, I began to search the network for information about him, and he realized this and offered to help, "Let me show you».

And he stood there and showed me different sites, the archives of what he has created, occasionally voicing all sorts of little details like: "I have also made the first digital image. It was a photo of my son. " By this point I had no doubt in his words, and confirmed them Google.

As he showed me the old files, I left Hope to work, listening to his stories and questioned in detail about what he has done. At some point I said:
- You know, Russell, it's all very impressive.
- I think I have always believed in one thing: nothing really does not deter us from what we planned to create. Most believe otherwise, believe in many obstacles on the way to what was intended, and as a result creates nothing.
- Wait a minute - I said - again, repeat this phrase?
- Nothing in fact does not deter us from what we planned to create.
- Good statement. Who said that?
- God.
- What?
- It is said God, and believed in it only two people. Know someone?
- No. Who?
- God and me. And because I have always done that.

"Well" - I thought, when he finished showing me the files, - "I'm not going to argue with the man who invented the computer." Over the past 20 minutes, he told me about his contribution to the technology, and now sat, drank coffee and looked at the half-eaten chilled roll, at the clock and said, "Well, I have to go».

At the same time, we shook hands, he got up, got into his car and drove away, leaving me to think about what just happened. Two thoughts whirled in my head:

* Nothing keeps us from what we planned to create.
* Create something that has not been created before.

The value of the first, if you want to create something, made a decision and are willing to work at it - nothing can stop you.
The value of the second is obvious, but he added the weight of authority: the phrase said to the man, thanks to which there is the very thing on which I type these words, sending them to the Internet. & Quot;

Russell Kirsch - creator of the first American computer with a stored memory and inventor of the scanner