Investing Through Inconvenience

Subrahhmanyan Chandrasekhar, who created the model for what became the basis for black holes, is now a renowned astrophysicist. But back in the 40’s and into the 50’s he was still living in relative obscurity, conducting research and teaching at the University of Chicago.

During this time, Chandrasekhar was working at Yerkes Observatory which was run by the University of Chicago, but located about eighty miles away from the main campus in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. One semester, Chandrasekhar was slated to teach an advanced seminar in astrophysics, but only two students signed up for the class. Because teaching that course would require a one hundred and sixty mile round trip drive twice a week to get to and from the main campus, it was expected he would cancel the seminar and avoid the hassle of commuting for just two students.

Chandrasekhar not only kept his commitment to go forward with the seminar, he did so with great enthusiasm, fervently investing a great deal of effort into those two students. With the extra attention allotted to each student, both excelled in the course and greatly advanced their knowledge and command of astrophysics. In fact, just a few years later, one of those two students would win a Nobel Prize for physics. Just four years later, the second student in the class won his own Nobel Prize in physics.

Chandrasekhar himself would eventually win his own Nobel Prize, but not before investing his knowledge, ideas and passion in those two students. Although that course was seen by others as a major inconvenience at best, and would certainly steal copious amounts of precious time away from his research, Chandrasekhar viewed it an opportunity to enrich the lives of others around him. Even if it was only two students, he was committed to making the most of it and ended up changing the landscape of astrophysics going forward.

While you may never have the chance to equip someone to win a Novel Prize, opportunities will certainly present themselves for you to change the trajectory and outlook of someone else’s life. Your influence and impact matter, even if you can’t see it initially, so make the most of your interactions with others. Don’t let inconvenience keep you from investing in the lives of those around you.

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