Thoreau and Medoff

Henry David Thoreau, in Walden, wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach.”

A week or so ago, Sixty Minutes’ Leslie Stahl interviewed Marshall Medoff, an 81-year-old man from Massachusetts with no science background who decided he wanted to find “environmentally friendly transportation fuels in a clean and cost-effective way.” To begin his journey, like Thoreau, he went to Walden, immersing himself in nature and solitude. In his words, “What I thought was the reason people were failing [to find fuel solutions] is they were trying to overcome nature instead of working with it.” Long story short, more than a decade after he went to Walden, Medoff has built a company and success in accomplishing his dream.

His journey began with communion with nature, peace in silence, openness to perceive, and faith in a favorable outcome.

You write it: When have you experienced success that began with silence or meditation or immersing yourself in nature?