How a Postman Stood Out as a Creator for Generations
The inspiring story of Ferdinand Cheval
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The stone below has been the start of a crazy story that I want to tell you today.
The biggest things can originate from small ones that most people wouldn’t care of.
Ferdinand Cheval was a postman in a little village of France in the 19th century.
He was distributing letters and parcels by feet in a large area around the village. On average, he was waking 42 km (26 miles) every day.
That’s a long distance. He spent most of his day walking.
He got an award for having walked over 220,000 km during his career to distribute letters. 5 times the perimeter of the Earth.
But Ferdinand wasn’t only working hard during the day.
He had a strange dream he worked on every night for about 9 hours!
After stepping on the weirdly shaped stone I showed you before, he had the dream of building a palace.
Inspired by the rare documents he could find, he build a fantastic building from his hands, mixing influences from all over the world and his own dreams.
Don’t forget that we are in 1886, in a remote village in the countryside. He didn’t even had access to a library.
But postcards have just been invented. And with them, (low quality) pictures of distant countries travelled.
Cheval used what he saw as knowledge sources without ever travelling himself.
And he worked 33 years on his palace. 93000 hours of work, on top of an extenuating day job.
The result is impressive and worth the visit in you go in the region of Lyon in France.
I was exploring this masterpiece a few days ago and it was the first time I could literally enter a one-man creation.
It is inspiring to see what someone can do with dedication and perseverance.
In the digital era, 33 years seems like the age of the Universe itself.
But think about what will happen and if you consistently build something unique by combining your curiosities. For even 2-3 years.
You will stand out as a creator and bring to you many opportunities.
The only ingredients required are curiosity and perseverance.
You’ll figure things out as you go.
Like Ferdinand Cheval did by building his palace without any prior knowledge or skills. He even discovered new construction techniques.
You’ll make discoveries yourself on your way.
Another bonus of thinking long term building is that you won’t be tempted to take shortcuts. They don’t exist on this path. The very concept of shortcut doesn’t make any sense here.
You are building your freedom out of yourself. Nobody else can do what you will do if you stay true to yourself.
Be great,
Frank