Six of us sat nervously at a small round table in the attic. We were in our last year at school and our physics master, Mr Langford, called us together for an extra lesson in thermodynamics; or so he said.
It was Halloween and already dark outside: he lit a candle in the middle of the table and turned off the lights, his black gown and the shadows from the candle adding to the spookiness!
“This is a thought experiment,” he whispered, “I want you to hold hands in a circle and focus all your mental powers on extinguishing the candle. After a while you’ll feel the energy and if you focus your minds hard enough, the candle will go out!”
We held hands, we focused, we felt the energy, we tightened our grip, we thought and we thought, but still nothing happened. Eventually Mr Langford switched the lights back on, leaned over and blew out the candle.
“You see boys, throughout our lives, whether it’s in our careers, at home, at work, pursuing a hobby or even mowing the lawn, nothing ever happens unless we do something - it’s the first law of thermodynamics - essentially ‘wishful thinking gets us nowhere’: we have to act!” #proteuscareermanagement
