Throughout history, only won person has ever won a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. Both being in physics and chemistry. And her name was Marie Curie.

Surprisingly, this didn’t happen in the last ten years, fifty years, or even the last hundred. In the late 1800s, Marie was working in a field dominated by men, chasing new elements—like the ones you see in the periodic table—to discover.

She and her husband Pierre would spend their days in a shed behind a Paris university, stirring vats of uraninite (imagine a black rock pretty much) with the intent to find something inside it no one else had.

The process was brutal. They had to lift rocks, boil them, filter through them, and stir literal tons of material by hand. The air was toxic, rain would seep through the shed roof, and she would describe how her hands would go numb during the winter.

And yet, she kept going.

Years later, they would find what’s now called radium. A glowing element that changed the course of science forever. And if you don’t know what radium is, it’s a radioactive element used for treating bone cancer, and generating radon gas for medical applications.

What’s crazy is that even her notebooks have been found to still test positive for radioactivity to this day.

Eventually, her discovery would lead to her winning two Nobel Prizes and share with the world that endurance is the key to breaking barriers.

I bring up this story because I think there’s still a lot of people out there who live by the idea of “overnight success.” That anyone can get rich in 24 hours and winning at life only takes a moment.

But Marie’s legacy should show you that true success comes from long nights and relentless willpower. The type of work that doesn’t need applause, only purpose.

So if you’re exhausted or curious whether your effort matters, or wondering when your “overnight success” will happen, just remember that the only person to ever win two Nobel Prizes in science didn’t chase speed, she just refused to stop stirring the pot.

Until next time,
Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I’m Currently Reading - I’m still reading Surprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis. A type of autobiography highlighting Lewis’ journey from being one of the world’s most renowned atheist to that of a devoted Christian.

Quote Of The Week - “Ships are safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for.” — John A. Shedd