Einstein, the Entrepreneur

Albert Einstein wasn't paid to come up with the Special Theory of Relativity. Nor was he tasked to do so. It was his unpaid, self-appointed, voluntary job. When Einstein graduated from college, no college or university would hire him. Academia wasn't interested in the talents or the likes of young Einstein. He was fortunate (through connections) to get a job in the Swiss Patent Office. He worked on the Special Theory in his spare time.

In 1905 three, not one, but three of Einstein's papers were published in the Annalen der Physik: the Special Theory of Relativity, a teatise on Brownian motion and one on the photoelectric effect. Up to this time Einstein hadn't made a dime off of his degree in physics. Instead of working at the Swiss Patent Office he might as well have been earning his living as a gardener, a waiter or a window washer. The amazing thing is that the editors at the Annalen der Physik took the work of this upstart from outside of academia seriously enough to review it and then to realize the importance of it.

Einstein was, in effect, an independent scholar and an entrepreneur. His fame came only after he had made a significant contribution to the human race. The lesson here is that all the degrees and university accolades and imprimaturs in the world cannot produce a Special Theory of Relativity. Work like that can only come from the human spirit and determination to get at the truth and make a contribution to human knowledge. This is possible with or without a degree, with or without a job in academia, with or without getting paid to do what one does.

The lesson here is that one needn't be blessed with a college degree or a position of importance in society in order to advance the field of human knowledge or to do something important in life. In fact much time is wasted taking courses in college when one could really be about singlemindedly pursuing some goal. It takes devotion to the pursuit of knowledge more than it takes the acquisition of degrees and advanced course work. Most people pursuing academic positions are not so much interested in making a breakthrough such as Einstein made as they are in a steady drip, drip, drip of professional paper production that will guarantee them advancement in academia. 

Pursuit of a singleminded goal might demand years of hard work while producing nothing. Andrew Wiles, who solved Fermat's last theorm, spent seven years locked in his attic and then, after announcing he had solved the problem, was embarrassed to find out he had made a mistake. Nevertheless, he made the necessary corrections and did finally, in fact, prove Fermat's last theorem.

But I digress. After Einstein had come up with the General Theory of Relativity in 1916, he became famous and had a free ride at Princeton for the rest of his life. He was paid just to think and work on the Unified Field Theory which he worked on to no avail for the next 40 years or so till he died. In fact on his death bed he was still working on it.

Good significant work can come from anyone engaged in any kind of work for money, not just from people who have been trained and degreed in a field. People shoudn't give up just because they didn't go to college or they don't have the right degrees or background. One can be a day laborer by day and a scholar by night. The tricky thing is to get good work recognized once it's been accomplished. Especially good work of a radical nature. That's where Einstein was so lucky. The work of a humble patent office clerk, which was totally radical as far as the physics establishment was concerned, was actually published in a prestigious physics journal and Einstein was on his way.