<photo: El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, USA>
gold was discovered on 24 January 1848 in California. prior to this entirely random event, the population of San Francisco at that time was about 1,000 people.
the random discovery of gold led to many people journeying to the west, one of which was Leland Stanford who made his fortune from the gold rush. unfortunately, Stanford's son died from an illness while on holiday in Italy. in memory of his son, Stanford built a university.
William Hewlett and David Packard were electrical engineering students at Stanford University, and with encouragement from their professor, started their own company after they graduated. a random event.
Hewlett-Packard's first large order was from Walt Disney for audio testing equipment to test the sound quality from Fantasia, an animated movie with classical music. this random event led to the success of Hewlett-Packard. that led to the the creation of Silicon Valley. San Francisco and the surrounding area is now the 5th populous city in the US, with close to 9 million people.
and it all started with a random event in 1848 and a journey to the west. the wide open spaces in California allowed all the random events to mix into a successful recipe for innovation. we need space in order to think out of the box. go on a long trek or climb a mountain. it will open your minds. #bcc
related post: when is good enough, really good enough