In 1939, a 25-year-old math student named George Dantzig was studying at the University of California.
One morning, he arrived 20 minutes late to his statistics class. Quietly slipping into his seat, he noticed two problems written on the board. Thinking they were the homework assignment, he copied them down and started listening to the lecture.
Later at home, he regretted being late. The problems were incredibly difficult. He assumed he had missed an important explanation. But there was no turning back, so he spent days wrestling with the math. Finally, after intense effort, he solved them. Proudly, he handed in his work to his professor, Jerzy Neyman.
The professor absentmindedly accepted the notebook, not recalling that he hadn’t actually assigned those problems.
When he finally looked at the solutions, his jaw dropped. He realized that George had just solved two famous unsolvable problems — challenges that had stumped not only him, but also the greatest mathematicians of that era.
Dantzig had done the impossible… simply because he didn’t know it was impossible.
Sometimes the only thing standing between you and the impossible is the belief that it can’t be done.