Living in Hope

On completion of his school studies, he failed to qualify for admission to the Zurich Technical College. It was only on his second at­tempt, after due preparation, that he met with success. Up to the age of twenty, Einstein showed no exceptional poten­tial. In fact, ‘Albert was a lazy dog,’ was how a teacher once described him. Later, by dint of sheer hard work, he rose to such heights as no other modern scientist has been able to surpass. His biographer writes: “We may take heart that it is not necessary to be a good student to be­come Einstein.” Einstein’s first scientific book was published when he was 26 years of age, after which his fame spread far and wide. He led a simple life, ate simple food, but often worked late into the night. At one stage, he was offered the presidentship of Israel, but he declined. He believed, in fact, that politics was the cancer of humanity. He left Hitler’s Germany with a price on his head—a reward of twenty thousand marks offered by Hitler’s government (at that time a great deal of money)—but Einstein’s standing was such in the scientific world that no one dared come forward to claim it. Countless instances have been recorded in history which show that to achieve greatness, it is not necessary to be born great. A man can rise to greatness from the