“Once you consent to some concession, you can never cancel it and put things back the way they are.”
When Hughes’ mother ignored his pleas and forbade young Hughes from having a motorcycle, he built his own. Assembling his own motor and adding it to a bicycle, he refused to let his mother get in the way of his dreams. Much to the frustration of others, Hughes stubbornness and determination to follow through with his ambitions would be one of his distinguishing trademarks in his later years and also one of the key factors behind his huge success.
Early on, Hughes had a clear vision of what he wanted to do with his life and he would spend the rest of his years working towards that vision. While he attempted to become both the greatest golfer and finest film producer, it was in his goals of becoming the greatest pilot and richest man in the world where Hughes achieved success.
“The trouble with my life is that I do not think I am cut out to sit behind a desk”, said Hughes. His love of flying first began when he attended a Yale-Harvard boat race with his father. After his father lost a bet that Harvard would win, the 14 year-old Hughes was promised anything he wanted. While his dad proposed buying him his own boat, Hughes Jr. asked to fly in the old broken down seaplane anchored in front of their hotel. With the plane’s old age and its corroded wires, Hughes’ father’s initial response was no, but Hughes Jr. proved so persistent that he could not be denied. “He finally gave in,” said Hughes. “This was the very first contact I had with flying.” Throughout his career, many more were forced to ‘give in’ to Hughes’ desires.
Before filming began for Hell’s Angels in 1930, Hughes had in his head a clear vision for this film. Wanting to be more than just the moneyman behind the film, Hughes began to involve himself with the director in outlining his vision. After falling out with two different directors, Hughes decided to take on the role himself. He was the only person in whom he had complete confidence and was unwilling to sacrifice his vision to that of another director. After amassing enough aircraft to assemble the world’s largest private air force, Hughes also ignored the advice of stunt pilots and chose to fly one of the vintage planes himself. Although Hughes was badly hurt when the plane crashed, he was back directing on the set a few weeks later and the movie went on to be one of Hughes’ biggest box-office successes.
During construction of his ‘flying boat’, Hughes encountered much opposition. “This thing was a black sheep,” he said. “Nobody wanted to fool around with it or become contaminated by it.” The Spruce Goose was three times the size of the largest plane ever previously built making design criteria extremely difficult to gauge and necessitating the creation of a power control system. “We were working in a complete vacuum as to information based upon prior performance and prior design,” said Hughes. But, he persisted in his goal to create it. “I defy anyone today to design an airplane substantially more efficient than this one for its purpose,” he said.
Indeed, like so many of Hughes’ projects, he did finish the plane and it did fly. Whether it was building the flying boat or breaking the airspeed record, Hughes found the determination to succeed in achieving his goal despite the naysayers.
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