Preface: “Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” —Charles R. Swindoll
Mr. Singer and his Sewing Machine
Isaac Merritt Singer (1811-1875) had a dream: to become a great actor on the stage, performing Shakespeare to accolades. For almost the first forty years of his life, he failed to achieve any success in this pursuit. Continually tinkering with machines, he just wanted to be rich. He finally struck gold with a workable sewing machine in the 1850s, in large part due to the efforts of the partner he hated. The machine, one of the most important inventions of the century, changed lives around the globe.