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I have seen, throughout my short life, that the people who disregard the idea of “it can’t be done” are the ones who in fact are doing what “can’t” be done. My father is a good example of this.

Back in the day when I was a wee little youngster my dad was interested in creating 3-dimensional visualizations of complex concepts involving the muscles and bones of the spine. You might say, what is the big deal about that? Well, back then, at Michigan State University they used the typical plastic model of the spine and 2-dimensional drawings to try and illustrate concepts relating to Osteopathic medicine. The only problem was, Osteopathic medicine involves movement and manipulation, two concepts that are hard to grasp with 2-dimensional imagery or plastic models. Ultimately, people told him that 3-dimensional images and animations would not work. They said he shouldn’t try doing it. Of course, he didn’t listen.

Employing me as his assistent, my father purchased 3D-Studio. This wasn’t 3D-Studio Max mind you, this was 3D-Studio the original version, release numero uno. It was extremely crude in nature, but got the job done. My job was to learn the program and then create bones in 3D. I didn’t have the wonders of prebuilt models, or one of those fancy contour pens to work with. I had to eyeball the vertebrae, create contour slices and then run an extrude along the path of the slices.

One thing led to another, technology progressed, the graphics became better and more sophisticated, and before you know it, he had a full set of curriculum. This curriculum is now used by the MSU for their own students. They also sell the curriculum to other universities, medical practitioners, and hospitals. It is a rather good example of doing something that “can’t” be done.

So why is this so good? It is good because those who don’t recognize limitations often find innovative ways to solve problems that people had written off as impossible. The people who are innovating are the people who disregard limitations. If you find yourself saying, “it can’t be done,” it is altogether possible that you just haven’t thought of the way it can be done.