Here's The Key To Finding Your Passion.

When you start to walk in the way, the way emerges, the Zen saying goes.

Right now there are millions of people with phones in hand navigating their way using GPS. At an altitude of 12,500 miles GPS satellites circle the globe every 12 hours. Organized into 6 equally spaced orbital planes encircling the earth, at least 4 satellites are visible from any point on Earth. Flying 31 operational satellites for over a decade, the US Space Force is committed to supplying data consistently from at least 24 at all times.

Of the Legacy Satellites launched between 1997 and 2004, 7 are still in flight. Modernized Satellites, 23 of those have launched since 2005, feature military code signal jamming capabilities, laser reflectors, atomic clocks, search and rescue payloads, improved accuracy and signal strength plus enhanced life span.  

Navigation companies like Google purchase GPS data for its Maps service which combines traffic signal cameras, data collected from mobile phones and other real time sources. GPS accuracy provided to navigation sellers is accurate to about a 20 meter radius. Navigation sellers use the additional data to pinpoint locations further.

Sitting in the one room Red Schoolhouse in Dinwiddlie County, Virginia, Gladys West (born Gladys Mae Brown) dreamed of escaping the share cropper life. She hated the dirt, the blistering heat and poverty. Born in 1930, times were tough for poor black farmers. Her family struggled to get ahead financially, much less save for a future education. Gladys knew her ticket out was getting an education. She also knew that being a poor black country girl came with myriad road blocks.

A motivated student, graduating as valedictorian in 1948, Gladys was awarded one of two available scholarships to Virginia State College, a historically black university. She elected to pursue a math degree, despite that the study was dominated by men. After graduating in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science mathematics degree she became a math and science teacher and later earned a Master of Mathematics degree from VSU in 1955.  

One of only 4 black employees and only the second black woman to be hired at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia, now the Naval Surface Warfare Center, she began programing and coding for large scale new computers in 1956. Quickly winning respect from peers for a tireless work ethic and meticulous process she climbed the ranks.

In the 1960s she was part of an award winning astronomical study proving The regularity of Pluto’s motion relative to Neptune. Fascinated by satellite analysis, Gladys became the project manager for the Season Radar Altimetry Project in 1978. The first satellite for remote ocean monitoring acquired a wide array of oceanographic conditions and features including wave height, water temperature, currents, winds, icebergs and coastal characteristics. Gladys’ work evolved into GEOSAT, a satellite programed to create models of the Earth’s surface. Concurrently, she earned a second masters degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma in 1973.

Her dedication to success resulted in cutting her team’s processing time in half generating a work commendation in 1979.  Able to understand and solve complex mathematical algorithms for accurate geodetic earth modeling that often stymied her peers, Gladys’ work ultimately became a foundational block for the Global Positioning System.

In 1986 Gladys published a 51 page technical report from the Naval Surface Weapons Center explaining the intricacies of improving accuracy for geoid heights and vertical deflection, crucial components of satellite geodesy, especially when the Earth is deformed by gravity, tides and other distortion forces. 

After a 42 year naval career, Gladys retired in 1998 and immediately began the pursuit of a PhD. Undeterred by a stroke while studying, Gladys earned a PhD in public administration and policy affairs from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 2000 at the age of 70.

Gladys West is a remarkable model of success and defying the odds. Her determination, resilience and fortitude are hallmarks of an extraordinary career marked with greatness.

Formally recognized as one of history’s “hidden figures” in 2018, Gladys received one of the highest honors from the US Air Force Space Command, being inducted into the US Air Force Hall of Fame.

Gladys would never have achieved such accomplishments without finding passion in her work. It’s doubtful that back in the dirty sharecropper days she yearned for inventing GPS technology that no one dreamt of.

No, passion is a byproduct of executing your purpose. You need to find your purpose, and in dedicating your self to it, passion will blossom.  

When you start to walk in the way, the way emerges, the Zen saying goes.  Don’t be like the masses so engrossed in chaos and expecting immediate results that they wilt quickly. Find that spark of curiosity, flex your muscles of natural ability and in doing so your passion will flourish. Take a page out of Gladys’ book, get on the path, there’s no telling what you’ll accomplish.