I’ve met a lot of writers who write with the expectation that one day their labor will pay off. While the thought of future success is often a great short-term motivator, you’re likely to eventually be disappointed.

I wrote Crosley because I didn’t want the lives of my great uncle and my grandfather to go undocumented. My desire to pay tribute to the family I’m immensely proud of was enough motivation for me to write. I never imagined the book would become a bestseller.

I was, and continue to be, surprised by the number of readers who care enough to read about my family and learn from them.

Success isn’t typical. If you’ve got a story to tell, and gumption enough to actually write it, that has to be motivation enough. The finished product is your reward, anything that comes of it is just a bonus.

Wealth, power and notoriety are all fleeting. 

At the height of his success, Powel Crosley owned multiple mansions, the Cincinnati Reds and a business empire. He was featured in news reports and radio broadcasts around the country.

Roughly 40 years after Powel’s death, few people recognize his name.

I wrote Crosley in part to try and change that.

From the time Powel began to garner the attention of the media, he  worked to craft the public persona of a powerful businessman. Crosley isn’t the story Powel would have told. The book contains many of the failures and flaws he omitted.

The success of Crosley surprised me, but I think it would have surprised Powel Crosley even more. The same stories he tried so hard to hide, are now the very thing keeping his legacy alive.

When the Crosley brothers began to get famous, the national press ran story after story informing the public of their innovations.

In 1924, Powel Crosley had his picture taken, his life story recorded and his words broadcast to the nation.  Unfortunately, not everything printed and quoted was accurate.

In this case, it wasn’t the journalists who were embellishing stories and editing the truth. It was Powel.

With great success comes pressure to be great. Powel wanted complete control over the image he presented to his customers and his investors. He censored parts of his life he saw as failures, even though those moments said the most about his character.

Instead of showing his determination through his flaws, he tried to craft an image of a flawless businessman. In his desire to create a powerful image, he alienated himself from the market he was serving. He moved farther away from the everyday, flawed people who purchased his products.

Powel Crosley is known for his business empire, his inventions and his wealth, but I admire him for the one thing he chose to hide- his determination.

In April of 1906, Powel Crosley, Jr. failed out of engineering school.

He used $10,000 in investment money loaned to him by his father and his father’s friends, and started The Marathon Motor Car Company. One year later, Powel’s new company became a casualty in the Panic of 1907. The stock market crashed and the investment money was gone.

Powel went from president of his own company to cleaning cars in another man’s dealership. Even if he had to start back at the bottom, Powel was determined to work in an environment where he could be a part of the growing auto industry.

In 1911, Powel went to every man he knew in the car industry, hoping to secure a spot in the first ever Indianapolis 500. With no one willing to back him, Powel watched the race from the stands.

When Powel first met his wife Gwendolyn, he promised her she would one day have a Rolls Royce and a fur coat. With an infant son to support and more than a few failures so far, 25 year old Powel Crosley was under pressure to make something happen.

Still, he refused to abandon the ideas he’d been working on since he was a child.

It didn’t get easier, but Powel’s dogged perseverance kept him pushing through disappointments right up to his eventual success.

Even after he established a business empire, Powel worked just as hard as he had when he was 20.

After so many years of starting at the bottom, he knew what it took to stay at the top.

Growing up watching his father labor over hot tobacco fields, Powel Crosley read the Cincinnati Gazette and dreamed of life in the Ohio metropolis.

He read about Civil War industries like foundries and munitions plants. He read about gaslights and libraries, restaurants and bookstores.

Powel Crosley imagined all of these things he had never seen, and became determined to grow with the urban frontier.

At that time, education beyond a basic understanding of reading, writing and math was considered unnecessary for a farmer’s child. Helping in the field and on the farm was more important than spending time reading books.

Powel Crosley didn’t stop learning.

He was one of the first students to attend Springboro’s new high school, finally leaving his hometown to become a teacher. At 21, he was principal of the Clarksville, Ohio school district.

Eventually, Powel Crosley would have two sons-Powel Crosley, Jr., and Lewis Crosley.

Powel Crosley, Sr. imparted to his two sons the most important thing he had learned in a life dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge-

You never, ever quit.

Judging by the history books, the Crosley brothers listened to their father.

In August of 1899, Powel Crosley had an idea for a car.

At thirteen, gathering materials to build a prototype wasn’t going to be easy. His father was skeptical and offered no assistance to his son. (Although he did promise a ten dollar reward if the car could run a block.)

Powel enlisted the help and savings of his younger brother, Lewis. The pair roamed around Cincinnati, OH to gather the parts Powel had designed.

After a few weeks of hard work and false starts, Lewis drove their newly invented vehicle down the block. The rest is history.

The Crosley brothers didn’t stop at a good idea. They didn’t let doubt, lack of money or the frustration of trial and error convince them to give up.

If you have a good idea, and you’re lucky enough to know it’s a good idea, don’t hesitate, don’t procrastinate and don’t quit.

If the Crosley brothers had given up all those years ago you’d probably be reading about someone else right now.

Good ideas are everywhere, but what good are they if you never act on them?