Wayne always had faith in his abilities. He had faced difficulties on construction projects before, but every problem had a solution for those with the vision to find one. When it was work complications, the pressure to not let down his clients drove him to succeed.
This time it was personal. The more his neighbors mocked and scorned his project, the more determined he became to see his vision through.
Wayne Martin was born and raised in a rural part of South Carolina. His father was a hardworking farmer, while his mother helped tend to the property. The youngest of three brothers, Wayne’s head was always in the clouds.
While his brothers became excellent farmhands in their own rights, Wayne always envisioned a different future for himself. But Wayne’s daydreaming outlook didn’t always go down well with his father.
Wayne wasn’t a lazy person. In fact, he was incredibly hardworking. The problem was that he felt like his energies were better spent on designing his future.
Wayne was a forward thinker in many ways, although this wasn’t always apparent to his family. Unfortunately, his unseen talents often led to him butting heads with his father.
Wayne’s father had farming in his blood. Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather before him, farming was the only life he ever knew.
He had always sought to instill the same respect and love for farming in his boys, that he had been raised with himself. When Wayne first started voicing his desire to be an architect, old man Martin wasn’t pleased.
Initially, Wayne shirking his chores around the farm was seen as a sign of laziness. Wayne preferring to spend his time drafting building designs infuriated Mr. Martin at first.
Wayne’s designs seemed like something out of a science-fiction movie. They were outlandish and weird, certainly not in keeping with the times. Mr. Martin felt that Wayne was following pipe dreams and wanted him to give up on them.
Wayne’s mom was softer as mothers tend to be. She quietly encouraged her son to follow his dreams if they were what made him happy. Taking heart from this, Wayne continued to work on his designs.
When one of them was hung up in a local shop, it was seen by a college professor. This event changed Wayne’s life.
It took some convincing for Mr. Martin to allow Wayne to attend college, but he relented. As an architect in training, he had found his calling in life. A brilliant student, he would go on to become a brilliant architect too.
Celebrated by his clients and colleagues alike, Wayne’s designs were known for their ingenuity. Years later, as a husband, father, and older man himself, after a stellar career, Wayne took on a personal project that made him doubt himself for the first time ever.
When Wayne first conceived his idea, even his wife and kids thought it was too ambitious to actually work out. Playing this one close to the chest, Wayne had to do a lot of the heavy lifting himself.
It all started with Wayne working tirelessly to dig a massive hole in his backyard. Soon the neighbors began noticing that something odd was happening at his house. Wayne was disheartened when his project became a neighborhood joke.
Even kids at his childrens’ school were getting in on the action. Pretty soon, people would openly point at laugh at Wayne when they walked him digging the hole.
The worst part was that the way people seemed to misunderstand what he was creating made him feel the way he used when he was constantly laughed at as a child. Wayne chose to keep his head down and kept working.
Before long, people began comparing him to Noah and joked that “he was building Ark.” Again, Wayne chose to ignore all the disrespect and scorn.
Instead, he drew inspiration from the famous figure and kept faith in what he was doing. Soon enough, Wayne’s vision started taking shape, and all the criticism began to wane as his vision started coming to life.
Day by day, it became apparent to people that the big hole Wayne had painstakingly dug was actually a foundation. After all the mockery and scorn, there were moments when Wayne had doubted himself.
As his vision started to take shape, his determination to complete the project grew. No one was mocking him now. In a few months, the large, ugly hole had slowly been filled with a structure that was clearly something special.
When people first started to speculate that Wayne was building an underground bunker, what they didn’t know was they were right.
Later described as a “work of art,” Wayne had finally completed his vision. The result was extraordinary. It was indeed a bunker, but a bunker like no other. No one was laughing now.
Wayne’s reputation as the “man would a plan” among his peers was never known by his neighbors. Instead, the people who, for months, had thought he was just crazy were now flawed by genius.
Once word got around, Wayne’s special bunker was featured in magazines and became a source of great excitement in the neighborhood. But what made it so special?
For starters, Wayne’s bunker was fully functional as a safe place in the case of inclement weather or other dangers. Additionally, it was more beautiful and luxurious than most homes.
The design was said to be remarkable. Wayne’s ability to create such a functional and aesthetically pleasing structure in his backyard, with little help, was astounding.
After being the laughing stock of the neighborhood for months, Wayne Martin and his family were now the envy of it. Wayne had been accustomed to people doubting his talents and vision since childhood.
Just as he did back then, Wayne proved that true visionaries are often not appreciated in the moment. What do you think of his work?
