Grit is Magic

T.E. Lawrence, a WWI Lieutenant stationed in the Middle East, strikes a match and lights a fellow officer’s cigarette.

With a room of soldiers watching, Lawrence smiles as he uses his thumb and forefinger to extinguish the match.

The men are amazed by this party trick.

Another officer, eager to give it a try, strikes another match.

As the flame nears his fingers, he shrieks, “Oooo! It d— well hurts!!”

“Certainly it hurts,” Lawrence replies.

“Well, what ‘s the trick then?!”

“The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.”

Months later, Lawrence reasoned with his Arab ally, Sarif Ali. Lawrence tried to convince him that Aqaba, a Turkish stronghold in Arabia, could be taken.

The problem was that Aqaba was a fortress. It was so heavily fortified that the Arabs couldn’t conceive of even approaching it. It simply could not be taken.

“Aqaba — by land? Are you mad?! To come to Aqaba by land we should have to cross the Nafud Desert, and the Nafud Desert cannot be crossed!

“I’ll cross it if you will”, Lawrence challenged Ali. “I need just 50 men. If there are 50 men others might join.”

“There are guns at Aqaba!”

“They face the sea and they cannot be turned round. From the land side, there are no guns at Aqaba.”

“For good reason. It cannot be approached from the landward side.” Ali still wasn’t convinced.

“Certainly the Turks don’t think so. Aqaba is over there. It is only a matter of going.”

Lawrence turned and, with just 50 men, began his march.

After two months crossing the scorching Nafud Desert, Lieutenant Lawrence and his allies took Aqaba by land — a feat that both the Turks and Lawrence’s superiors in Cairo — thought impossible.

Sometimes what seems to be magic is really just pure determination and grit.